bjmoose fabricates 2nd gen sway bar disconnect

Alrighty. I've been doing a lot of google research on this. Let's not go off the deep end here.

Some high end sway bars do in fact seem to be fully heat treated.

For a sway bar like this - it seems likely that it's been "heat relieved" to treat the metal fatigue that's inevitable in working the metal into such a shape. However, no additional working is being performed on the original bar, and the new pieces are all straight - no working fatigue being introduced. (Heat from welding, yes)

Granted, I need to keep an eye on it. If it doesn't work out and breaks, I need to put my original factory bar back on. But remember the sway bar is stressed every time you go around a corner or go over an uneven bump. It isn't like seat belts or air bags, which remain untested until the moment of catastrophic need. If the construction turns out to be faulty and is going to fail, it won't take long to show up.

Once it fails - it'll be just like the many TW Tacomas driving around without any sway bar at all.

Google "broken sway bar" to see how common it is for folks to have broken sway bars.

 

I snapped one on a work dodge dakota with around 30k miles on it that had been used offroad its entire life. Nothing horrible happened, just a loud pop.

 

This is a pretty ambitious endeavor Steve, good luck with it, it appears you have done a lot of research.

 

Great job so far! Kudos on trying this out, as I'd like to have the same kind of disconnect on my truck.

 

I'm taking it by the welder tomorrow afternoon.

 

OK, so I took it over to the guy who welded my sliders on and did my cab-mount-chop. He looked at it and said basically "That's spring steel. Welds won't hold. It'll crack right away."

We batted around a number of weird and "out there" alternatives:

Cut the sway bar just in front of the tie rod, drill a hole in it at the new end, and fabricate a new end link that attaches to the lower-control-arm instead of the spindle.

Get an electric disconnect sway bar off of a Jeep JK, and "just make it work." Since the clearance in the wheelwells is quite tight - I have serious doubts about the feasibility of this one.

Remove the front sway bar, and scrounge a rear sway bar off a 3/4 ton pickup, change it's end links so they're disconnectable, and run a rear sway bar instead of a front sway bar. Because of the gas tank's position, this would need to be routed behind the axle instead of in front of it.

Set up some custom bracketry so that the entire sway bar can be unbolted, slid forward six inches or so, and pivoted so that it's completely out of the way. Basically, this amounts to a "remove sway bar and store in the front end of the truck" option. Not sure this is tenable either.

Engage one of the custom sway bar companies to fabricate a splined torsion bar style sway bar with rigid end attachments, one of which is removeable.

http://www.offroad-engineering.com/cuswbarkit.html


I dunno....

 

wow...

 

I'm now corresponding with off-road engineering about building some completely custom sway bar ends...

It'll likely be cost-prohibitive,but who knows?

 

Im just stopping by to say "I told you so"

Just kidding. It was worth a shot. I personally just ditched my sway bars but Im sure there are lots a people on here that would like to be able to easily disconnect it off road and be able to reconnect for on road

 

LOL.

 

Bah. I officially give up on this idea.

I burnt all afternoon working on a sketch of some custom disconnect ends that could be fabricated to work with an "off the shelf" custom sway bar like from off road engineering.

I took some promising measurements and thought I was on the right track - even though a complicated "double bend" was going to be required to clear the tie rod ends, it was looking feasible. Then I realized my new design was going to have clearance problems with the inside of the rim itself at full lock.

As an exercise - I timed myself while fully removing and reinstalling the sway bar. Only took 20 minutes, and I wasn't particularly hurrying. But there's one hitch with that you can't actually put the "removed" sway bar away and drive the truck without first removing the skid plate - there's no way you can "brain-teaser-puzzle" it out of there without removing the skid plate first. And that takes longer. The factory splash pan is no big deal 5lbs, 4 bolts. But aftermarket skid plate armor is big and heavy, held on with more bolts and requires a floor jack.

So - the official answer from here is

1. It's not IMPOSSIBLE to create a disconnecting sway bar - but the amount of engineering required is time and cost prohibitive.

2. So, either leave it on and be happy, leave it off and be happy, or allow an extra half an hour before and after big wheelin' trips to take off your armor and remove it, or just punt and buy a Jeep.

One final note - to a certain extent having a rear locker compensates for the reduced articulation associated with having the sway bar and IFS. So if your basic problem is just "cross axled wheel spin stuck" you may find your easiest mod to handle that is installation of a rear locker.

 

damn man, sorry it didn't work out. Good on you for actually trying though

 

Indeed. Props for the effort!

 

Ok so I've discussed this with a good friend that is very good at fabrication and mechanically inclined. Why couldn't you build a sway bar that has a hub on one end with a flat plate bolted to the hub flange that would follow the same contour as the sway bar? Straight rod across the front with one side solid. Follow me? Bolt the end links in. When you want to "disconnect" just unlock the hub? Back on level ground and lock the hub again. Sounds feasible to me

 

you mean like this

 

I already have a prototype

Machined out of a solid bar of 4130 CrMo. I have a spare sway bar to cut up, but kinda lost interest since I removed my swaybar and like driving without it. 700# coils are nice and stiff around turns

 

subbed
been following this for a bit and if someone comes up with a working solution i will be fabricating it

 

looks like this piece is under the skid. I feel most people dont want to take the skid off to "quick" disconnect. after all if your taking the skid off anyways, why not just take the sway off at the same time

 

Yep, that's the only straight piece of the sway. This type would have to be mounted on a straight run if you want to use the stock swaybar. If I were to turn it and mount the other way so the bolts face out, you can access them from the fenderwell without removing the skids. I was also planning to use socket cap screws with nylon inserts. You can have better reach with an extended ball end hex wrench. Just crack them loose to disco. Dog them down to lock.

Also, our swaybar has bends after the swaybar mounts, so it works more by flexing at the arc, not really a twisting motion. But I think allowing it to twist a little more should still give a little more flex.

 

Interesting