Swaybar disconnects

[biggles]

My jeep had "quick disconnects" after some experimentation i realised that all you needed to do was disconnect one side. the sway bar then harmlessly moved with one wheel and did not limit the movement. The other threads regarding this subject mention complete removal of the sway bars, any reason for this?

And the Jeep chowed control arms with the swaybar disconnected and I ended up fitting aftermarket control arms with extra movement. Has anyone ever experienced bushings failing due to to much flex?

p.S I hate cocking a wheel offroad the whole idea of getting a solid axle with coils was for the flex... keeping the swaybars connected defeats the purpose of those lovely axles and coils!!

[Gerrit Loubser]

I left mine off the vehicle for most of the 40000 km that I owned my 99 4.5 and noticed no durability issues with any suspension link bushes (bear in mind that I bought the car with around 215k km on the clock, so it was nowhere near a new car).

I just removed the swaybars completely instead of lugging along their mass (I preferred the vehicle without them), but I suppose there is no issue with undoing one side only and tying the little connector link back with a cable tie or such.

[Peter Connan]

On my car, I find that the rear sway bar and it's link form an almost straight line when the wheel droops. In other words, on the Patrol rear axle one would have to remove both ends or extend the links to get an improvement (my car is lifted very slightly). But I also found that the shock extends to it's maximum length, and thus in my case I would have to fit shocks that extend more than standard to get an advantage, and I have yet to find a supplier of such (the OME shocks I have are among the longest available out of a catalog).

I cannot comment on the front sway bar, as my GQ doesn't have one.

In my opinion, if not carrying heavy loads on the roof, remove them. At least for a while, to determine if you feel you need them.