READ THIS BEFORE REMOVING YOUR SWAY BAR!!

Armyhater458 · Aug 8, 2018

replica9000 said: ↑

Well jeeps are a bit more top heavy with a shorter wheelbase
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I know, but that is my only experience in a vehicle with the sway bar removed. I was really hoping that the tacomas faired better. I have read of quite a few that DD w/o sway bar. Hopefully next week I can get the time to get the skids, and convert everything.

tcjacado · Aug 8, 2018

Your wife may want to pull a good life insurance policy if you are going to continue to work on your truck.

Gunshot-6A · Aug 8, 2018

maxamillion2345 said: ↑

OP lacks skills, experience, and tools to overcome adversity in removing a handful of bolts. Cries. Finally gets bolts out and then cries again.
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Sig'd

Forestman · Aug 8, 2018

maxamillion2345 said: ↑

OP lacks skills, experience, and tools to overcome adversity in removing a handful of bolts. Cries. Finally gets bolts out and then cries again.

I thought it was a bit anti-climatic based on the title.

Sorry OP
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Haha no worries!! I'm no mechanic but I'm brutally honest in my story telling!!

Forestman · Aug 8, 2018

Muddinfun said: ↑

Great story. Not to criticize but, what kind of manly man doesn't own a real floor jack?

BTW, this does not qualify as a real floor jack

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The kind of manly man who drove a Corolla for the last 8 years...

Muddinfun · Aug 8, 2018

Forestman[OP] said: ↑

The kind of manly man who drove a Corolla for the last 8 years...
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That's better than a B210 Honey bee.

Comatose · Aug 8, 2018

Superman910 said: ↑

@EatSleepTacos

Should I remove my sway bar?
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Dont do it! Stay strong with me!

Bebop · Aug 8, 2018

Not to rub salt in an open wound but it took me a total of 40 seconds to remove my sway bar
Good for you for not giving up

coopcooper · Aug 8, 2018

honestly it probably took me 30 minutes total. 28 minutes was spent wiggling the bar out past the cvs without ripping the boots, I didn't even think about using a wrench on link ends. They get the grinder every time.

Forestman · Aug 8, 2018

Bebop said: ↑

Not to rub salt in an open wound but it took me a total of 40 seconds to remove my sway bar
Good for you for not giving up
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Maybe one day I'll reach your level of expertise

Alexely999 · Aug 8, 2018

Jesus Christ get some wood blocks man!!!! No more tiles!!

replica9000 · Aug 8, 2018

Armyhater458 said: ↑

I know, but that is my only experience in a vehicle with the sway bar removed. I was really hoping that the tacomas faired better. I have read of quite a few that DD w/o sway bar. Hopefully next week I can get the time to get the skids, and convert everything.
Click to expand...

It's been about a year I think with no sway bar. Not once have I missed it. I take corners like normal, sometimes fast with little body roll.

replica9000 · Aug 8, 2018

Alexely999 said: ↑

Jesus Christ get some wood blocks man!!!! No more tiles!!
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Yeah, using those just seems like asking for trouble. I've used a cinder block with wood between the block and jack, which I know isn't recommended either.

Forestman · Aug 8, 2018

Alexely999 said: ↑

Jesus Christ get some wood blocks man!!!! No more tiles!!
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Well obviously I will now, but I wasn't expecting to need any before starting this project lol

3pooches · Aug 8, 2018

the.sight.picture said: ↑

@3pooches
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I hope you tagged me so I can remember to slap you if you ever buy a dremel to work on your truck.

NovaGTS · Aug 8, 2018

Can you please change the title, no one who works on trucks should have to do all that reading
Stick to what you're good at... writing stories

92LandCruiser · Aug 8, 2018

Forestman[OP] said: ↑

Haha no worries!! I'm no mechanic but I'm brutally honest in my story telling!!
Click to expand...

In all honesty, I am a mechanic and I’ve totally been there before.

I’m glad you got her done and glad you can take a jab!

Superman910 · Aug 8, 2018

3pooches said: ↑

I hope you tagged me so I can remember to slap you if you ever buy a dremel to work on your truck.
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Hand saw?

Mademan925 · Aug 8, 2018

Forestman[OP] initial post: ↑

Before you go to remove your sway bar, please take a few minute to read this little story. It will be worth your time for the many lessons you can learn -- the easy way -- at my expense.

I bought my 2015 Tacoma SR5 4x4 a couple of months ago, and immediately started buying a bunch of stuff for it and upgrading it. The purchases were really beginning to upset my wife… to put it nicely. She has made me swear, upon threat of divorce, that I will stop buying stuff for my truck.

