Thunderbird to Capri Sway Bars

[AbrahamLincoln]

So I picked up an 8.8 today for my capri, now looking at sway bars. Will sway bars from an early 80's thunderbird turbo coup fit a 79 Capri? Did a search and it's looking like they will but I've been told they won't due to the wider axle and a-arms. Thanks in advance.

[Travis T]

The axle housing itself is the same width, it's the shafts that are longer. It should work fine from what I have seen. I had a Tbird bar laying around and it looked the same as the Mustang bars I had as far as I could tell by looking at them. The front I'm not real sure on, I know Tbird Turbo Coupe sway bars are a good upgrade on LSCs. You'd probably need to measure the distance between the holes of the end links and compare it to a Mustang. I would be surprised if it is much different.

[wraithracing]

I am not a T Bird expert, so I have no confirmed information as to fitment. Although I would be surprised if the rear sway bar on a Thunderbird is an improvement over a Mustang sway bar. If you have no sway bar then obviously installing one is an improvement. I would think finding an 85-93 Mustang GT or 5.0 LX would be the best and easier solution, but then again being in Alaska that might be a bit more difficult.

Good Luck!

Trey

[PaceFever79]

Measure the thickness of your sway bar, that will help determine the stiffness.

[AbrahamLincoln]

Excellent, I'll grab the turbo coup bars an see how she feels, quite a bit of discussion on ride quality also. The turbo coup has a sturdy looking bar on the front and a smaller on the rear. I'm not set up for the quad shocks, would a thicker rear bar help the ride with cornering an such or turn it into a drifter? Thanks for the help with this, I'll post my results after I get everything put back together.

[84GT350CONV]

If it fits the thicker sway bar will help with less body lean in the corners. While your at it you might consider polyurethane bushings. Just remember to lube them up before you put them on so they don't squeak. Because it looks like you are not concerned about originality I wouldn't worry about quad shocks and go with control arms in place of them. The quad shocks are meant to control wheel hop when accelerating hard. Aftermarket control arms do the same thing.

[wraithracing]

The Mustang uses the same large front sway bar and smaller rear bar setup as the Thunderbird and most vehicle for that fact. The size of the bar will determine the stiffness and what affect it has on the ride and the handling. As you increase the handling characteristics of the car, the ride quality will diminish some. This is not always a bad thing or to the point of being unbearable, but decreasing the body roll of the car will cause the ride to become more stiff and harsh by the seat of your pants.

Here is the list of Mustang/Capri Sway Bars for the Fox Generations. I don't have any information in regards to the T-Bird, although my guess would be that the sizes are similar or identical depending on the year models.

Front Stabilizer Bar Specifications:
Grade of solid steel: SAE 1090 - 1979-93
0.94" - 1980-93 base/non V8
1.00" - 1979 base/non V8, 1980-82 GT/Handling/Heavy Duty suspension systems
1.06" - 1979 GT/Handling/Heavy Duty, 1979 TRX
1.125" - 1982-84 TRX, 1983-84 GT/Handling/Heavy Duty, 1985-87 base/non V8, 1993 SVT Cobra
1.31" - 1985-93 GT/Handling/Heavy Duty, 1993 SVT Cobra "R"
1.20" - 1984-86 SVO

Rear Stabilizer Bar Specifications:
Grade of solid steel: SAE 1090 - 1979-86, SAE 5160 - 1987-93
N/A - 1979-93 base/non V8
0.50" - 1979-early 1983 GT/Heavy Duty, 1980-81 TRX
0.56" - 1979 TRX, 1980-81 TRX only w/ 2.3T, 1982-84 TRX
0.67" - late 1983-early 1984 GT/Handling, 1984-86 SVO
0.79" - late 1984 GT/Heavy Duty
0.83" - late 1984-85 Special Handling and GT/Handling, 1986-93 GT and LX 5.0L Handling, 1993 SVT Cobra and Cobra "R"

You will notice that as the Fox chassis progressed, the bars generally got larger in diameter to improve the handling and cornering ability. Although notice that the 93 Cobra used the early GT front bar with the late rear bar. This helped to balance the car with the strut/shock setup Ford put on the Cobra for that year.

Another point in reference to the quad shocks, you can remove them, but they do improve the traction of most street driven Fox Chassis. Better lower control arms will help in regards to ride and handling, but they do not replace the quad shocks and their design intent. I highly recommend the Maximum Motorsports line of rear lower control arms along with stock uppers and stock style quad shocks as an excellent budget rear suspension setup. This is the best solution for the stock rear "quadra bind" designed by Ford. After that, you need to change the rear suspension to either a Torque Arm setup, 5 link, or a 3 link to actually improve the handling and ride quality.

Trey

[Travis T]

Both of my 84s came with 1.31 front bars. I replaced bushings in both of them and neither car had been modified.

[PaceFever79]

Both of my 84s came with 1.31 front bars. I replaced bushings in both of them and neither car had been modified.

Perhaps they were late 84 builds?

[Saturn V]

Both of my 84s came with 1.31 front bars. I replaced bushings in both of them and neither car had been modified.

Perhaps they were late 84 builds?

Yes, based on Travis' comments and my car, I think the change in front sway bar size occurred sometime before 85. The front sway bar on my 84-1/2 GT is 1.31" in diameter. I have no reason to believe that it was ever changed. I don't recall the original rear sway bar size, but it was a little smaller than the ~0.83" that is on the car now (from the 8.8 rear end that I installed).

[Travis T]

The one I still have is a 12/83 car. It was one of the changeover 84 1/2 cars as it had part of the 84 1/2 stuff on it.