Sway bar disconects

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surfwagoneer
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Sway bar disconects

Post by surfwagoneer »

So my steering on the wagon isnt all that fantastic. I've had plans to redo much of it but just haven't gotten that far yet. I disconnected my sway bars a year and a half ago when I put my lift on and have been daily driving it this way ever since. This includes a few trips to Uwharrie towing the pop up. Highways speeds with the pop-up tend to be pretty white knuckle the whole time. Instead of dropping big $ on brand new sway bars or disconnects I figured it'd be pretty easy to fab my own. Without new bushings these can be made for under $20 if parts can be found locally. Unfortunately I could not find any 3/16" locking pins locally, the 1/4" ones are a bit to big. I found the pins online for $1.50 a piece, ordered 4 but ended up costing about $15.95 after shipping. My bushings were all shot so I ordered some new ones from BJ's, again shipping will get you.

Parts:
Steel pipe from Lowes- 3/8" x 12 black (not galvanized)- $4.58 a piece x2 (found in the plumbing section- cut off the threads)
3/16" locking pins x4- $1.50 (plus shipping)
New bushings x 2 sets- $10.20 (plus shipping)

Thats it for the parts list, very simple.
I basically took the sway bar and measured three inches down from each end (towards the middle) and cut. It cut out maybe 1 1/2" out of the center but I didn't measure that. The sway bar rod will not fit in the 3/8" pipe as is. Any bigger of a pipe that I found and it was very loose. So I used a flap disc and just took my time shaving it down a bit till it slid easily into the pipe but was still a snug fit. From here just decide were you want your pins. I plan on using a friends drill press and drilling the pin holes while its all together so I don't have problems aligning things later. When I get the new bushings in I'll replace those also and then that's it. Now I'm no mechanical genius by far but my understanding is you want the sway bar at about a 90% angle so I cut all my pieces then held it up to the actual placement, marked and then trimmed my pipe to fit. I actually ended up only cutting off a very small bit ( I had already cut the threads off of one side.) Just an FYI I have about 5" of suspension lift and 1" of body lift and I actually only needed about 2 1/2" more in length. I used a 4 1/2" angle grinder with flap disc and cut off wheel to do all of this (minus the drilling.) At the time being I'm actually not quite done with this project because I'm waiting for my new bushings and locking pins but I'll update the post when all is said and done. Now for some pictures:

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89 GW- Rebuilt 360 w RV camshaft, 4 inch Rustys spring lift, 1" body lift, dana 44HD front, 14 bolt rear 3.73's.
78 Cherokee Chief- work in progress

Topic author
surfwagoneer
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Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:09 am
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Re: Sway bar disconects

Post by surfwagoneer »

You could also easily add adjust-ability to these by leaving all the length on the original sway bar rod and drilling a few extra holes. Also my original plan was to weld the top end together and place a pin at the bottom but I decided that drilling an extra hole was easier than digging out my welder at the time being. That being said if you just left the original bushings in and only bought two pins it would only cost about $13 to do.
89 GW- Rebuilt 360 w RV camshaft, 4 inch Rustys spring lift, 1" body lift, dana 44HD front, 14 bolt rear 3.73's.
78 Cherokee Chief- work in progress
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GWag89
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Post by GWag89 »

Great thread! ! Anything to help FSJers understand it's better to build than buy.
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Tad
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Re: Sway bar disconects

Post by Tad »

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Did the same years ago with some scrap 3/4" rod and some 1" tube.
Hardest part is keeping the holes inline with each other and putting new bushings in.

A few notes:
Don't use the cheap multi-holed pins like I tried, they shear easily.
Unhooking and hooking up is much easier pointed straight on flat ground.

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csuengr
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Re: Sway bar disconects

Post by csuengr »

I guess I made mine the hard way.
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What you don't see are the pins on the frame to hold everything up when they are disconnected. They weren't there when I took the pic.
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Topic author
surfwagoneer
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Re: Sway bar disconects

Post by surfwagoneer »

csuengr wrote:I guess I made mine the hard way.
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What you don't see are the pins on the frame to hold everything up when they are disconnected. They weren't there when I took the pic.
That looks real good, I like the idea of having an attachment up top to keep the swaybar out of the way when not using.
89 GW- Rebuilt 360 w RV camshaft, 4 inch Rustys spring lift, 1" body lift, dana 44HD front, 14 bolt rear 3.73's.
78 Cherokee Chief- work in progress
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Stuka
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Re: Sway bar disconects

Post by Stuka »

I prefer the style that you can get for newer jeeps, which work fine on older ones in most cases.

The style that has the pins in the center will start to wallow those holes out. The style show below uses studs that the greasable able bushings slide over.

Now you don't have to buy these ones. They can be made too to save a bunch of cash. But their quality is good.

https://teraflex.com/shop_items/528ffa7 ... f416e72e17
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Topic author
surfwagoneer
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Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:09 am
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Re: Sway bar disconects

Post by surfwagoneer »

So I finally got around to drilling and painting the sway bar disconnects. Just need to pop in the new bushings. Anyone know the best way to get the old sway bar end links off? I removed one but ended up hammering it out and messed up the .
89 GW- Rebuilt 360 w RV camshaft, 4 inch Rustys spring lift, 1" body lift, dana 44HD front, 14 bolt rear 3.73's.
78 Cherokee Chief- work in progress

Topic author
surfwagoneer
Posts: 579
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:09 am
Location: Wilmington, NC

Re: Sway bar disconects

Post by surfwagoneer »

Ok so I soaked the old swaybar endlinks well and let them sit and managed to pop them off without to much trouble. Wrapped everything up, installed the refurbished ones and took her for a drive. Their nothing fancy but I think they'll do the trick for a good while. When I first put on my lift (rustys 4") I didn't notice a huge difference without the swaybars but as the springs wore in she became very touchy and I've been driving this way for about a year and a half. Took a ride around the block after putting them back on and I was really surprised how much of a difference they made. Very happy with the end product.

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89 GW- Rebuilt 360 w RV camshaft, 4 inch Rustys spring lift, 1" body lift, dana 44HD front, 14 bolt rear 3.73's.
78 Cherokee Chief- work in progress

racerx12003r1
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Re: Sway bar disconects

Post by racerx12003r1 »

You guy's must have been reading my mind. All of y'alls ideas are great. I was just thinking of how to make some extended disconnectable units for my rig. I just started a SOA and shackle flip today. Really great thread.
Daniel

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Topic author
surfwagoneer
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Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:09 am
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Re: Sway bar disconects

Post by surfwagoneer »

If I did it again I would prob do it the way csuengr did it. The ones that I made are working great though. There really is no need for the upper pin since I just disconnect the lower, fold up and ziptie it for the trails. Then I only need to drop it back down and replace 1 pin and I'm hooked back up.
89 GW- Rebuilt 360 w RV camshaft, 4 inch Rustys spring lift, 1" body lift, dana 44HD front, 14 bolt rear 3.73's.
78 Cherokee Chief- work in progress
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