By Art on Wednesday, September 05, 2001 - 05:40 pm: Edit

I just recently upgraded to the SG custom springs, RTE cones, SS brake lines, and I'm about to get the new 5100 Bilstiens. I was wondering, after all this, will the truck still handle decent with the sway bars off. Tried taking them off before all this and didn't make it more than 40 yards down the road when it started shaking, and I lost control. Lookin into gettin some quick disconnects, who makes the best, and does RTE's work for the back and the front?

By Anonymous on Wednesday, September 05, 2001 - 06:06 pm: Edit

If your truck is shaking without swaybars, you likely have another problem.

-P

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Wednesday, September 05, 2001 - 06:30 pm: Edit

Don't know about the shaking, but check out my write-up on disconnects. I like these...

http://www.discoweb.org/disconnects/

By Ho Chung (Ho) on Wednesday, September 05, 2001 - 07:23 pm: Edit

art, sounds like you removed something other than the anti sway bar?

By Mike J. (Mudd) on Thursday, September 06, 2001 - 02:29 am: Edit

Panhard bar? maybe?

By Kent on Thursday, September 06, 2001 - 06:17 am: Edit

Art, I have a 97 Disco I with SG stage III with their three link front end. SG has you remove the front and rear sway bar. I did and it handled like crap. My wife would not drive it. Because of the three link I could not replace the front swaybar. So thinking about what to do I noticed that off road race trucks only run a rear swaybar. So I installed the stock rear sway bar just inverting the end links to make up for the lift. It handle almost as good as stock. I build my own disconnects. Its also every easy to get to the rear disconnects compared to if you have them in the front. I run the Fox 8-way adjustable reservoir shocks and run the front setting a little stiffer the the rear. As in the previous discussions the truck should not shake. It will only lean more in the turns which causes the axles to steer as the springs compress and extend. If you are interested how to build your own disconnects using the existing links and about $4.00 let me know.

By Eric on Thursday, September 06, 2001 - 09:11 am: Edit

I am interested in building my own disconnects.

I am going to finish straping on diff covers this evening and since I am under there...

How long do the shackle pins need to be? 5/8 diameter correct?

Eric

By Art on Thursday, September 06, 2001 - 03:33 pm: Edit

I e-mail ya.

Art

By ali on Friday, September 07, 2001 - 03:47 am: Edit

The D-90 list has a beautiful DIY disconnects.

By Horness Spencer (Horness) on Friday, September 07, 2001 - 04:38 am: Edit

Always told there is no such thing as a dumb question - so here goes.

What difference does disconnecting the sway bars make?
I see many people talking about it, and even kits out there to make it easy to disconnect/reconnect them.

Email me if you don't want to waste space on DW.

Thanks in advance.
Horness

By Ali on Friday, September 07, 2001 - 05:22 am: Edit

I've also heard that with heavy duty springs one only needs the front and not the rear. I don't know if this is due to convenience or the sway bar actually work against the springs or what!

By Gregg Warnken (Gregg) on Friday, September 07, 2001 - 12:14 pm: Edit

Horness - Disconnecting the sway bar in the rear allows your rear suspension to flex more, especially if you have a lift. If you are not crazy about "flexy-sexy", or are not crawling over extreme terrain, it will not make much difference off road. Definitely handles better on road with it, that is the reason for the quick disconnects. Allows you to have the best of both worlds.

G

By Alex Schubow (Alex) on Friday, September 07, 2001 - 01:15 pm: Edit

FWIW, I have Bearmarch MD springs (similar stiffness to SG springs) with 2" spacers, no swaybars and Bilsteins, and I don't find the sway objectionable. I ran with stock springs/shocks with no sway bars for a while, and that sucked. Bilsteins with 360/80 valving, which is probably what you got, go a long way toward controlling body roll. The stock woodhead shocks, OTOH, do nothing to control it. I would drive the truck w/o swaybars after you ge the bilsteins installed before you start fkng around with disconnects. JMO

Alex

By Jeff Bieler (Mrbieler) on Friday, September 07, 2001 - 03:28 pm: Edit

When we put on the OME MD springs front and rear with OME shocks, the lift given by the springs caused the rear sway bar mounts to rotate up and into the spring perch.

This happened repeatedly under braking and would pitch the truck up and often to one side (sometimes only one side of the bar would rotate up). This was completely unacceptable and outweighed any slight lean associated with removing the rear bar. We still have the front sway bar.

By Murray (Cdnrvr) on Friday, September 07, 2001 - 06:05 pm: Edit

I do alot of highway driving with my truck and have experienced a ride with and without sway bars. With my experience, I would stick with the sway bars - especially if you have a lift and bigger tires. I have Rancho shocks and stiff RT springs - even with the shocks set at the firmest level, I didn't like the added body roll. With both sway bars on, I actually prefer the ride over stock even with the increased lift. I recommend using the Aedo fab disconnects ( mike@aedo.net)... I believe they were $125 for a set of four. They are easy to install, it's super easy to connect/disconnect both sway bars and they are excellent quality. Tom Pearson posted installation instructions as well on Discoweb.

Murray