Then I discovered the Tacomaholic youtube channel. One of his videos talks about a few things you may want to remove before going off road, one of these things is the sway bar. In his video, he says how it only requires removing a few bolts, and didn’t even require him having to remove his after-market skid plate. I thought to myself, hey, this would be really easy -- I’ll do this some time!! Another youtube video I watched was literally one minute long, and it made the process look like the easiest thing in the world. I just KNEW, this wouldn’t end up being a 5 hour project like every other thing I’ve tried to do myself to my truck.

A couple of weeks later, I end up upgrading the shocks on my truck and getting slightly bigger tires, which raised the front end up about 3” from factory height. This comes into play here shortly...

After watching hours of random youtube videos, I finally decide that I’m going to take my newly upgraded truck to Disney, Oklahoma for a fun weekend of off roading and enjoying beautiful Grand Lake. I decide I’m going to surprise my 7 year old daughter with the trip, and drive us straight there for three days after I pick her up from her mom’s house. I made this decision on a Wednesday, and I planned to leave on a Sunday morning, after picking up my kiddo. I call ahead and pay two nights for a cabin for us to stay in, and Friday night, I decide I’m going to remove the sway bar before I leave on Sunday.

I drive my truck up onto a couple of wedge ramps so I can get underneath it easily, and begin trying to remove the sway bar links from their attachments to the suspension assembly. I had told my wife that if I couldn’t get the sway bar off in 30 minutes, that I wouldn’t do it… you can imagine where this is going… 30 minutes later, I had one nut about 1/8 of the way off of the bolt, and then my worst nightmare happens…. The old rusted out nuts and bolts underneath my 3 year old truck… STRIPPED. The freaking allen wrench fitting inside of the bolt that I was using to hold still while I torturously and slowly removed the nut…. STRIPPED. Not only could I not REMOVE the nut, but I couldn’t TIGHTEN it back either!! I thought to myself, “well, I only unscrewed it a little bit, it won’t really matter if that one nut is a tiny bit loose.” I went back inside the house like nothing happened, and told my wife that I wasn’t going to do it after all because it would take longer than 30 minutes.

The next morning (Saturday morning), my wife told me she bought a mini refrigerator for her classroom, and wanted me to go with her to pick it up in my truck. Of course I said yes, because this provided an opportunity for her to maybe grow to like my truck, instead of hating everything about it and what it’s done to me… But as soon as we started driving, I hear a knocking sound… and so does my wife… “Trey, whats that sound?” At this point, I’m in sheer panic mode. I know I can’t go off roading now until I fix that nut, and I know I can’t fix it until I get the sway bar off. I play it off and tell her, it’s no big deal, I’ll just get a dremel from Walmart and cut the nut off and remove the sway bar tonight after work.

The entire day at work this day though, I’m stressing out big time. Because I know that something will go wrong again, like it always does. I bought a Dremel, which came with about 8 small cutting blades, and after work, at 10:30 pm, I again go to work.

I parked my truck up on the ramps so I could easily get underneath it, and begin cutting the sway bar links right through the middle, as I can’t reach the nut with the dremel without removing the tires, which I have been avoiding attempting because I’m not sure my factory jack will actually bring the truck up off the ground after the small lift. After about an hour of cutting with the dremel, I went through 7 out of the 8 blades that came with it. I was about 90% done cutting through the second link, when my last blade SHATTERED. I was also blocking my wife’s car in the garage, so I couldn’t go to Walmart to buy more blades in either my truck or her car at this point. My bicycle tires were flat and hadn’t been ridden in years, so then I start looking at my rollerblades over in the corner of the garage thinking… I gotta do what I gotta do… I finally decide to try one more time just prying the last bit of steel with a hammer and a wrench, and maybe I could break it off. And wouldn’t you know it, like a blessing from God, I was able to break off the last piece of steel with the power of my hands!! I ran inside, gave my wife a big high five, and told her, “I DID IT!! IM ABOUT TO PULL THE SWAY BAR OUT AND BE DONE!!” But of course, this high was quickly shattered by an even lower low…

I go back outside, and start trying to pull the sway bar out. Thinking in my head… tacomaholic said he didn’t even have to remove his skid plate, so this should be easy!! After about 40 minutes of me trying my hardest to get this damn sway bar out from under my truck, I realize it wasn’t coming. Then I think, well maybe if I remove my factory “skid plate,” I can get it off. So I start removing those bolts. Well wouldn’t you know it, not only would that have made no difference whatsoever anyways, but I stripped one of those bolts too!!

At this point in the story, I’m sure some of you reading are thinking to yourselves… man this guy is an idiot, does he not know how to use a wrench properly?! I don’t blame you for thinking this, not one bit. But let me defend myself just a little bit here. My truck wasn’t previously owned by someone in Oklahoma, it was a “salt belt” truck to the tee. There is not hardly a single nut or bolt underneath this truck that can be removed without some type of rust dissolvent, and in many cases, even the best dissolvents wont work. I’ve come to learn about this fact a little too late though… anyways, continuing with my story here.

