Found! Early-Design Front Sway Bar (1st Gen Ranger)

[85_Ranger4x4]

Are those jack points?

 

[kishy]

Are those jack points?

The sticker in the truck is vague about where the jack point is. The top of the factory bottle jack is shaped so it might work OK on these, but the jack isn't tall enough to really do much if you use that as the jack point...I think I remember trying to use them as jack points and finding it just didn't work, and it was on dinky little 14s at the time.

Someone had told me once they were used for checking and setting alignment during factory assembly, but I'm not exactly sure how that would have worked. If you told me they were handles that assembly robots used to hold the parts during install, I'd believe that though.

Either way, those pegs are the reason you can't just easily bolt the front-side sway bar onto an early truck.

 

[shorangerbird]

The pegs are the turning stops.

 

[kishy]

Hi folks, just a minor update for future people who land here from Google or wherever.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, I did buy the NOS sway bar, part number E3TZ-5482-A.
Immediately after that, border restrictions were reinstated which prevented me picking it up from my friend's place...I have since been able to pick it up.

It definitely seems to be the right bar for the vehicle, and the tag on it suggests it is the original Ford part. That said, I will note it is a 1", solid bar. Replies above, and other references online say this style of bar is usually 1-1/8". Maybe the "B" version is 1-1/8".

As far as hardware goes:
The bar included the rear bushings to the crossmember, and they are usable.
I'll need the retainers to hold them to the crossmember, but I think these can be "fabricobbled" without too much difficulty.
The front bushings to the radius arms are a non-issue, looks like they're commercially available (especially if I'm not concerned about going poly).
The U-bolts are a big concern. The originals aren't anywhere in Ford's parts network, Green Sales doesn't have them, and there doesn't seem to be any commercially produced equivalent, so I'm going to explore having something fabricated locally, but if I can get my hands on the correct parts I'd rather go that way.

 

[gaz]

kishy,

I have upgraded the behind the axle sway bar on my 87 Ranger to the 1⅛" bar when I installed a junkyard Ford Hi-Rider 2" lift. It made a noticeable improvement in control; the Hi-Rider system included the 1⅛" behind the axle bar.

I have also added a forward of axle sway bar to my 87BII. All the mounting holes were in place from the factory. I swapped to the forward of axle bar because I installed a junkyard 4" suspension lift and extended radius arms, which did not work with the behind the axle bar.

The forward bar also comes in 2 thicknesses from Ford; the doner vehicle had the larger bar so that worked out nice.