Aftermarket Sway Bars

[RevDave]

I've read a couple of things about swaybar bushings and what a pain they are to replace, but what about adding sway bars themselves? My 82 Spider is stock, and I'm planning to run early (shorter) Fiat 124 springs and replace the shocks with some KYB or similar aftermarket shocks (but not Koni's as I want to keep the fillings in my teeth!) There is no swaybar on the rear, and of course the infamous International catalog recommends replacing the front with a larger bar and adding a bar to the rear... [i.e. Big Bucks $$$$ ]

What say you Fiat Spider veterans? Is a larger front bar really helpful or necessary?

Is adding just an aftermarket rear bar all that's really needed?

Anybody had any experience with replacing both?

Have you found the ride to be seriously affected by the added bar(s)?

By the way - Many years ago I purchased a set of aftermarket Addco swaybars for a Mazda I owned at the time and they were an absolute nightmare. They never fit correctly, and bound against the suspension arms at full steering lock. As a result, can anyone recommend a good source for the above Fiat bars?

Thanks - Dave

[Curly]

The Spider (and Coupe) are natural understeerers, adding a larger bar to the front will only accentuate this characteristic. By lowering the car, fitting stiffer springs and shockers you will tighten up the handling anyway. You could also add a 0.5 degrees of negative camber to the front when you have the alignment done, that will assist in cornering grip, but will also make the steering slightly heavier. For normal road use I wouldn't consider a rear bar at all, but for competition use on race tracks both the heavier front and a rear bar should be considered.
I used to race my coupe with a very heavy front and rear bars, but have gone back to just the standard bars (the AC came with a torque tube rear end which incorporated a rear sway bar) with Nylothane bushes now that the car is used for tarmac rally events because it is able to cope better with the dips, bumps and irregularities found on normal roads.
If you haven't removed your tube bumpers yet, you'll find the handling improves markedly just by removing all that weight hanging out at both ends.

[mbouse]

of course you can list and read all the technical details, test results, yada yada...

personally, i added a rear anti sway bar and my wife and i love it.

and, it all depends on your driving style, shocks, tires & inflation..yada yada

[manoa matt]

I recently installed an Addco rear sway bar. You can get it at swaybars.com or from Vic Autosport both are about the same price. Installation was fairly easy. You have to drill some holes in your frame rails.

The supplied axle tube standoff brackets are a poor design. They are easily over tightened, and the sway bar will contact the differential housing and negate the effects of the sway bar.

I ended up making new axle tube standoff spacers out of derlin. The rear bar improved rear end handling into and out of corners, but that’s about it.

[mdrburchette]

You'll find many different opinions on the subject. As Curly said, our cars, like most passenger cars, are set up to understeer so it wouldn't make sense to stiffen the front end up with a bigger swaybar, but I'm running a 1" swaybar and Koni shocks on mine and it improved handling. Mine is a little more stiff than stock but not uncomfortably so. I do have a rear swaybar I've been meaning to install, but haven't had the chance. It'll be interesting to see which setups help or hinder the handling. One note of caution if you decide to go to a bigger front swaybar: you may want to change the stock mounting studs to something beefier. Mine broke a couple studs and I had to replace them with bolts.