OK, so we're heading off For Camp NL this weekend and a few days filled with trail runs & camping.

My gf's Jeep has the sway bar detached at the moment, and she didn't get the right part she needed to fix it for the weekend in time, so she's just gonna remove it altogether for the trail runs. Good idea or bad idea? From what I understand, better articulation without it.

well i may not know offroading but i do know street racers!

I think the concepts the same somehow (O.o) i dont think it would be a good idea to remove it. thats a pretty big saftey upgrade

idk just me I wouldnt remove it.



The swaybar will give you Less Understeer and helps give you better control of the vehicle. It might also help to prevent Chassis flex.

Well, the problem is that it isn't connected at all right now. I know that you can buy disconnects anyway, that's why I would think it would help you in not getting hung up.

hmmmmmmmm

thats a toughy. I mean if u think the vehicle can handle the offroading without it then rip it.

But if it seems sketchy try and ghetto rig it somehow lol

Well, she's assured me this is the best route, but I'd rather not end uyp having to get towed home, ya know? I wish Tim were around..he'd probably know. Maybe I'll PM him.

The function of the swaybar is to keep the vehicle level while cornering by pulling down on the suspension to the inside of the turn. The torsional resistance of the swaybar is what resists the body roll.

Many offroaders will disconnect the swaybar for offroading because the suspension must be allowed to flex to keep the maximum traction on all of the wheels. If one corner of the vehicle is compressed to the bump stops, a sway bar would put the other side pretty darn close to that, which may lift the wheel completely off the ground.

One thing you guys will want to be VERY careful of is driving to and from the wheeling event. A vehicle without a swaybar can be VERY dangerous, especially if it is lifted and/or has oversized tires on it. The vehicle will want to lean even through very slight turns.

Ya, I figured that it would benefit with the tires not coming up. We had to actually physically PUSH our frined Billy's front end down one time because it came up. I knew there had to be a reason why. Thanks Kyle.

Anybody that goes wheeling regularly should get a swaybar disconnect. Simply because you'll get more flex and more traction without the swaybar connected. If left connected, you'll be stressing the swaybar WAY beyond what it was designed to handle and probably break it.

For street racing, the swaybar is necessary because it helps keep weight on all 4 corners of the vehicle while turning. By reducing body roll, more weight will be on the inside tires helping to steer and keep the power down.

ORIGINAL: swartlkk
For street racing, the swaybar is necessary because it helps keep weight on all 4 corners of the vehicle while turning. By reducing body roll, more weight will be on the inside tires helping to steer and keep the power down.



LOOK! He hates street racing and puts it down on here but he knows so much about this stuff!

I think he's racing the bonneville! :D

I have had both my Bonneville and my old Intrepid on the track at Watkins Glen for hot laps and have also drag raced with both of them at NYIRP as well as a local 1/10th mile track... I am very much into all around vehicle performance, hence why I know about this stuff.

I do not race on public roads and we'll leave it at that. If you don't know the whole back story, I'll fill you in somewhere else. To me, street racing would be a road course or auto-cross. Racing should never include public roads.

i keep mine on the front of the blazer till i get to the trail, then remove it. i removed the rear one a long time ago and never reinstalled it. never noticed a differance. the front one with it off, street driving is VERY interesting.
off road articulation will increase imensly with it off.

Cool, thanks Cow. She's been driving with it disconnected for a while now, waiting for a fix. I think eventually she'll get proper disconnects though.

I didn't read all the posts above, just the intial one.

Hey Moonie,
I asked the exect same question at camp jeep.

a) In essence the sway bar controls body roll during cornering. Thus making the Jeep more stable in corners. You can drive without them, just take turns slower then normal. No sudden turns at highway speeds either.

b) Sway bar also both helps and hinders off roading performance. Let me explain that a little more. With the sway bars disconnected the axle will flex more, you will get more articulation, which will help keep the tires on the ground to gain traction. However the downside is with the sway bar disconnected the axle can move laterally under the jeep. In other words, the sway bar helps keep the axle centered under the jeep, when it is disconnected the axle can move from side to side. This can be a problem in certain situations. For example while sidehilling, or while attempting to climb a obstical on one side of the vehicle (big rock). With the disconnected sway bar, the axle will shift laterally (side to side) and this shift can cause "bump Steer", and can bind up your suspension. Both cause some minor handling quirks. Neither of which are a problem if your going slow and keep your thumbs/fingers out of the steering wheel.

The negatives are less noticable on leaf sprung verse coil sprung suspensions. Not sure which your jeep has. Regardless, be aware of the dangers and drive accordingly. Slow down in turns, no sudden sharp turns at high speeds, and keep your thumbs/fingers out of the steering wheel and you should be just fine.

