rear sway bar

[oilman]

in the attempt to give my 90 pathy more artic. in the rear I was going to install rear sway bar disconnects from AutoCust. after spending 4 hours on a 30 minute project because the directions were wrong, and finding a 5/8" drill bit that will go through steel more than once isn't easy around here.

I come to find that with the sway bar links undone, the sway bar hangs towards the ground totally ruining my ground clearance, and just asking to be torn off.

not to mention that the kit needed serious modification to actually fit on my pathy.

so what should I do, bungee cord the thing out of the way when the links are disconnected? would replacing the rubber sway bar bushings with new ones make it stay up on its own?

right now I have the whole bar out of the truck sitting on the floor, and I intend to just leave it out, unless someone says I really need to have it.

thanks all for your help.

[mws]

Like many things, you don't NEED it. It is just there to minimize articulation during street driving. In other words, it keeps the body roll to a minimum.

Without it, the body will roll back and forth more during cornering, so your handling will suffer some. And seasickness can become a factor!

And, excessive body roll will increase your chances of a rollover in aggressive or evasive manuevers, especially if the vehicle has been lifted at all.

 

That's all the negatives I can think of.

[flnl]

That sucks.

I was considering to buy the rear quick disconectors from AC and thought it would work well with minor modifications, like they say.

How could we pay $77.95 for that stuff and it does not work?

 

Is there someone else around here that have the disconnectors installed and working?

[Precise1]

oilman, when it's convenient, can you take some picts of the disconnects installled ? I wouldn't trust new bushings to hold the bar up, and if you drive much on the street, I would recommend re-installing the sway bar. What about some simple brackets mounted high that you can rotate the sway bar up and clip/bolt to ?

As for the drilling, I'm guessing you used a silver and demming type drill (reduced shank) with a thick web (tip thickness between the flutes). Some tricks are run it slow... prob 200 rpm max. Keep it lubed (use engine or gear oil in a pinch). Drill a pilot hole bigger than the web (prob 1/4 to 3/8); it will actually be faster, not wear drills as much and provide a cleaner, straighter hole. Lastly, cheap drills are exactly that....

If you want me to help you with some holding brackets, let me know. I've been making noise about manufacturing Pathy parts, but the last 6 months have not been too kind; finding a job, getting settled in there, the holidays, crashing my pathy and sickness have all kept me from doing much R&D, but I'm almost clear now (I HOPE !!).

 

Bernard

[Earth1]

The first time I took mine off for on the trail, I decided to leave it off for the drive home. My truck was all over the place at highway speed, like dangerously all over the place. I did have some other issues that might have contributed, but needless to say, I haven't been on the hwy without it since. Take it for a spin at a higher speed and see how it feels, try weaving and stuff, but BE CAREFUL, I couldn't get to the next pull-off fast enough to hook mine back up. It only takes me a few minutes to unbolt on the trail, so I guess a quick disconnect hasn't been a priority for me. That's good to know about the AC's though. Every time I hear something about their stuff it's bad. I wish somebody would put those chumps out of business.

I think a bungee cord sounds like a fine idea, even less ghetto than my duct tape.

[Diesel Boy]

Here lies your problem:

You bought one to may dissconnects.

You only need to dissconnect one side of the sway bar to regain your articulation. By leaving the other side connected, it holds the bar in place. Simple.

Thats how all the dissconects work that come out on vehicles as standard.

Pete.

[oilman]

Here lies your problem:

You bought one to may dissconnects.

You only need to dissconnect one side of the sway bar to regain your articulation. By leaving the other side connected, it holds the bar in place. Simple.

Thats how all the dissconects work that come out on vehicles as standard.

Pete.

why didnt I think of that!!

AC sells the disconnects as a pair, pssd

 

before I had this kit I managed to pull one of the links out of the frame an a rockjy trail. So I have been driving around with only one side connected for a few months, I have noticed some swaying at highway speeds, but only occasionally. yes im lifted, so rollover is a concern, but thats why I drive my suv like its an suv not a sports car.

 

I dont think I am going to reinstall the sway bar at all, unless I notice a difference from when I just had one side disconnected.

 

precise: the best bit I could find was a pilot tip titanium, but that was 1/2", once I had the hole made is when I found out that it needed to be 5/8", not 1/2" like the directions said. by that time, the store where I saw cobalt bits was closed (the smallest cobalt bit they had was 5/8", so thats why i didn;t get one earlier when I wanted 1/2") so now the best thing i could lay hands on was a black oxide coated bit. It worked but not well, I have a makita high torque drill that i ran at maybe 150rpm max, and oiled with motor oil reapplying everytime I saw smoke. still I actually broke parts of the bit off, not work down, but broke chips off it.

 

as for mods i had to make to the links to make em fit, that is before I took the whole thing off.

I had to shave the rubber bushings about 1/8" each where the link connects to the frame in order to get the nut to trhead.

[Diesel Boy]

Not sure, but a pair could mean one to dissconect the front and the other to dissconect the rear.

You shouldn't notice swaying at high way speeds, the sway refered to is the body and chassis rolling or leaning over on the springs around corners.

Sway is more comonly refered to as "body roll".

This alone will not cause the vehicle to roll completely over.

What usually happens is people used to driving cars, get in a 4x4 and when the come to a corner feel the body rolling/leaning over on the suspension around a corner, get a fright, so try to correct which swaps the loading to the other side, which in turn can lead to rolling over.

Cornering alone with out sway bars will not lead to a roll over. The tyres will still let go of the road first, in which case your chances of rolling over in a 4x4 are high if this happens anyway.

Early range rovers came out with coils all round and no sway bars, uni mogs have no sway bars.

Pathfinders are no where near as bad due to the IFS and torsion bar set up in the front, limiting movement of the body/chassis to a couple of inches either way.

[flnl]

Dunno. They say "Rear Quick Disconnects". First when I bought may Pathy I thought they were to the front, 'cause I didn't know Pathys have a rear sway bar.

I think we put the two in the rear, and disconnect one of them, which one we prefer...

It would be good if we could use one for the front and one for the rear!

[Precise1]

Got ya oilman, you know what you are doing; just trying to help. The reasons the second drill fried is because of the work hardened steel from the first hole and that it was only touching 1/16" on each flute while being handheld; drills dont like this. Of course, you had no choice due to misleading directions... Glad ya got it done anyway..

 

B