Rear sway bar question...

jeepzilla · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:34 am

Hey all, I was wondering what type experiances..handling an such.. on removing the rear sway bar? I know I've read that a few of you removed them after lifting but what should I expect if I did.

pokefan · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:46 am

I just removed mine this weekend while I was painting things and I have yet to notice any negative effects on daily driving. It's been everywhere from highway to stop and go and backroads. I haven't really got to test it out much as far as offroading goes so I can't comment on the positives there.

Guest · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 12:57 pm

You'll have a noticeable amount of extra body roll, but that's it. Nothing to be concerned about.

jeepzilla · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 1:02 pm

The body role was what I thought would happen but wasn't sure, an will probably be fixed when I eventually lift it...being better stiffer shocks an springs...

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 1:40 pm

I didn't notice any change in body roll or handling when I removed mine from Two different KJ's. The rear antiswaybar only ties the lower control arms together and is not attached to the body in any way so it isn't a very effective device anyway.

Maximum Carnage · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 2:21 pm

I’m wondering if you remove it and are involved in a roll over, or such accident; won’t that give the insurance company another reason for them not to want to cover the claim?

JPaul · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 3:14 pm

Maximum Carnage wrote:

I’m wondering if you remove it and are involved in a roll over, or such accident; won’t that give the insurance company another reason for them not to want to cover the claim?

shear off the bolts and claim that it must have fell off at some point and you never noticed. :wink:

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 3:20 pm

Maximum Carnage wrote:

I’m wondering if you remove it and are involved in a roll over, or such accident; won’t that give the insurance company another reason for them not to want to cover the claim?

Prove it was ever there. I never saw one there.
Same could be said for rolling a lifted Jeep, why would an insurance co. cover something w/ a higher center of gravity than stock if it rolled?

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 3:46 pm

The rear sway bar connects the two control arms together but is useless really since it's not physically connected to the body of the KJ to actually help resist the torsion of the vehilce when turning. The rear axle tube does the exact same thing as the rear sway bar in these terms.

pokefan · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:38 pm

Now I'm curious, It has to do something or it would've never been put there in the first place. It obviously can't limit the flex of one tire over the other since it's a solid axle. So what does it limit?

jsc7002 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:11 pm

pokefan wrote:

Now I'm curious, It has to do something or it would've never been put there in the first place. It obviously can't limit the flex of one tire over the other since it's a solid axle. So what does it limit?

its gonna limit the amount of flex for sure

pokefan · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:15 pm

but how? If it's only connected to the control arms they move with the rear axle. Therefore it all moves the same amount right?

jsc7002 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:20 pm

yes but they are mounted in different spots. the sway bar is bolted on in front of the axle which will limit it whereas if it were off it would be allowed to move more

jeepkj02 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:41 pm

Took mine off when I put my lift on and never put it back.....haven't noticed any difference. Also took my BALLS off!! :shock:

RAYMAN975 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:04 pm

even though the axle is solid, the control arms move opposite up-down when the axle twists/flexes. the swaybar controls it and prevents it from flexing too much and keep them more "stable" or so. i notice more bodyroll FOR SURE when you do a jerk of the wheel left and right going at decent speed, it seems to "body-roll" for a longer period of time after you have the wheel straightened back out

JPaul · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:21 pm

The sway bar does work with how it is mounted. It doesn't matter if it is mounted to the body or like how it is on the rear axle of the jeep. If it were just flopping around, then yes, it wouldn't do squat. but it still works exactly the same as one mounted to the body. The key to an anti-sway bar working correctly is that the main shaft, if you will, cannot move around. it should only be allowed to twist in place. the arms are the only part that should move up and down.

Whether it is because the arms are attached to the axle by way of links, or if they are physically attached directly to the axle, as long as the main shaft cannot move up, down, front, back, or side to side, then it will work.

