sway bar and antiroll bar questions? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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sway bar and antiroll bar questions?

mercuryman97

Well-Known Member
Joined
September 9, 2004
Messages
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City, State
greenville,sc
Year, Model & Trim Level
1997 Mercury Mountaineer
how do i go about removing the sway bar and the antiroll bars?
Also, what are the pros and cons of doing this and would you suggest doin it?
 



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Are you 4 wheeling? If not, don't!
 












By removing your sway bars you are basicly allowing the axles to move more freely.

The sway bar on IFS or TTB front end actually works to connect the two sides. Therefore if you hit a bump the shock is felt at the other tire as well.
In a corner this bar acts to check the amount of roll or lean. The beefier the bar the less it bends therefore the less lean.

With the solid rear it is the same concept however shock will always be felt at both tires, and again it acts to check the lean.

On road these bars allow for a lot tighter handling in corners as well as a variety of situations. Without sway bars on road you will likely add to the roll over statistic if you gots a heavy foot.

Off road you will find that often your rear axle tries to do this / as you go over rougher terrain. It does this to allow the wheels to remain in contact with the ground yet limit the lean of the body and chassis. Now above we discussed how the sway bar checked the lean on a flat surface. On a un level surface it prevents the axle from twisting to keep the body more level. Therefore a good idea to remove when off-road. Good to have on when on road.

For the IFS front it just sucks on uneven terrain regardless. I'm sure removing the bar helps a bit by allowing the front end to be truly independent therefore less harsh, but you will still find yourself with a tire in the air most of the time. Just lock the front to give that one tire juice, or replace it with a solid axle if you want to flex up front. In my opinion the sway bar in front won't make much difference. Though I may soon be proven wrong :D
 






To remove the sway bars...lefty loosey righty tighty lol. It's not hard as long as the bolts are frozen on like mine are. If this is a street/trail rig i'd not recoment taking BOTH front and rear sway bars off, but if you remove the rear and drive accordingly you should't have many troubles..many people here do it. If it's trail only...trash them both. You can make some sway bar disconnects, do a search...they'll let you run your sway bars connected on the street but disconnected offroad. Anyway good luck

cp
 






Go with the disconnects and make your own (for some reason, they're sold in pairs but you only need one per side per sway bar). Given the high center of gravity of the Explorer, I would never drive on pavement with them removed (that's me, though).
 






One of my Superlift front sway bar end links just broke. To kit it from banging around and potentially causing more damage, I completed removed the end-link until I can replace it with some quick disconnects. So for the moment, I'm driving on-road with the front bar disconnected. Honestly, haven't noticed much difference in body roll...
 






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