Leaf spring rear sway bar

[MAStuart]

On original leaf spring cars where do the rear sway bar brackets go. Do they go on the inside of the rear frame rails or the outside. I have a picture of them on one of the original coupes and they are on the outside. But my plans show them on the inside.

Mark

[Dan Case]

Inside. One of them offers a little protection from flying foreign objects for the brake line splitter fitting and brake light pressure switch.

[MAStuart]

Thank you Dan. Could you tell me are the front and rear sway bars the same other than the diameter? Were the rear sway bars an option? If they were a option did the frame and lower control arm have the mounting brackets welded on even if the car did not come with a rear sway bar?

Mark

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by MAStuart

Thank you Dan. Could you tell me are the front and rear sway bars the same other than the diameter? Were the rear sway bars an option? If they were a option did the frame and lower control arm have the mounting brackets welded on even if the car did not come with a rear sway bar?

Mark

I can't tell you about the first batch of chassis as I have never been around a very early car that wasn't highly modified by the time I got to look it over. Based on the Registry, stabilizer bars front and rear were regular production options starting early in production. All the unmolested cars I have looked at had chassis mounts for them front and rear.

From now on here in this response I will restrict my comment to rack and pinion steering cars which I have studied for decades. I have never done a side by side comparison of a front and rear bar assembly. Just looking at them on the car they look like the same shapes.

Like most things Cobra there are variations in hardware. The Ford regular production studs in the end link assemblies are generally the same but look like two different suppliers, using two different forming tools, and with two different protective finishes were used. The rubber bushings under the bar clamps were Ford parts too but the design changed sometime near the end of production at the same time the clamps changed from hand made fabrications to die stamped parts. (Theory, die stamped clamps and then current Ford bushing might have been introduced when SA started needing clamps for 427 Cobras and GT350s development near the end of 1964.)

[1985 CCX]

This help? Inside of rear section near the brake switch