Sway bar too big?

I have the chance to buy a 38 mm sway bar, is this too much bar for my big block regal? Will it plow and fight me in to every corner or what? I've got stiffer springs and shocks to put in, will this make the car a handling nightmare? By the way, should I have dropped this in the "whoa and the sway"?

Ryan

 

With stiffer than stock springs you don't want to exceed the 1" swaybar. It'll lift the outside tire on cornering and handle worse. I tried the 2" bar and it did nothing but rip off it's mounting rubbers. Basically as yopu increase spring stiffness you want to DROP your swaybar size to help keep the car balanced. Just my 2 tenths...

 

Yeah, I thought it was rediculously big, i was thinking about a 32 gn bar or a 34 mil upgrade but some guy had one on Ebay from his '81 malibu. He said he had been competing in the one lap of America races. He had it listed as a 1 1/2 inch bar. The killer was that the auction was ending as I was looking at the page, and no one had made the 35 dollar asking price. No bids! So, I thought I'd ask before I blew some money. Thanks for the help.

Ah, and as for those springs, UPS decided to lose one for me. So, you can only imagine the pure ecstacy I was in when I was standing there looking at three springs instead of four. Good times... :af: Luckily my sister loads trucks for UPS, and she asked her bossman to do some searching and find it for me. So all I can do is wait, I already contacted the seller, and no response yet.

Isn't that just the way it goes.

Thanks all, Ryan

 

My understanding is that GM first made two solid front sway bars in the standard designation. Then later used the metric designation of 32 & 34mm. Later still on some IROCs & WS6 Trans Ams used an even stiffer but lighter 36mm bar. GM did not make what they call a 38mm bar but depending on where you measured it or if he made a memory error it might be the same bar.

The bars off the F-bodys bolt right up on a G-body. If you add the two jounce bars and or horrizontal Grand Prix bar you may have to add some washers for clearence. This past spring I bought a brand new 36mm bar (for a WS6 TA) from GM dealership that gave me a 20% discount for $100. It is in the Cutlass with the Cad 500 and what little I have been able to drive it seems fine. The 500 is not that much heavier than a 455. Much lighter than a 454. With the aluminum intake, radiator, mini starter, battery in the trunk and stock stock 307 with AC springs it seems to handle fine. But I really have not had a chance to push it yet as I have had other repairs to be made.