78 on my plate – That’s a great question. Sway bars are not all created equal. Many of our sway bars are hollow and weigh less than a typical solid sway bar made by somebody else. We design our bars to work great with the way we design all of our parts. For instance some manufacturers prefer bigger bars and lighter springs and some prefer more spring rate and less sway bar rate. Some companies only sell bars and springs, but not all the other important parts suspension components. We make all the parts and they will work well on your car, but work even better when they are used with all of our components together. If you purchase our parts, you know they are high quality, lightweight (when possible), and are going to work great for a long time. This is a case of getting what you pay for.

 

Well that should really launch the Camaro when you hit it! Might be pretty wound up at 70mph speeds, but good stop light to stop light times!
I know they make new replacement spring perches to weld on rear axles for 1st Gen Camaros in both single leaf and multi leaf, so maybe you can pick up some for your's too. Welding on brand new ones would be nicer than trying to get them off your Camaro rear axle.

 

Sincerest thanks and appreciation for the response Hotchkis. Wasn't sure if was going to get input from true suspension folks. I am a bit confused, however. Just so I understand, are you suggesting that I go with a hollow sway bar? Does that make them stronger as well as lighter? As I've stated before, it's not about taking the cheap route with my car, but 3 times more (on average) than the competitors would have to be explained a great deal more for me to be convinced that I'm getting a lot more for my money.

 

Thanks again for all the help and guidance BB427. So glad that this worked out and I was able to get a rear end as quickly as I did, I'm half way to my end of Sept. goal! Having to buy a new water heater sure put a large orifice in my wallet though. Not going to be easy to get this done by month end. The gears are most likely not going to stay. I'll be looking to put 3:73's in there at some point.

What did you think of the broken swaybar? Pretty crazy where it broke, I would have thought that the bushing part would have broke before the bar did. I need to wait a bit now before ordering the new sway bar, shocks etc. due to a rapid depletion of finances. I can't beleive how much water heaters are nowadays!

 

I looked at the casting #s on this rear end today and am now a little scared. This is supposedly a rear end out of a '72 Chevelle. The date code and casting #s show this to be a 1970 production date, code is A160. I can't find the casting #9799100 anywhere online except for a 1970 Pontiac? If anyone knows more about these #s I would love to know that this rear end could have been in a '1972 Chevelle without having been put in there by someone else.

 

Well it may have been in an earlier Chevelle from 1970, and swapped into the '72 at some time. It's really not important since '70-'72 would be the same great 8.5" 10 bolt, and I can see from the little squared ears hanging down at 4 and 8 o'clock position of the carrier that it's a 8.5" 10 bolt.
The swaybar is a crazy break, and I'd wonder if it was just years of fatigue, or a flaw that finally gave up. Either way it's an unusual place to break, and I'd doubt you'll see that often. If you want to save some money you may be able to find a used factory Camaro or Firebird swaybar and pick it up cheap. That would get you going, and I doubt most people would need more. I bought a used Firebird TA rearend and swaybar for mine from a junkyard back in 1982. It's slightly larger than the Camaro version $85 for the whole rear with swaybar, and it's still under there. I've replaced the bushing a 2nd time recently, but the swaybar keeps working great for me. I don't think for the average driving I do I'd ever need anything exotic.

 

I think the rear end will be fine, but it was kind of a shock to see that casting # and date on it. The guy had the Chevelle sitting in the garage that he took it out of to put his 12 bolt in. It sure doesn't look like it would have been swapped in unless it was done a long, long time ago. I don't think the guy was trying to pull a fast one with me but I just don't get why, with his obvious knowledge (after talking with him) why he wouldn't have mentioned that it was date coded to 1970. Also, at this point, how do I know that it's 4:11 ratio? You find that out from the #s on the rear end. I've looked at the Chevelle websites that go into great detail about the rear ends used in those years and the casting #s are nowhere close to what these are. As long as it works I guess, but I still want to know why. Can anyone help me interpret the #s on this thing? That would be superb.

I thought about getting a "used" sway bay but I think I'm just going to purchase a new one along with the other stuff I need at the same time. I think it must have been an integrity thing with how/where it broke. Darn solid swaybars...

 

Wow that is odd. I haven't seen one break either. I have a spare you can have. I'll give you a matched set off the 78Z if you want them. Front and rear that is. I have Protouring FBody bars on my car now. As for shocks I use Pro Shocks single adjustables.

 

That's really cool Nomad. I might take you up on that. Having had to pay over $900 for a new water heater yesterday, that kinda wiped out my funds to finish this project. I would still really like to get some new stuff up under there. Do you have any ideas about the casting # that I was mentioning on this rear end? I have still yet to find the ID#'s on the axle tube to confirm the gear ratio. I'd really like to figure that out before I go ripping things apart. Appreciate the offer sir, I'll let you know on that.

 

Id be shocked if the numbers interpreted into a 4.11 rearend anyway. Most likely it has had a gear change to that ratio. Just set it up on jack stands and turn one drum until you see the yoke make one full turn. The number of turns it takes to get one full turn will tell you the approximate ratio. You can also ensure it's posi that way too.
Since you're going to have some welding done to install it, I'd pull the rear cover and change grease and gasket anyway, so you can count the ring gear and the pinion gear, then divide to see the ratio also. Just make a mark on one tooth of each and turn it to count.