For anyone curious about Quickor Garage, I purchased a front and rear sway bar from them. Haven't gotten around to the front yet, want to do disc brake swap and new bushings first. BUT! After putting on some (new to me) 15" Keystones wrapped in 215/70, I found out that my shocks are completely shot....and, do to this fact, the tires rub a bit if you hit a bad bump or take a corner too sharp. So, with a little help from Insane 1, I was able to fit the new rear 3/4" thick sway bar where there was none. The kit came with all the hardware you need including polyurethane bushings and some proper grease. For my Galaxie, though, the bar was about an inch and a half too narrow. Luckily, there's a 20 ton press in the shop. It came in handy. If you don't have one, you'll have to figure something out. You'll also have to drill a hole through your frame that just happens to be right around your emergency break cable. The good news is, the ride is improved GREATLY!!! It just makes me realize how bad the front needs to be done. I'll upload more pictures when I get a chance.
Hate to rain on your parade, but that style of rear bar will bend the axle housing if you do any 'spirited' driving. If you start losing axle bearings, the bar is why. And at that point you'll have to have the housing straightened after you remove the bar. Been there, done that.... When Ford offered optional rear sway bars in this era, the bars were always mounted to the frame or body structure if unibody, with links to the lower shock mounts. If you want to run a axle-mount bar, you need to reinforce the housing.
I have a OT Ford Fairlane Ranchero that has had the same style mounted rear anti-sway bar for at least 20 years and there has been no damage to housing - truck used for towing at times too. but, I would never modify any bar, much less a new one, to fit a car that it was specifically made for. did you contact the company that you bought it from about mounting problem? you should have mounted the front bar first before the rear. if front bar does not fit do not bend it to fit. better install some good shocks asap too.
Not all Ford housings are created equal; the truck housings (including Rancheros) are heavier-duty than most car housings. My experience was after having Art Morrison slightly narrow a rear ('70 Montego 9") for me, I ran it for about six months with no issues. I then installed a Addco rear bar (similar to the one the OP shows) and within two months started having rear axle bearing failures. After about six of 'em going bad (with the interval between them getting shorter), I pulled the housing back out and took it back to Morrison. He pronounced the housing bent, straightened it for free thinking it was his fault. He made very sure it was dead-nuts straight before he let me have it back. Reinstall (still with the rear bar), two months later another bearing goes bad. Pull the housing back out, take it to Morrison. Yep, it's bent again. After some head-scratching, we decided it was the bar bending it. This time I removed the bar, no more issues... If you can get the bar pivot points on the axle inside of 6" of where the spring pads are, you'll be OK. Closer to the center, the leverage of the bar will bend the housing. My mounts were further apart/closer to the ends than the OPs are. The Ford housing will bend, that's why you see many race housings reinforced with straps/tubing, although race cars usually bend them in different places for different reasons.
Here's a picture of the old, front sway bar (bottom) and the new sway bar. I went from 5/8" to 1". And I must say, a VAST improvement in the handling of the car. Both sway bars mount to the frame and the kits come with new end links and polyurethane bushings. I installed the rear one first and immediately noticed an improvement. The front too more time due to the fact you have to remove a lower control arm to remove/replace said part. By the way, you need a 1-7/8" socket in order to get the off-set shaft bolt out. Once that's done, and the rear bolt is removed, the control arm slides right out. Anyhow. I recommend the mod. I'll post a picture of the front when I have daylight. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
On the flexible rear housing of the welded up sheetmetal style, one day when I was doing time at a Mopar dealer I drew an early 70's W100 Dodge that Forestry owned. It had the usual 8 3/4 inch dropout axle. It was used for forest fire work and had the usual 2 tons of crap on board. Can't remember what I was doing on it, but as I walked backed to my bay I suddenly realized the rear tires were showing about 2 degrees negative camber each. After some sleuthing it turned out the crew using it several months before got caught in a sudden wind change and jumped in the truck and made a run for it. Driver didn't see the drop off before they were at it and over they went. They said the drop was about 10 ft but that's surely BS because it landed on it's wheels, not it's nose. The bend was equal and over the whole length of the housing, both sides, no sign of a kink or bend. They kept driving it.
Are you still running those goofy offset shafts? We got rid of those things on my son's '63.5 Galaxie and it made a huge difference in the way it handles. He's planning on putting bars on front and rear also. Kevin
Here's what we did to get rid of the offset shafts. I made a couple bushings that pressed into the original nut then used a grade 8, 3/4 inch bolt thru. Gets rid of that wandering, vague feeling of the steering. Moog also makes a tie bar you can use on the shafts that I'm told works. It ties the ends of the offset shafts together and doesn't allow them to pivot. Ford suppostedly used these tie bars on all the 427 cars, but I don't know if that's fact or not. The swing shafts were supposedly NOT used on fleet cars, like taxi cabs, and Ford also supposedly used the fleet car shafts on the 427 cars. No idea if either or both are true but what is true is getting rid of the swing shafts is all good, and your car will handle a lot better.
I am. But I was able to get a decent align on the front, so they're not really a problem like they were before. Plus, I'm gonna put it up for sale anyway.
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