I got a rear sway bar off a '96 Lincoln Town Car from a JY last Oct. and I am just getting to it today. This mod was cheap, ($75.00 in parts) and easy. If any of you are thinking about doing this, do it, it's fantastic, even with the small 11/16" bar I used. The rest of the suspension on my car is stock, but this rear bar makes the car much less dramatic in the curves. It's still no slot car, but it feels nice. I've only driven it for 70 miles with the bar on so far, so I don't know any of the long term problems with this set up, if any. I drove it back up on the ramps tonight to check things out, and so far so good. I've got the factory air shocks, and a Pypes cat back Street Pro x pipe system on the car and every thing has plenty of clearance, except the heat shields right in front of the gas tank. They come close to the sway bar, some one may have issues with a larger bar here. In the pictures I don't have the OTA pipes on the car, but I did when installing the bar and driving for a little bit. I'm going to try shorter (1 5/8") sway bar links to get the bar ends more parallel to the frame mount, I used 2 3/8" links.

FYI: After 800 miles on the Ford sway-bar it still works good, but the exhaust clamps don't hold it in
place. The exhaust clamps get rotated up into the rear brake lines, so I think modified leaf spring
perches welded to the rear axle would be best to mount the bar. The exhaust clamp set up still works,
but could work better, maybe welding the exhaust clamps would help.

Welding the exhaust clamps sound like a good idea, and it is cheap, because you already have them in place.

was just checking things out, this is a neat idea, wonder what other sway bars would fit.(larger dia. bar) iirc doesn't the car need to be sitting on the ground and then tighten up all the fasteners

I was looking at your pics again, and noticed that the standoff mounting points are looking a little Swiss Cheesy, or are they just lightening holes?

Hey Fred those are definitely lightening holes since every little bit helps.Those extra holes
probably took off at least 1 or 2 grams of unsprung weight.Remember the "Swiss Cheese
Pontiacs" from the early 60s.What were they called Starchiefs?Cant remember rite now.
Always wondered if those exhaust clamps were going to be able to stay put with all that
tension on them.
Great Pics and Idea
Jim Gordon

2 of the holes were already there, just smaller. I drilled them all out at once while I was under there with a drill not knowing what hole I would end up using for the links. The inner hole on the left side of the car was indeed a lighting hole.... or an error, what ever you want to call it.

The Ford rear bar is still a great addition to these wagons, makes a nice difference, and is inexpensive.

So when I modified my exhaust my Impala SS sway bar would no longer work. So I looked for another direction. With the post on the forum I found 6 different Crown Vic bars. 4 factory bars at 17mm, 17.8mm, 19mm and 21mm. Then 2 Addco bars at 1" and 1 1/8". The Addco bars run $159 on ebay for the samller bar. I decided if I could find a 21mm factory bar I would go that direction. Scored at the first place that I stopped. A full size Mercury with air suspension was the donor car. Used the stock bushings (for now), shortened a set of front end sway bar mounts from our cars, with the use of some 5" grade 8 bolts. And re-used some body mount sway bar brackets I had for another bar. Presto a new sway bar is on the car. Seems to work great, just a little better than my old set up.

Modified some 3" pipe clamps to make the Energy brackets work with the stock bushings.


IMG]http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn152/97blazerman/Wagon%20Pictures/Sway%20bar/P4210391.jpg[/IMG]

Jacked the rear of the car.


Enlarged the holes (actually did them a little bigger after a test fit).


bolted it up.


Measured the length I wanted for the end links, I supporting the car on the axle to give me a neutral front/rear bias (as much as possible when the front it not on jack stands.

Looks great, Tim! Nice work!

Thanks Bill. But John is upset because I did not powdercoat all the parts prior to installation!!

tims rear end always has something leaking out of it

I obviously have to watch where I stand when you are around.

I really do not find jokes about breaking wind on the scale with the other humor. If others though so, you have my apologies. John scores no additional points for helping on my car but maybe due to the fact that we spend time together I know John well and would put up with more from a close friend. No offence to anyone else on this forum.

As Fred states, sometimes one's reputation proceeds them.