Sway Bar Connected Vs. Disconnected With an Interesting Observation

Let’s get the bs out of the way. I do not recommend you disconnect your sway bar or completely remove it. There are obvious safety concerns involved with it. More significant, This thread is not a debate and if it becomes one it will be locked immediately. The reason I post this is to share my observations of an experiment I ran.

I was curious what the benefits of a disconnected sway bar over a connected sway bar are. I also wanted to make sure that disconnecting the sway bar couldn’t cause mechanical damage(make contact with the suspension etc.).

My experiment consisted of using the hilift to get one side of the truck completely off the ground. My goal was to get the front tire approximately 1” off the ground. First I did this with the sway bar connected and then with it disconnected.

Enough with the Chit Chat, here are my observations

Sway bar connected-No jack present


Sway bar connected-Jack lifted passenger front about an Inch off the ground


Sway bar disconnected-Jack lifted passenger front about an Inch off the ground


Sway bar connected-Jack lifted passenger front about an Inch off the ground


Sway bar disconnected-Jack lifted passenger front about an Inch off the ground


Sway bar connected-Jack lifted passenger front about an Inch off the ground


Sway bar disconnected-Jack lifted passenger front about an Inch off the ground



Now the juicy part-I went over to the driver side slider to see if any problems arose with the sway bar disconnected
Sway bar disconnected-Jack on drivers side-lift about 2 inches


Then I go over and check before I continue and discover this
Sway bar disconnected on passenger side-Jack on Drivers side-lift about 2 inches


I didn’t think that looked right, so I went over to the jack and pushed it down one more time
Sway bar disconnected on passenger side-Jack on drivers side-lift about 3 inches


Sway bar disconnected on passenger side-Jack on drivers side-lift about 3 inches


On the farther away pics it's easier if you click on it and get a full size image.

To conclude, The disconnecting the sway bar has obvious gains in travel from wheel to wheel but it can’t be done. The sway bar simply gets pushed right into the cv. If I continued to lift the drivers side it would have just gone down farther and farther into the cv. Now add this to a spinning shaft and your guaranteed a shredded boot and there’s a good chance you’ll destroy the cv entirely considering the force the sway bar can push down.

*Reminder This thread is not a debate and if it becomes one it will be locked immediately.

 

So...in other words *remove* it?

 

If you don't want to have a sway bar then the only option is to completely remove it. It's either all on or all off. This is also answers the question as to why nobody makes sway bar disconnects for 2nd gen Tacos.

 

Right. I mean, I generally wouldn't EVER recommend disconnecting a part and then leave it flopping around on the vehicle.

We needed an experiment to figure this out?

 

i thought when u disconected the sway bay you were supposed to remove it?

 

Good research, its to bad somone cant make a quick disconect for us. I guess I'll just keep mine on in preping for the kamikaze deer to run out infront of me.

 

"We" didn't need an experiment at all. I did an experiment because I was curious the what the difference would be side by side and I figured I would share my observations with TW.

I guess it wasn't such common knowledge for me. I always hear about people wondering why nobody made a quick disconnect for the Taco.

 

Great write up, even though I don't have a 2nd gen.

 

i never understood how the sway bay disconects worked anyhow
live n learn
so are you keeping it????

 

I think that's the reason why a quick disconnect wasn't developed. The only way to disconnect it is to remove it as brutalracingguy and Jandrews have made clear.

 

You are wrong!

 

Thank you. I'm not sure how the sway bars are setup on the first gens, but I can tell you that if you disconnect it that it will go up and down a significant distance and contact anything in it's path.

I always thought that it would disconnect on the spindle. I'm going to look into how other models work.

Yes I'm keeping it. At least until I get firmer suspension because right now it rocks like a sailboat with the extra weight over the front.

 

are you saying you want to remove some of the extra weight up front
id be very willing to meet you to remove that bumper...my winch needs a home

 

do you have any further pics looks like a sweet system...
does it pin in then like lock up??

 

LOL! NO WAY! I've got some ome components in the mail now

Thank for posting that. So they completly removed any part that could cause harm.

Upon a google search I discovered that the 4 runners(3rd gen I believe) had the sway bar connected to the lca out of the way of everything

 

That sounds like a great idea. This would allow the sway bar to twist and then you put a pin and and stop the twisting. The only thing is I'm not sure that the center only twists but I would think it does considering the way it's bolted to the frame.

What's funny is it was one of your pics of you flexing that made me want to play around with disconnecting it.

 

so who is gonna fab this up and try it out?

i really like the idea of a good strong pin or 2 in the middle

although im sure someone will find a reason it wont work lol

 

My main concern is whether or not a pinned joint (or joint of any type for that matter) will have sufficient strength to let the sway bar do what it needs to without breaking.