I got three out of the four bolts from the skid plate removed, and tried to bend it downwards so that I could see better what needed to be done to get the sway bar out. It was at this point I realized, my only option is removing one, or both, of the wheels. So I get my jack out from under my back seat, and begin to lift the truck…. Only to realize, the jack isn’t high enough. It’s about 12:30 am at this point, Sunday Morning. Once again, I begin freaking out. I don’t have a truck jack, and buying one at Walmart would mean a very difficult trip on my roller skates… So I begin searching for some type of block to put underneath the jack, to lift it up a bit more. That’s when I see it… some old ceramic tiles from when we had our kitchen retiled. Now I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but I’m not the dumbest either, so I wrapped the dozen tiles in a large bath towel, stuck them under my truck, put my jack on top of them, and began cranking…. Turn, turn, turn, CRACK!! Turn, turn, turn, CRACK!! Turn, CRACKALACKACRAAAAAACK!!! Eventually, like a phoenix rising from the ashes underneath my totally f*% truck, my tire raises off of the ground, just enough for me to get my jack stand underneath. HALLELUJIAH PRAISE JESUS!!!

I took the tire off, and again begin trying to remove this sway bar. But after another half an hour of unsuccessful attempts and yanking, I again realize, I cannot get this god forsaken thing out by myself… so I have to remove the other wheel. But what do I use now?? I only have one jack, and all 12 of my tiles are shattered… I can’t move the tiles, so I have to find something else. And that’s when I see my garage's second gift to me… my over-sized jenga game over in the corner. “I’m pretty good at Jenga,” I thought to myself, “this will be easy!”

Fortunately... MIRACULOUSLY... the Jenga blocks held, and I was able to skillfully raise my other tire off of the ground, and get my second jack stand underneath it. Once my tire was off this side as well, and my truck was completely up on blocks, I took a step back, and after seeing the state of my truck, I began to cry. I’m not joking you guys, this was one of the lowest points in my life…. My vacation was going to be ruined, my wife was going to divorce me, I was about to drop my truck on the concrete, and this sway bar was going to rip apart a bunch of important sh** underneath my truck. But d** it all to h**, “I can’t quit now,” I thought to myself.

One more time, I began trying to get this sway bar off. Walk to one side, make an adjustment and pull, walk to the other side, adjust and pull, walk to the other side, adjust and pull… and repeat. It’s 1:15 in the morning, and I begin screaming obscenities in my driveway. After seeing a couple of porch lights turn on, I finally decide to shut up and think again.

Then it hits me, TURN THE WHEEL!! So I begin, very slowly, inch by inch, turning the wheel all the way to the driver’s side, checking and adjusting the loose, yet wedged sway bar to make sure I don’t snag it on something that can break. And once the wheel was turned all the way to the driver’s side, I was able to maneuver the sway bar out the driver’s side. After about 10 seconds of dropping to my knees and crying out of pure joy and frustration, I stood back up with my fists held high, and began making laps around my front yard, like I just defeated Rocky himself in the boxing match of the century. I couldn’t believe I had finally done it!!

All I had left to do was put my tires back on, and ziptie (yes, ziptie) the other end of the sway bar links to the piece they were connected to, because if I didn’t do this, I would likely pop both of my tires. Yes, one day, I will take the tire off and remove this damn thing the right way, but for now, zip ties will work.

After a horrible 3 hours of sleep that night, I woke up and picked up my daughter and drove to Disney, and had one of the best vacations of my life, thanks of course, to my truck, which is now driving better than ever, if you ask me.

I hope this story helps any of you guys out there that are planning on doing this, and If there’s one piece of advice I can give you, it’s not to put 100% of your trust in videos from Youtube!! Joking aside though, if the tacomaholic guy reads this story, I love your channel, and I don’t blame you for this in the slightest!!

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Wow... just wow. Got alittle worried with the tiles. Next time post up on TW. Im sure there are some local members that could have come by with better tools and Experience. should only be a couple minute job.

tcjacado · Aug 8, 2018

Mademan925 said: ↑

Wow... just wow. Got alittle worried with the tiles. Next time post up on TW. Im sure there are some local members that could have come by with better tools and Experience. should only be a couple minute job.
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Not at 130 or 330 in the morning they don't.
Edit. Unless you are on a trail broken then that's different

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READ THIS BEFORE REMOVING YOUR SWAY BAR!!

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Comatose You snuff it, we stuff it.

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replica9000 Das ist no bueno

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replica9000 Das ist no bueno

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READ THIS BEFORE REMOVING YOUR SWAY BAR!!

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Comatose You snuff it, we stuff it.

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coopcooper certified youtube mechanic

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replica9000 Das ist no bueno

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