Front sway bar

The Fab Ford · #1 (**permalink**) 01-15-2005, 02:57 PM

I'm trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear on a CRC Cobra replica built in the mid '90's. Good layout sense was not a concern by the previous builder and they had installed a 1.25" swaybar in front of the radiator which pushed the rad so far back that there was no room between the rad and steering rack for the electric fan. I cut and rewelded the rad brackets to angle the rad and move it forward and made a fan bracket and shroud to mount the fan as a puller.
This leaves no room for the previous sway bar (which was too big for the car anyway). I have noticed in assembly pictures on this site that the sway bars that most people have are basically straight with just one bend on each side (approx 45 degree) that go to the control arms. This configuration would easily fit behind the radiator, but I haven't been able to locate one. The car has a Mustang II front end.
Any guidance to a good suspension supplier site would be appreciated. I did see one person suggesting CR in another thread but I went to their site and didn't see anything. Is it possible that it's a 74-78 Mustang II bar that I'm looking for? I looked at Addco's site but there's no visual chart to go buy, just part numbers. Guess I'll have to wait till Mon to call them.

Rick 427 Cobra · #2 (**permalink**) 01-15-2005, 09:58 PM

check this site for the "sidewinder fan". It moves the motor to an offset location that may help you. Not cheap, but it may help.
The guy also gives good service at fair prices.
http://www.the-fan-man.com/index.php?id=12

The Fab Ford · #3 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 12:53 PM

Well, I did find this..... Just in case it helps anyone else, here's a picture of how TCI sets up swaybars on their Must II frontends. I'm not a big fan of the Mustang II setup but this bar does do a good job of tucking things up and away and will make for unlimited radiator clearance.

SCOBRAC · #4 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 09:33 PM

Man,

I hate to ask. How much room did you have? I hate to try to turn a sows ear back into a silk purse but I had a similar problem with my Contemporary and it's puller fan. I was able to fit a Flex-a-lite Black Magic fan between the steering rack and the fan. The original fan sat slightly above the rack in pinion tube and didn't cool particularly well.

The Black Magic fits quite well between the two with a custom bracket.

The Fab Ford · #5 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SCOBRAC

Man,

I hate to ask. How much room did you have? I hate to try to turn a sows ear back into a silk purse but I had a similar problem with my Contemporary and it's puller fan. I was able to fit a Flex-a-lite Black Magic fan between the steering rack and the fan. The original fan sat slightly above the rack in pinion tube and didn't cool particularly well.

The Black Magic fits quite well between the two with a custom bracket.

It sounds like you had a similar problem to my customers car, if I'm reading you right. On the car in my shop he had the radiator right up against the rack, and then a terribly configured sway bar that had a big hoop going vertically in front of the radiator which just barely allowed an eletric fan to be shoe-horned in as a pusher. The pusher fan was installed as a bandaid, because the guy couldn't get the flexalite mechanical fan to cool it well enough. I took one look at it and wondered how many cooling systems the guy had worked on. The mechanical fan was pointing at the top tank with no hope of ever pulling any air through the core. It was a bad enough situation that designing a shroud to make it work was utterly hopeless.

I removed the swaybar (original application not known) and mechanical fan, then moved the radiator frame brackets forward and re angled them. I reinstalled the fan as a puller and now have just enough room for a swaybar with no bends or dips in the middle, if i drop it's brackets below the frame with some blocks. The bar in my picture is located right behind the crossmember where theres plenty of room.

This guy would have saved money buying a nicer kit and let me assemble the whole thing than to spend as much as he did on a poorly assembled cheap replica and have me fix everything. I'm taking some before and after pics, so if you need me to, I can post them.