Total Control Products Front Sway Bar Kit Street Performance 1-1/8" 1967-1970

We've done a lot of modifications to our '70 Mach 1 to make the car a lot more fun to drive, including electronic fuel injection, larger wheels and tires, and 4-wheel disc brakes. To make this car handle better we broke out the catalog from Total Control Products, added their coilover conversion kit, along with export brace, and Monte Carlo bar. Today we're going to continue the upgrades from Total Control by installing this 1 1/8th diameter front sway bar kit.

This inch and an eighth diameter front sway bar kit from Total Control Products is going to fit all 1967 through '70 Mustangs with either total control or front stock suspension. It's going to be a direct replacement, and it includes mounting brackets and links, and all hardware necessary for installation. The kit includes these high quality billet brackets to replace the stock brackets, and include polyurethane bushings inside, as well as greasable fittings. Total Control goes so far as they actually include two sets of bolts for the front end links, a longer set for a stock height vehicle, and a shorter set if you're lowered.

For this installation you'll need a lift, or a jack and jack stands, 1/4" ratchet, 5/16 socket, 3/8 ratchet, 1/2" socket, 9/16 socket, 5/16 Allen key, a torque wrench, a 1/2" wrench, 9/16 wrench, and a small pry bar.

You'll want to start the installation by getting your Mustang off the ground, or remove the wheels and tires. Now we're going to remove our stock sway bar. We'll start by disconnecting the end links here, and then remove the brackets if none of this stuff is going to be reused. You can remove all of the factory hardware as none of it is reused.

Now we'll start prepping the bar for installation by installing these bushings here, along with the mounting brackets. You'll want to start by grabbing a bushing, putting a coat of grease on the inside. I'm going to slide it over the bar hard here, and then spin it to spread the grease around, and then grab one of your mounting brackets. Let's get this lined up, we're going to bush it down, make sure it goes all the way down the bushing, just like that. Then the last step is to install a grease fitting in each bracket before we can put it on the car.

We'll put the bar up into place, and get ready to mount it on. If you want to you can actually put some cover over the control arms to protect them so you don't scratch them, but if you're careful you should be okay. This is getting an idea where it's going to go. I'm going to grab the hardware and put it in place. Going to make sure everything looks centered, then we can go in and tighten them down. Just get them snug for now, then we'll come back and torque them. We'll tighten them to 30 foot pounds.

Now we can move on to the end links. If you have the coilovers like we do, it's a little bit tight in there. What can you just do is put one bolt through on this side, and do the same thing with the bar pulled down on the other side, it'll make it a lot easier to get the bolts in place. We can reassemble the end link, space you want a washer, bushing, then the same thing on the other side. A washer, then the sleeve. Make sure the cup of the washer faces towards the bushing. We'll push that down into place, don't worry about the bottom yet, do the same thing on the other side.

Now we can install the lower bushing washer, and finally the locknut. Both sides hand tight first, then we can tighten them down. When tightening down the end links how far you tighten down the bushings is going to be important for the performance of the sway bar. You don't want to tighten them too much, they start to really flatten out. You also don't want any play. You want to get them to where they just start to flatten a little bit, and that's tight enough. Then your replacement's finished.

The Total Control Products sway bar is going to improve the handling of your Mustang with either stock or aftermarket suspension. As we showed you the installation's pretty easy. It will probably take around an hour to install. You'll be back on the road in no time.