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Swaybar Removal - your Thoughts?

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prossett

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New to GMC - quick question, quick answer: how does removing the swaybar permanently sound to you guys?

On my Wrangler I took it off and had no bother at all, but looking at the '83 Jimmy front suspension the axle is mighty close to bottoming out (in fact both my bump stops are shredded), plus it's a big hefty truck to drive around without swaybar on.

I mostly drive on sand, tracks and dunes, and maybe 5 mins on slow city road daily.

Reason I'm asking is both frame bushings have completely disintegrated, and it's now metal on metal. Must either put in new bushings or remove.
 
without stiff lift springs, I wouldn't consider, even for exclusively off road. I've got the disconnect on mine to take it off off-road As you say, these are big heavy trucks and roll considerably even with the bar.
You can see that they are shredded from use, the truck rolling side to side constantly. Bushing install is worth the effort.
 
when I had a d44.. I had mine in.. wheeled all the time... went to a d60 which came with the swaybar too... couldnt get it to line up on my drop brackets... so took it off and havent put it back on. I always said to keep it but now a firm believer that ya dont need it :crazy:
 
I've just taking the swaybar off of my suburban and it rides a lot better. I have 6" superlift springs though and they are very stiff.
If you have a lifted truck i would definetly recomend it.
 
if your running stock springs your probably gonna notice it quite a bit. But take the 2 bolts out of where they bolt to the Ubolt plate and drive it if you love it take it all the way off if you hate it put the 2 bolts back in... if you cant decide leave it hanging till you can :D
 
Yes, sir, that's gotta be the right answer! I guess it depends so much on driving style and springs condition - I was just wondering if everyone would say: "Are you crazy? Jimmy with no swaybar = certain breakage of both car and bones".

I'll try it and let you know how it feels with my stock springs...
 
haven't had mine in for years. yank it and forget about it.

j
 
I ran ano sway bar on stock suspension (3/4 ton) and barely noticed it was gone. unless it was really windy i couldnt tell.
 
also if its stock height, you cant run dissconnects anyways
 
took mine off, ( 4 inch lift, 34 inch tires ) the only time i miss it is rough spots or railroad track crossings at freeway speeds. Little spooky sometimes, but no way I'd hook it back up. way more flex and quite a weight savings. And it's street driven every day.
 
stock springs and stock height - Keep it.
aftermarket lifted springs - remove it.

The key thing is that you do not want to bottom out if your stock springs are really worn out and you have no bump stops.
 
Sway bar

Throw it away - cut it up - make art out of it - chucked mine nearly 20 years ago, ripped it off of every 4x4 of mine and several of my friends' since then!!! A useless hunk of iron IMHO :D
 
i realy never noticed any drawbacks. people tent to comment on it missing though. i figured the 67-72s didnt have them why should the 73-87 need them

balzer
 
original balzer said:
i figured the 67-72s didnt have them why should the 73-87 need them

balzer
Click to expand...

Exactly, I took mine off and drive it on the road 3-4 days a week. I think rides better without it. It definitely rides better offroad without it.
 
I have a 1-ton crew cab with 6" of lift, and I just took mine off today. The truck feels like it is going to roll over when I go into any turn on the street at even a reasonbly slow speed. Mine is going back on.
 
1-ton said:
I have a 1-ton crew cab with 6" of lift, and I just took mine off today. The truck feels like it is going to roll over when I go into any turn on the street at even a reasonbly slow speed. Mine is going back on.
Click to expand...
You'll get used to it in time, and be glad it's gone!!!! :D
 
Had never really given it a second thought before, but after reading all the posts, I did some testing on mine, both hooked up and unhooked on the same stretch of road.

The ride was MUCH smoother when disconnected, and I couldn't feel any noticeable tendency to roll when cornering, etc. Of course, I'm running on 12" lift springs, so I don't know if my experience is necessarily what everyone can expect.

Anyway, the sway bar is on the way to the junkyard and I'm much happier with the ride.
 
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