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Lateral stress on sway bar mounts

The sway bar discos that came with the lift kit on my XJ are too tall - They bottom out on the fenderwell. I re-installed the stock links, but I would still like to have removeable links. The sway bar connects to the axle by the bottom of the link. The bottom of the link rides on a bolt that passes thru a bracket on the axle. The bolt has a 17mm head and is pretty easy to remove/re-install with two wrenches.

What I want to do its buy a new bolt of the same size, but longer. Without threads would be ideal. Drill a hole in the center of the bolt, and insert a locking pin that came with my Skyjacker sway bar discos. This would allow me to pull the pin, and slide the bolt out, thus allowing for a budget easy sway bar disco without the need for wrenches.

I'm concerned about the amount of lateral stress put on the bolt. The bracket on the axle cradles the bottom of the sway bar end link and looks like it holds all the lateral movement, while the bushing/bolt combination manages the vertical and fore/aft load.

Does anyone know how much lateral stress is put on the bottom bolt? I don't want one pin breaking off and leaving me with half an anti sway system. Am I crazy?

Thanks,

Carl

Reply to
Carl Saiyed
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Not my auction, purchase at your own risk.

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-Brian

Reply to
Cherokee-Ltd

Hi Carl,

You won't need much of a pin to hold your link - very little lateral stress. You should, however, ensure that your swaybar arms are within 5 degrees of OEM specs when the vehicle is at rest on a level surface:

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Using OEM links with a lift may pull your swaybar arms too low. If the links you got with your Skyjacker kit are wrong, why not return them and exchange for some that fit?

Steve

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Carl Saiyed wrote:

Reply to
Steve

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Reply to
RoyJ

What I did on my 88 XJ was to keep the existing bolt, change the locking nut to a regular nut, cross drill the bolt for a hairpin clip to retain the regular nut. As long as you use a nut of the same quality/grade there is no difference from stock. Mine held up for about 8 years then we sold the XJ.

Reply to
Howard

Thanks for all the responses. I'll be making my own quick-discos. The reason I can't return them is that they are the smallest set Skyjacker makes. I'll save them for my next lift or sell them later. I only have a 2" lift on my XJ so the sway bars position should be OK.

Thanks again,

Carl

Reply to
Carl Saiyed

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