Sway or not to sway

[Gnasha]

It appears my Ghia used to have a sway bar judging by the one remaining rubber bush left attached.

I'm told I have a selecta-drop front end, I'm not sure if it is a narrowed or not.

Does this mean I don't need a sway bar OR should I replace it?

Thanks for replies.

[Mellow Yellow 74]

Front sway bars were standard on ghia's but I am not sure what happens if the beam is narrowed.
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1962 Karmann Ghia
1974 Deluxe Microbus
1985 Caravelle (Vanagon)

[sactojesse]

At a minimum, I would install the stock 3/8" front sway bar or go with a larger 3/4" aftermarket front sway bar. It will help crosswind stability.

BTW, I doubt your front end is narrowed. By the time people started narrowing front ends, there were far better options for lowering than the Select A Drop.
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1966 Karmann-Ghia convertible

[c21darrel]

[sputnick60]

My beam is 4 inch narrowed and so has a narrowed sway bar to fit.
If not suppled with the beam, a sway bars have to be made up. It requires someone with the correct methods to temper the steel properly around the bends.

Nicholas
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'66 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet...
'65 Porsche 356C Coupe...
2005 Mecedes Benz C180 Kompressor Estate
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[Gnasha]

Thank you all for your feed back, very much appreciated. I'm going to purchase a new sway bar thanks to your advice.

[SoCalJes]

Narrowed beams = narrowed sway bar and tie rods to match
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Jesse
71 Ghia
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Just because it didn't come that way, doesn't mean it shouldn't have.

[catahoula lou]

Unless you're a purist, I would go with the thicker sway bar, as it would help handling. Also, depending on the year of car/type of transaxle, I would add a camber compensator and quality tires as well. I bought some Vredesteins a couple of years ago and they hold well when I push my lowlight through the mountain curves where I live.

Here's my link comparing Vredesteins to Nankangs:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=595842&highlight=vredesteins

One thing I've heard about compensators is that they cause leakage from the transaxle side plates where the middle bracket mounts. To prevent this (I've never had leaks), before I mount the compensator into place I fit the bracket into place and see how tight the mounting ears are to the transaxle body. If there's any daylight between the ears and the side plates, the nuts might not be able to pull the side plate(s) firmly into place because one or more of the ears might be fighting the nuts. So, I bend the ears so that they fit firmly into place before mounting and tightening the nuts, preventing transaxle leaks.

Best,
Thom
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1 great wife
2 Catahoula Leopard Dogs (Mahogany Star and Spartan) - RIP Lucy, Braveheart, & Dusty!
1 1959 mango green Ragtop Bug (the "Mango")
1 1958 pantina red Lowlight Ghia (the "Chili Pepper")

Still looking for:
(1) My Dad's 1955 356 (he raced it amateur-class at Riverside and other courses during 1950s),
(2) My parent's black 1955 hardtop bug (CA license plate FWC 201 or FWG 201), and
(3) My parent's agave green 1957 ragtop bug (CA license plate LFK 734).