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![Stay Away Suburban](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-title-1.png)
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couple months ago we finished rebuilding the stock control arms and steering linkage of our ’71 Suburban with parts from Duralast, Classic Performance Products (CPP), and Rare Parts. The result is a much smoother ride and tighter driving feel that is likely better than when the rig was new. With new coil springs and shocks complementing the rebuild there was one final upgrade we wanted to make: sway bars.
Antiroll bars, stabilizer bars, antisway—or whatever you decide to call them—are key in reducing body roll to produce a smoother cornering action. When going around a corner, the outside corner of the car drops and leans over the wheel. By tying the right and left side of the suspension together via the sway bar, the bar helps resist the roll and pulls the opposite side of the vehicle down toward the wheel to keep the body more level and in control.
This of course oversimplifies the physics and design that engineers can build into true performance machines. Different materials, stiffness of the steel, form, and overall design vary per application. Depending on the year and trim level of your truck, it may have been equipped with a front sway bar (likely a small-diameter one) but for many classics, trucks weren’t built to handle better, they were just meant to haul and work.
Obviously, that line of thinking is long gone and there are sway bars of varying sizes and shapes available for most classic trucks. We opted for CPP’s 1.25-inch front bar as well as their 1 1/8-inch rear bar, and while we were under the back of the truck again we swapped out the stock Panhard bar bushings with a fresh set from Rare Parts. This bar is responsible for keeping the rear axle centered and from moving side to side during cornering or rough roads and we figured with over 50 years of use, it was time to replace the bushings.
The front bar was a bolt-on affair and if your truck wasn’t equipped with a sway bar, CPP supplies the brackets to mount to the framerails. The rear bar required an endlink mount to be installed on each side along with drilling holes to the trailing arms to mount the pivot brackets on the rear. Nothing that can’t be handled with a tape measure, drill motor, and a couple bits.
The results were immediate after a couple quick corners in the neighborhood followed by the benefit of less lean during everyday commuting. Combined with the rebuilt steering and suspension, our Sub is ready for the road!
![all-new endlinks, bushings, brackets, and heavy-duty fasteners to complete the installation](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-2.jpg)
![the rear bar and other parts](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-3.jpg)
![Locating an oval hole in the frame above the coil spring and measure 20 inches forward then 2 inches from the bottom of the rail to locate the endlink bracket mounting hole](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-4.jpg)
![drilling a 7/16-inch hole](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-5.jpg)
![New hardware is supplied to secure the bracket in place](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-6.jpg)
![We then prepared the endlinks and bushings to install them on each side of the CPP bar](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-7.jpg)
![The trick here is to center the entire bar left to right and to position the brackets so the holes are on each side of the trailing arm spline](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-8.jpg)
![mark their position, and drill 3/8-inch holes to secure the bar](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-9.jpg)
![CPP supplied new bolts, lock washers, and nuts to secure the sway bar bushing brackets](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-10.jpg)
![replacing the bushings in the Panhard bar](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-11.jpg)
![We located a pair of bushings from Rare Parts](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-12.jpg)
![heavy-duty adjustable bar](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-13.jpg)
![Any time you’re working on the rear suspension, be sure to consider the exhaust system. Our single 3-inch exhaust added a little extra work in getting to the Panhard bar mounts but that’s part of hot rodding, right?](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-14.jpg)
![Next, we moved up front to tackle the new sway bar.](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-15.jpg)
![we lightly greased the new bar and installed the bushings and brackets and then prepared the endlinks](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-16.jpg)
![Final look underneath the car](https://digital.classictruckperformance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ctp-sep-22-stayaway-17.jpg)
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