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Sway bar question

Yes it was smoother, I am concerned about the length of my brake lines. I need to upgrade them anyway; not a big deal.
I should get less teetering too right?
Thanks guys.
 
Stupid question time - will removing the sway bar put undo or extra stress on the body mounts?
 
Just thinking off the cuff, I would say less stress. Reason being, now the axle is able to move further though it's range of motion without that pulling/pushing on the front of the frame.

Not an expert, just playing it out in my mind.

oooh, and I have an example to back it up. When I wheeled before, with the sway bar, I used to get alot of "popping" from the roof metal, an indication of body twist. Now, with no sway bar, there is way less "popping" unless I really have it flexed in opposing corners.
 
These trucks came with a swaybar? :D. I think removing it was the first thing I ever did with my current rig.

The swaybar has nothing to do with the body, it's attached to the frame. Removing it "may" reduce frame flex slightly by allowing the springs to work better, thereby reducing "some" stress on the body. If you have that much frame flex going on, removing the swaybar isn't going to change anything.

On the other hand, there is no way that removing the sway bar would INCREASE stress on the body or frame. Having it functioning transfers force from one side of the axle, to the frame, and to the other side of the axle. The sway bar transfers force TO the frame, not the other way around.

Nobody running crossover has a sway bar anymore if that gives you an idea how necessary they are.

Removing it will allow the suspension to articulate more, meaning the left and right spring will work independently of each other more easily. This is interpreted as body roll when on the street. That said, I run stock 52"s up front on the street and the body roll is not really noticeable. Nothing like what a stock coil suspension on an xj or EB has.
 
Don't need no stinkin ANTI sway bar!!!!!!!

DSC_0105.jpg
 
The sway bar is gone. I don't miss it.
The original question was :
How mush more travel (in droop) I get with the sway bar removed?
 
If GM had engineered the swaybar better in the first place, there wouldn't be any droop to gain. But because the bar attaches to the spring plates with no linkage, there is a fair amount of bind when trying to cycle both wheels in a straight up and down motion (both sides down at the same time.) That is due to the spring arch getting tighter (spring eyes get closer to each other) as the suspension droops and in doing so, the effective length of the spring (from main eye to center pin) gets shorter. The length of the swaybar arm stays constant and they (the springs and the swaybar) will not swing in the same arc. With off the shelf 2 1/2" lift springs, I would not expect to gain but an inch of droop, the same would be gained by adding a link (ORD swaybar disco's solve this problem) and keeping it connected (this allows the spring and swaybar to swing in different arcs.)

If you are wanting to know how much articulation you will gain, that is a different story. Even with the stiffest springs there is a large (definately a relative term) amount of travel to be gained by removing the swaybar. Just as when the effective spring length shortens on droop, it lengthens on compression (untill the spring begins to invert.) This causes the axle to not only fight the bind from lack of end links, but it has to fight the torsional strength of a piece of 1 1/8" steel. How mush more travel (in droop) I get with the sway bar removed? Each setup will be different, but the factory swaybar would have been the limiting factor with ANY setup so by removing it, it opens up the playing field. On my personal K5, I have 24" of articulated travel at the front axle alone, with the swaybar attached it would not have gone half as far. With the truck otherwise stock I had about 10" without swaybar and more like 8" with (stock numbers are rough guesstimates.) Basically you will be shopping for longer shocks and brakelines and crossover steering parts and maybe even a new driveline sooner than later once the swaybar is gone, whereas if you'd kept it installed, the others would not be a limiting factor.

My $.02
 
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