Take a staple to see for yourself. If you try and twist the legs opposite of each other, they will resist the force you are placing on the staple. But it isn't really the legs themselves that is resisting the force. You can watch the middle part of the staple that is between the two legs begin to twist. That is the part that is actually resisting the motion. You know it works exactly the same as our rear axle setup because when you are trying to twist the legs of the staple, you are not holding onto the very tippy ends, but rather the whole leg of the staple, just like how our setup is in the rear.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:37 pm

JPaul wrote:

The sway bar does work with how it is mounted. It doesn't matter if it is mounted to the body or like how it is on the rear axle of the jeep. If it were just flopping around, then yes, it wouldn't do squat. but it still works exactly the same as one mounted to the body. The key to an anti-sway bar working correctly is that the main shaft, if you will, cannot move around. it should only be allowed to twist in place. the arms are the only part that should move up and down.

Whether it is because the arms are attached to the axle by way of links, or if they are physically attached directly to the axle, as long as the main shaft cannot move up, down, front, back, or side to side, then it will work.

Take a staple to see for yourself. If you try and twist the legs opposite of each other, they will resist the force you are placing on the staple. But it isn't really the legs themselves that is resisting the force. You can watch the middle part of the staple that is between the two legs begin to twist. That is the part that is actually resisting the motion. You know it works exactly the same as our rear axle setup because when you are trying to twist the legs of the staple, you are not holding onto the very tippy ends, but rather the whole leg of the staple, just like how our setup is in the rear.

On some points you are correct,on others you are not correct.The rear sway bar on the KJ ties the rear lower control arms together,but does not connect to the unibody in anyway.That setup will not control body lean/sway(AKA-body roll) at all since the whole rear axle still will pivot using the upper tri-link and coil springs.The whole purpose of the rear sway bar set-up on a KJ is to prevent lifting a rear wheel in a high speed manuver(sp?),not to affect rear sway/lean(AKA-body roll).Removing it will not effect everyday driving but can effect high speed panic swerves.The added benifit from removing the rear bar is you get slightly more rear flex and the rear will flex alot easier without that bar there.

So inshort the rear "sway" bar is not really a sway bar on a KJ,it is a anti-wheel lift bar just from the way it is mounted.

JPaul · **Posted:** Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:06 am

stupid connection

JPaul · **Posted:** Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:08 am

maybe I just have a complete inability to grasp your description, or something, but it doesn't make any sense.

What would be the point of preventing a wheel from lifting if it does not also act on the chassis/body in some way? It seems that the opposite of what you are saying would be true. if the rear sway bar is only meant to keep the wheel from lifting off the ground, wouldn't the only way to do that be by acting on the body in an opposite direction of force from the lean generated by the turn?

The axle doesn't need a bar to keep the wheel from lifting, if anything the bar will encourage the wheel to lift. If the bar wasn't there then there would be nothing to prevent the wheel from lifting and you'd lose a rear spring on the kj in a sharp enough turn with enough body roll. My understanding is that the whole point of a sway bar is to try and keep the wheels on an even plane with the chassis/body of the vehicle. When a car enters a curve it wants to lean toward the outside of the curve. In order to prevent this from being unsafe and excessive, the only tools you have are the spring for the suspension on the outside of the curve and your sway bar.

The spring can only exert so much force on the vehicle to keep it upright. past that point the body will lean to the outside of the curve and continue to do so until the forces overcome the balance of the vehicle and it goes rolling off in a semi tangent line from the curve.

The sway bar comes into effect by tying the two sides of the axle together. As the car enters the curve, the outer wheel gets stuffed while the inner wheel hangs loose. With the sway bar connecting the two sides, the force generated by the lean of the body acts not only on the outside spring, but the inside spring as well, effectively doubling (or less, depending on the spring rate of the bar itself) the spring rate of the outer spring. That is what really prevents the body roll, since the lean is only counteracted by the outer springs and nothing else, with out a sway bar that is.

So when you disconnect your sway bar, whether it is attached to the body or not, you now only have one spring to counteract the force of the lean in a curve.

With the bar connected, you now can use the springs on both sides of the vehicle to counter act the lean.

Otherwise, with the way you explained it, what the heck is the point of having the bar there? To keep my wheels on the ground while the body leans as it pleases? I doubt the engineers would have done that on a high center of gravity vehicle prone to roll overs. It just opens the doors for a massive class action lawsuit for all the rolls overs the vehicle would enjoy.

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:02 am

Crawl under there and look at the bar... It doesn't do anything.

Leave it on sure... but it's not doing much

Rear sway bar question...

Who is online