How To Install An Adjustable Rear Sway Bar

This is the MM adjustable rear sway bar installed on Mike O'Donnell's '01 Bullitt. Great info pertaining to the bar's tuning and installation is detailed on MM's website and in its instructions. It's a top-quality piece of equipment made from high-grade components and works in any application-from mild street cars to the most radical purpose-built road racers.

It's no secret that Fox and SN-95 Mustangs can be made to corner as well as the best-handling exotic and sports cars in the world. One of the parts manufacturers that's adept at making that a reality is Maximum Motorsports.

Among the arsenal of suspension parts that MM offers for otherworldly cornering capabilities is an adjustable rear sway bar for '79-'04 Foxes and SN-95s. When ultimate handling is the goal, you need the ability to fine-tune the car's balance. A Mustang's stock rear sway bar certainly won't provide the tuning capabilities that the MM bar affords.

Offered in seven different sizes, the MM rear sway bar is more effective than the stock unit because of how it attaches to the axle and chassis. The stock sway bar mounts to the lower control arms and it acts through the control-arm bushings. MM's adjustable version mounts to the axle and acts directly on the chassis through end-links made of spherical rod-ends.

Adjustments in sway bar rate can be made by changing the position of the end links on the bar's arm. Moving the end links toward the bar effectively shortens the arm, therefore increasing the rate. Because of the mounting method and the shorter length of the bar, a smaller-diameter bar provides a wheel rate similar to a stock sway bar's.

To see an adjustable rear sway bar being installed, we stopped in at MM's San Luis Obispo, California, headquarters where the team was installing one in Mike O'Donnell's '01 Mustang GT Bullitt, which already had a full MM Maximum Grip Box. Installation, along with welding in two mounting brackets, was completed in about three hours.

Major pieces include the bar tube itself, a pair of aluminum arms and axle mounts, driver- and passenger-side chassis mounts, rod ends, and related installation hardware. Bolt-in and weld-in versions are available, but we went with the weld-in version. Still, it's not a big deal because only the two chassis mounts are welded.	Begin sway bar assembly by sliding both shaft collars onto the sway bar tube. Leave them loose in the center of the tube.	Slide one urethane bushing onto each end of the sway bar tube. The job will be cleaner if you don't grease the urethane until after the bar is completely mounted. As shown, install the U-brackets over the urethane bushings and onto the axle mounts.
Use the appropriate fasteners and place one washer under the head of each nut and bolt. The outboard edge of the urethane should be about 1/2-1 inch away from the bar's splines. Tighten the bolts until snug; they don't need to be torqued to spec because they will be loosened later.