Jeep Sway Bar

[pflaming]

Some put a Jeep sway bar on their car suspensions. Question which one and what are the benefit(s). I've been looking for the thread on this but unable to find it.

 

edit: I searched with "sway" and found some information.

 

"Sway/tracking bars are commonly used on vehicles with coil springs to maintain the alignment of the body to the chassis."

Some use Jeep, some Ranger, some nothing, some front and rear.

Edited July 12, 2016 by pflaming

[Dave72dt]

Sway bars are used to reduce rollover or body lean in corners and improve handling.  I recall a couple post also where the Jeep sway bar was used but don't remember if it was in the car section or in the truck section.  Car section would be the more likely.

[Sharps40]

Dodge used them on the straight axle car front suspensions in the late 30s as well.  As I recall from years of driving my 37 D5.....the factory sway bar ain't what yer used to on a more modern car.....still plenty of body roll in the turns on Ol Bessy! 

[Ulu]

I used the stock front bar but my rear came from a '75 T-bird.

 

I relocated the top of the rear shocks slightly, to a fixturing hole in the frame, and used the original rear shock holes to bolt the anti-sway bar brackets to the frame.

 

 

It now sits under the back of my '09 Tacoma.

 

I mounted it backwards to make it fit the Toyota as one leg wound up hitting the gas tank.

 

In both cases the links are custom made, and the brackets required on the Plymouth were customized from some other random brackets from some junk pile.

Edited July 12, 2016 by Ulu

[Ulu]

I think we are maybe confusing a sway bar, tracking bar or locating bar with an anti-roll bar. Sway is sideways motion, not rolling.

 

The former is a tube parallel to the axle, and connects axle to frame on opposite sides.

It can also take other forms, like a Y shape, but the purpose is to keep the axle centered under the frame left and right.

 

The latter, the anti-roll bar, is a spring steel round bar bent to a U shape, hanging from the frame in two spots, and connecting to the left and right ends of the axle (or the adjacent suspension.)

 

It's purpose is only to control body roll, by twisting the opposite way the body leans.

 

My car had a ton of body roll, but adding gas shocks, a rear anti-roll bar, shock repositioning, spring wedging and front anti-roll bar shimming made a huge difference.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Ulu

[Plymouthy Adams]

tracking bar...locating bar....Ulu, are you trying to describe a Panhard Rod which by the way were very much an item on the big sisters of the era

Edited July 14, 2016 by Plymouthy Adams

[DJ194950]

There are a lot of posts if a search of the car forum for: "jeep sway bar".

 

Happy hunting.

 

DJ

[Dave72dt]

I'm going to keep calling it a sway bar since most people will understand what it is I'm talking about, regardless of whether it's correct terminology or not.  top of the car goes sideways in the corners so it really is controlling side to side movement.   Just depends on where you want to measure it from.  Mid nineties Jeep seem to be the primary source for the front bars that I've found on the forum search.

[Sharps40]

Lexicon birdies aside, everybody here knew what ya was talking about.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Sharps40