The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline '47-'53 Sway bar- GMC Vs Chevy?

I ordered a sway bar for my '53 GMC from CPP, but was told by a friend that the sway bar won't work on my truck because the front cross member is different on the GMC. I know the cross member is different, but does that realy mean the sway bar won't work on my truck?

The GMC crossmember is angled where the sway bar mounts, Chev is flat. GMC'c used a special angled adapter to mount the bar.
I'm sure with a little creativity you can adapt The Chev bar.
I have a pair of the GMC adapters I can take pictures of if needed.

The sway bar (for my '53 Chev) is a U shaped bar and the bottom of the U fastens to the underside of the front cross member. The ends of the U go to brackets on the front axle. I can't say how the GMCs are different, but the holes have to line up and the lengths have to be the same.

Dave, if you could take a couple pictures for me that would be great. I hope to pull the front end apart for some rebuilding soon and would love to be able to use the sway bar.

This has been discussed extensively, including drawings and dimensions, on the discussion board at http://www.oldgmctrucks.com/. You'll have to sign up to view the discussion board.

I was researching this same topic the other day and I found it dificult to find information on the original bars and how they mounted.
Here's what I gathered...


There are two types of GM sway bars. One mounted to the underside of the crossmember and the other to the front.

The holes are visible in the picture below. Two holes on each side above the word "Advanced" and "member" and one on each side below the same words.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8226/8533448304_0fdca3f3e3_o.jpg

The older type of sway bar attached to all three holes on the front side of the crossmember and had special brackets that replaced the bump stops on the top side of the leaf packs.

The newer type of sway bar attaches to the underside of the crossmember in the lower holes below the words and matched set of holes toward the back side of the crossmember and attaches to the axle with it's own set of u-bolts.

In the same pic, you can see the difference between the the Chev and GMC crossmembers and how those same holes are positioned on both. The GMC bar requires angled blocks for it to work. ...or you could slide the brackets inward so they line up with the flat part of the crossmember and drill new holes.


Here are some pics of the old style Chevy sway bar I picked up last week for reference.
Entire bar w/ brackets -
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8375/8496049577_730bde2be9_c.jpg

Crossmember bracket -
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8367/8496050031_1361313b71_c.jpg

Bump stop and end bracket -
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8101/8497154920_8edb031007_c.jpg

As soon as the weather and time cooperates I will get some pic's