swaybar for 57 Ranch wagon

[canadian_ranchero]

the larger the rear bar the more oversteer you will have.the larger the front bar the more understeer you will have.you pick the size of the bars to try to get neutral steering

[jvo]

Well, its been quite a while, but I finally got a little bit done today.  Here are some pics of the Tahoe rear sway bar.  It might be a little big, but its on here now, cause I already had it.  I can always change it out for a smaller one if need be in the future.  I found also that an S10 blazer rear sway bar was a similar fit, and that is where I got the brackets to mount this one to the rear end housing.  The S10 blazer bar is quite a big smaller diameter so I may go to that one.  It will be quite a while before I get to drive this thing, but a couple guys asked for pics, and its easy to do that with no body on it yet.

[jvo]

So now, I have to curse my "winter engineering" cause my body and frame have been outside all winter, as I have been doing metal work on a 51 Chevy tin woody.  My sway bar and rear brake engineering were done inside, as the chassis was outside in the cold and snow, so it didn't match up entirely the way I wanted it to.

[jvo]

I made up my own rear disc brake setup from scratch, partly because I'm cheap, but mostly because I don't have a lot of cash to spend on a kit.  I bought this a piece at a time, and it sorta turned out okay, till I put the sway bar on, then realized I might have some emergency brake cable clearance problems.  Bolted the disc and calliper on quickly and sure enough, I had to roll the sway bar ahead on the brackets that bolt it to the rear end housing. After I loosened the brackets and rotated the sway bar mounts forward slightly, it seems to clear the emergency brake cables okay, but the links on the front are running at a slight angle now.  We will see how that works eventually.  For now its gonna have to be good.
I gave the S10 Blazer sway bar to a friend and I'm gonna have to pester him to get it back, so I can see if it will be a better fit now.
Oh well.
I will post the rest of the brake setup on my Ranchero build thread.

One more comment on this Tahoe sway bar.  My daughter in law drives a 2006 Tahoe, and we used it to drive to my daughter's wedding several years back.  My son and I drove it from Lethbridge AB, across British Columbia to Tofino, about 800 miles of twisty windy road, and my son called the Tahoe a "milk truck", cause it had so much body roll.  I hated driving it in the mountains. 
The rear sway bar is hollow, not solid, even though it has a large diameter.  I read somewhere that the hollow sway bars are not as stiff as a solid one that is the same diameter.  I am hoping that it will be light enough for the back end of my Ranchero, cause its obvious to my son and I that its pretty much a light duty bar for the big Tahoe that it was designed for.  We will see when I get it up and running, as I stated earlier. 

[hiball3985]

Nice fabrication work. Just curious why you didn't use the 57 rear axle assembly?

[jvo]

Sure.  I wanted a posi unit, and would have had to buy one.
The 57 Ford unit is the perfect width for an early street rod, like the 40 Ford pickup I have in storage, for a future project. That's where the 57 unit will go.  I saw no sense in narrowing a perfect rear end.  If I had found a Ford rear end from a pick up truck perhaps, with a posi unit as cheap as I got this 12 bolt unit with a brand new Auburn posit in it, for free, from my brother, I would have used the Ford unit, then narrowed it.  This 12 bolt GM unit was from a van and it was 68 inches wide originally, so it was either junk or narrow it and buy a set of axles.  I knew I would have to buy a new set of axles regardless of whether I used the original rear or this one, so that was a non issue.
I knew it might cause a little hate and discontent among my fellow Ford friends, but it was just too good to pass up, and you won't see it under the car anyway, as it will be pretty low when its done. 

[hiball3985]

Thanks,
You won't get any hate from me, I see your reasoning. I was just curious..

[Ford Blue blood]

The 57 Ford unit is the perfect width for an early street rod, like the 40 Ford pickup I have in storage, for a future project. That's where the 57 unit will go. 

and that folks is why there were so many 57s out there with no rear ends and every hot rod ever built had to have a 9" in it! 

No hate here either, love the "yarding" to make it all come together!