Dear all,

I have got 740 turbo wagon, and curious if adding rear anti-sway bar is worth going for? I have got the front bar installed already which seems factory.. When you look at the solid rear axle, it makes you questionable if the rear anti-sway bar would provide any help. Any comments are welcome...

I added an IPD sway bar to the rear of my 1990 wagon and it does make a nice difference. Be careful though; you are adding an oversteer bias that will make the car more neutral in handling. I have not pushed the car to the limits except on a few wet days in an uphill curve at about 50 kph (just a bit of safe playing). I could get the rear to swing out if I applied power. You should be especially careful if you have loaded up your wagon with heavy cargo. That will add to the oversteer bias and is likely one of the reasons Volvo did not put a rear sway in the regular wagons. I think the turbo wagons had rear sways though. Anyway, find a deserted parking lot to experiment on.

Whether the rear is a solid axle or not has no bearing on controlling sway or under/oversteer. What matters is the position of the centre of gravity (front to rear and height from the ground) and the spring rates of the suspension.

Bill

I put the standard 740 Turbo sway bars on the front and rear of my non-turbo wagon, and it made a difference. The big thing is that in corners it used to bob from side to side. It always stayed planted, but it was kinda unsettling. Also, on low speed diagonal bumps, like bridge expansion joints, I would get a side to side wobble that I didn't like. All that changed with the addition of the rear sway bar.

I also put standard/stock front and rear turbo sedan bars on our NA 745. Definitely a lot of bang for your buck, since most turbo owners want IPD bars, so the factory turbo bars from a sedan can be had for a song! :-)

To the original poster, if you are adding a rear bar to a car that originally did not have them, you'll need to get a pair of brackets, a pair of "square necked screws", and a pair of nuts for them. I think the grand total came to around $20 from the dealership. Not sure if IPD's kit comes with them... I'm somewhat sure they don't, as when I inquired about them, IPD didn't have them.

....and yes, with IPD bars, definitely get both sway bars.

-Ryan
--

Athens, Ohio
1987 245 DL 314k, Dog-mobile
1990 245 DL 134k M47, E-codes, GT Sway Bars
1991 745 GL 300k, Regina, 23/21mm Turbo Sway Bars
Buckeye Volvo Club

Absolutely! Upgrading the swaybars has got to be the most bang you can get for your buck as far as a performance upgrade on a RWD - doesn't matter if it's a sedan or wagon. But you want to make sure you are installing a combination that gives the "balance" that you want for the way you drive and the way you want the car to handle. Mismatched sways can make the car difficult to handle at best and unsafe. Your car did come from the factory with a front swaybar and if its a wagon it might or might not have a rear bar. If you are going to install a rear bar you will probably want to also upgrade the front bar. The best route IMO is to buy a pair of swaybars from ipd. Used sets of ipd bars are pretty frequently available too either in the classified section here or on ebay or with patience yo might even find a set in the junkyard.

and if your wagon has 14" wheels you'll want to find a set of 15" wheels to upgrade as well (MANY available in the junkyards) - you'll be amazed how much difference it will make.

Thank you for answering. I have digged into the brickboard forum archives and found answers similar to yours... Just finished my online order for the front & rear bars set from IPD. Those guys are expensive but do their marketing damn good.

I cannot say for the wagon but when I added sway bars from IPD to my 740 sedan it made a great difference for the better

thanks for answering!.. however if the front bar is already there - is there a point to add the rear?..

The point would be to add a rear bar that is about 20% smaller than the front one. I'm surprised your turbo car didn't have one on the rear.
Measure what you have on the front. If it's 22 mm, put a 19 mm on the rear. You will be fine with a junkyard 17 mm sedan stock rear bar, also.
--
'89 245 sportwagon, destroyed by hit & run driver, RIP. '04 V70 2.5 T Sportwagon, 12k mi and '91 245 5-speed, 209k mi, replaced the '89