Jeep is coming out with automatic sway bar disconnects. According to the tech, the sway bar can only be disconnected while in 4low and going slower then 18mph. Once you get over 18mpg it automatically locks the sway bar back to the axle. There are numerous aftermarket sway bar disconnect kits on the market. I say one that uses front axle lock hubs to lock and unlock the sway bar. It was prettty cool. I'll have to get some pics uploaded tonight for you.

I would like to add.
While I was working part time in the service center it wasn't uncommon to have people not know their links (connect the sway bar to the axle) were broken or missing. When questioned, they did mention that they did notice that "one day" it wouldn't handle turns as well, "seemed to lean more". So yea, you can drive without them and not really notice any real change in a DD. Most don't push the vehicle anywhere near the limits of the suspension daily. Off-roading is different, in that your trying to push the suspension to its limits and beyond. Go slow and you should be fine.

Ya, these trails are guided and they are geared to your skill level, so we shouldn't run into that much of a problem. Thanks for the input.

No howlin' at the moon, moonwater!!!!

Was gonna say shouldn't have any problems being disconnected. cept it can wear on your tires. My friend picked up a set of quick disconnects for his jeep. because we go off-roading and because they were cheaper than factory grade replacements. Go figure. IS tehre any made for our blazers? Wouldn't mind having since I think this could be some of my problem with my blazer and busting bump stops and a wore torsion bar is probably part of it as well. :D

I have heard of people making their own disconnects on the NBS. Take a look at eh bolt that connects the sway bar to teh control arm. Mimic one of the disconnects kits for the Heep.

The OBS, good luck. Going to be almost impossible to put on disconnects due to the way it is designed. Unless you swap in a new body style sway bar.

I've been wheeling a lot of years and i suggest you disconect it when you get to your destination only NOT before you get there! remember thats what they make quick discinects for. have fun and keep the rubber side down.

If SOMEONE (lol) were to cut the swaybar in the middle, and bolt a section of tubing that fits fairly snug inside the bar to one side and use some sort of quick release pin to connect the sides together do you think SOMEONE woould encounter any problems? same thing front and rear? might be an interesting project and eventually a how-to...



thanks alot.......SOMEONE :D

thats a good idea acutaly. cut bar in half with 2 inches or so out of the middle. the sleeve it with a thick tube, with pins in each end. wound need grease zerks to stop it from rustin up.


might have to try this. truing to make quick disconnects for the front is hard due to the short links. i just carry 2 9/16 wrenches and undo em

You guys underestimate the forces that the sway bar undergoes. A hole drilled through the sway bar will weaken it to the point where it will mostlikely break. If not, over time the hole will egg shape and ruin the swaybar.

The center of a sway bar is not the area you want to be messing with anyway. Any modification to the center section will modify it's torsional rigidity, changing how the swaybar will react. If anything, you'll want to modify one of the sides where it bends in for the end link.

I would go with what hanr3 has suggested and mimic a proven design of a quick disconnect end link. That is the safest and most reliable place to disconnect your sway bar.

if u can come up with one that works well. i wil take it. our endlinks are to short to mimic the jeep ones.

Well, we didn't have any problems this weekend at all. But, we got back Sunday night and within hours we picked up a new Superlift to install, so with new links included, we don't have that issue anymore. Shannon's friend that is installing it is going to fab some disconnects as well, so it should be a bit safer on the streets once that is installed :D

ORIGINAL: Cow Killer

thats a good idea acutaly. cut bar in half with 2 inches or so out of the middle. the sleeve it with a thick tube, with pins in each end. wound need grease zerks to stop it from rustin up.


might have to try this. truing to make quick disconnects for the front is hard due to the short links. i just carry 2 9/16 wrenches and undo em



youre talking about cutting a 300~500 lb spring in half, sleeving it back together with pins, and expecting it to be reliable and act the same as an uncut spring.

would you do that on one of your front coil springs?

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now that i think of it----a couple bolts would never hold anyways lol--and if i put big enough bolts in, the bar would break.....too bad---would have been nice to have just one pin per swaybar to disconnect them....oh well im prolly just going to go to solid front axle and flip my rear and then fab up some panhard bars instead of sways. i'll keep thinking about disconnects though. [8D]

i was just thinkin out loud. i already plan on solid axle once i get outs college. front and rear outa a 4 cyl xj. wil have 4.10 stock.

hell, we used to weld the springs on the mack dump trucks all the time at the stone quarry i worked for. cut em down too. was always told to make it work.

your best bet would be a quick connect for it because u are messin with your integrity of the sway bar the quick connect lets you disconnect the end and there is a pin so u can spin the bar up and out of the the way the twist it back down and you know quickly connect it back on for street use

Here is a write up of mine that may shed some light on the subject. Due to the way the 1st Gen S-10 4x4 sway bar is designed, you would not be able to build disconnects for it. However, I think it would be possible to fab the 2nd Gen S-10 4x4 sway bar to the 1st Gen.

