Doppleganger
Full Access Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2019
- Posts
- 12,814
- Reaction score
- 59,434
- Location
- OH-MI: Just like it sounds
- First Name
- Chris
- Truck Year
- 1985
- Truck Model
- K20
- Engine Size
- 5.7
Has anyone here has installed a rear sway on a 4WD square? I have a Hellwig rear sway - got a great deal a couple years back between ebay-rebates, a factory rebate and a dealer clearance. Very impressed with the quality of the bar itself....not at all impressed with the collection of scrap they call "installation hardware." Everyplace I look online, anyone installing these are doing so on 2WD C-series, most of them lowered. My guess is the "bracketry" they came up with was geared (and tested on) a 2WD, otherwise it looks like a quick hack-after thought. Hellwig says these are for both C and K series.
The install instructions are a 50th generation copy with 5 very small b/w pics (and type) on a single sheet of paper. I'm not assembling a Saturn 5 rocket, so its not that they are needed, but when they allude to using holes that aren't there, did they want you to drill them? It was already missing some bolts and such - which wasn't a loss really (all grade 5 fine thread - which for the price I think is a cheesy detail to skimp on). So I called their tech dept - nice fella who said right out of the gate that their instructions are worthless and that "these old rigs are all different year to year, so what we have there is kind of a universal idea of how to install them." Sounds thought out and worth a premium price.
Included in this 'kit' is an L bracket.....1/4" thick, about 8" long with the bottom 2" bent in at a 90. Idea is to bolt the bracket to the frame (somehow) and then the bent 2" has a center hole that you drop a 5-6" long 7/16" fine thread bolt (make do end link) and bushings through that to go to the end of the sway bar itself. In addition, they have a threaded bolt with the head cut off, bent back on itself like an elongated hook - which goes over the frame edge and then back through this L bracket with a single nut. I'll get some pics.
Instructions say to adjust the bar til these 'end links' are perpendicular. Impossible. The bar is about 1-2" too narrow so closest it would come the end links are buckled backward and to the outside. I cant see them surviving a heavy tow - OR, what it might do to the frame. Plus, at that angle, the bar almost touches the diff (no doubt it would hit on any bump).
I have an idea of a new bracket I'm going to make for this that will square those end links up and allow me to use some 'real' end links. I found some pics online from a decade ago of someone who had a similar idea, but his was a "lifted 2WD" and still would have some of the shortcomings I think the ones in this kit has.
I intend on posting pics of the setup it came with vs the new brackets (and dimensions) if anyone wants them, unless someone has a better idea.
The install instructions are a 50th generation copy with 5 very small b/w pics (and type) on a single sheet of paper. I'm not assembling a Saturn 5 rocket, so its not that they are needed, but when they allude to using holes that aren't there, did they want you to drill them? It was already missing some bolts and such - which wasn't a loss really (all grade 5 fine thread - which for the price I think is a cheesy detail to skimp on). So I called their tech dept - nice fella who said right out of the gate that their instructions are worthless and that "these old rigs are all different year to year, so what we have there is kind of a universal idea of how to install them." Sounds thought out and worth a premium price.
Included in this 'kit' is an L bracket.....1/4" thick, about 8" long with the bottom 2" bent in at a 90. Idea is to bolt the bracket to the frame (somehow) and then the bent 2" has a center hole that you drop a 5-6" long 7/16" fine thread bolt (make do end link) and bushings through that to go to the end of the sway bar itself. In addition, they have a threaded bolt with the head cut off, bent back on itself like an elongated hook - which goes over the frame edge and then back through this L bracket with a single nut. I'll get some pics.
Instructions say to adjust the bar til these 'end links' are perpendicular. Impossible. The bar is about 1-2" too narrow so closest it would come the end links are buckled backward and to the outside. I cant see them surviving a heavy tow - OR, what it might do to the frame. Plus, at that angle, the bar almost touches the diff (no doubt it would hit on any bump).
I have an idea of a new bracket I'm going to make for this that will square those end links up and allow me to use some 'real' end links. I found some pics online from a decade ago of someone who had a similar idea, but his was a "lifted 2WD" and still would have some of the shortcomings I think the ones in this kit has.
I intend on posting pics of the setup it came with vs the new brackets (and dimensions) if anyone wants them, unless someone has a better idea.