S-10 4x4 Sway Bar Disconnects (http://www.zr2usa.com/mboard/index.php?showtopic=7214)

BTW, this is my first post here!

Nice writeup Jeremy! And welcome!!

My only question on your disconnects is if you can get the end links tight enough with that wing nut. If there is any play in the bushings, you'll wear things out faster. But with the cost of the links... Who really cares! LOL.

You have sparked my interests though. I have a Carr Lane catalog on my desk at work. For one of my fixture designs, I had to use some threaded cam locks that I'm thinking would be perfect for this purpose. They even had some with locking pin locations to secure them. This way, you could tighten them down as much as possible by hand, then use the cam lock to put the proper compression on the link bushings. This would work much like the hardware on a bicycle axle.

the only thing i dont like with that is i dont always unhook mine, and i have hit the link on rocks, screwing up the threds. thats my only downfall i see. i might still try to make a pinned one like jeeps have if i ever get the time.

also thats zr2 usa sucks. lol. they wouldnt let me join due to mine not being a zr2, yet mines bigger than a stock zr2 by an inch. owell

You can get them plenty tight with the wing nuts alone, and have no slack whatsoever. The locking pin also goes through the main bolt, between the wings, so that the wing not cannot back off even if it wanted to. I wheel this Blazer all the time, and it takes me about 2 minutes total to disco it or reconnect it. I've got about 50K miles on this setup thus far, with not one single issue to date.

Cow Killer, I've got a lil website you can check out if you like, called TXZR2.com. We don't discriminate! Lot's of good info & good folks on our site.

Thats basicaly all it is. I got disconects on my jeep and all it is is a tube that slids over the two ends with pins you pull. WAY better off road. As for keeping the axle sentered , i'm not sure if this applys here but my jeep ( TJ with 4 link , not leafs) has a panhard bar that does that. I broke one side once and the drive home was pretty scary

Well,she sold the Jeep and now has a Suzuki Sizekick which we are planning on making as big as possible next spring in time for the offroading season. The problem with it is that it has the IFS, so we can't do much of a lift without getting into lots of $$$. For now she just got 31's and it will only be as big ofa lift as possible without totally re-doing the front end.

hey hidekicks are cool. small to get into tight trails. Look at my truck, theres lots of trails i cant go down cause of the size but i like mud bogging so, it's good for that. My first truck was an '85 s-10 with 31's on it and i had just as much fun with that than my montser truck and it didn't break nearly as often ( right now i got no 4 wheel drive, front axle granaded and my trany jumps from 2nd to 3rd and back all the time.) small trucks are fun too.

Ya, it's actually a very fun vehicle. I like driving it, and you are right, it will get into spots the bigger guys can't. We need to install a snorkel on it as well for those really deep holes :D

ORIGINAL: m00nwater

Ya, it's actually a very fun vehicle. I like driving it, and you are right, it will get into spots the bigger guys can't. We need to install a snorkel on it as well for those really deep holes :D


what the water puddles??? lol!! actualy that vehicle would be great in the michigan area....they only clear out trails barely bigger than atv's! (gotta watch my rack so it dosen't get stuck in trees)

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Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead. Just thought I'd let you all know. Today one of my front endlinks broke, so I took the other side off (well, broke it off...damn rust!) and flipped the swaybar forward. I was planning to get new ones on monday, but after a day of driving it, it wasn't so bad. It does lean a little more in the turns, but you just have to drive it like an SUV, not a hot rod.:D I also noticed a much smoother ride. I took it back to the rock I'm flexing on in my ROTM photo and noticed a lot more articulation. My left front tire was stuffed up in the fender and I climbed much higher up. Huge difference![sm=devilgrin.gif] (sorry, i forgot to bring my camera) I'll take a pic another day and post the two together.

Yep, those would be the two out comes from removing the sway bar.

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Alright, sorry for the delay. Here ya go.
Before-removed rear swaybar
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/sawyer13/mike/100_8030.jpg
After-removed rear and front swaybars. Installed mini spool in rear.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/sawyer13/mike/100_8143.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/sawyer13/mike/100_8141.jpg
I could have kept climbing, but I was teetering on the LF and RR wheels. This mini spool is incredible! I'll post a DIY article on the install when I get some free time.;)

Great pics.
Nice mod, I am planning to remove the sway bar(s) on my '87 when I get time to work on it.

Email me when you get that write up done on the rear locker. I want to do the same thing. Thinking mini-spool for mine as it won't see much raod time, if any.