Electronic swaybar disconnect ?!?! (1 Viewer)

It's a jeep thing! No it really is! Ok I'm probably going to need to get the bullet proof vest out for just saying the "J" word here but oh well I'm new and have no reputation to protect.
I came across something and wanted to get some input/ ideas before proceeding.
While looking into options for a sway bar disconnect for the Cruiser I started remembering how much it sucked pulling the pins out of the quick disconnects in the jeeps I had owned before getting on the trail. While searching around I remembered that Mopar came out with the electric disconnects for the Dodge power wagon in 05 and more recently in the rubicon. I then stumbled across the following site http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=367045 , basically a guy who bought one for his older model and retrofit it. Great start, he already figured out the internals for me! I also found the picture listed from an 06 power wagon, HHHMMM? If the right size I can put it where my current locker switch is and will also have the function for the disconnect as well. So I'm defiantly no banana but sounds easy to me and I have access to a welder. Anyway please feel free to respond with advise, criticism or what ever.
Some of the things I'm already considering:
1. The above thread is no BS I called several places and the price ranged from $1,200 to $1,800 out of SLC! Did some calling on a Saturday and BINGO, local place could get one for $80 plus tax ON Tuesday. I had my doubts but picked it up today paid cash and figure I will make sure it will work before cutting. If it doesn’t work I figure I could easily sell it for $300 from what I'm reading or at least break even.
2. The sway bar is to the front in the jeep and the rear or the Cruiser. With having to consider the drive shaft. The complete unit is somewhat long but a lot of the housing at the end is for the circuit board that will be removed for better room. This is obviously larger due to the motor and all but seem like it will fit just below the space between the motor and tranny. Could also make some armor to protect it. Keep in mind if I was into rock crawling I would just take the sway bar of and at this time it is not what I'm looking for.
3. The jeep SB is actually a large diameter, wider and obviously won't bolt right in, if it did I would go buy a bunch of frikken lottery tickets now! Cutting and welding is a must.
4. Has anyone relocated the SB to the front of the 80? I got home late and couldn’t get a good look with it stuffed in the garage. My guess is no.
5. This won't happen overnight as I'm going to do a lot of research and I'm in no hurry to chop this thing up yet. Besides I already got mine and who knows give it another month and maybe they will raise the price to $3,000. I'm sure these jeep guys will really get desperate once the snow starts melting. SUCKERS!

That's cool man! WOuld be slick to get the dash switch too, good luck!

Sounds great. Please keep us posted.

For $80... maybe. For $1200+ no freaking way.

Better offroad ride quality would be nice, but its not that important!

How cool is that

too cool. get on it. you should be able to do this in a saturday

If I had everything I want on my 80 and an extra $3000 bucks I might think about it. It would be cool.

I wonder what it'd take to incorporate that into our OEM sway bars...

The first step would be to find a DC dealer dumb enough to a) have a 2007 part like that in stock and b) willing to sell it to you for $68, the old price. Around here, no such critter has been observed. CDan? You have a lumpy old Dodge? You sell *eep parts?

Very cool keep us up on the project I am in the middle of a front swaybar disconnect mod right now the pins are in and I am fabing a bracket to hold the bar up and out of the way.

I can tell you I will not be using it all that much because it will not be easy to remove those pins.

Also I have a 2005 Dodge cummings 2500 and was wondering if I could add this to my truck. And how much it would cost.

aim said:

The first step would be to find a DC dealer dumb enough to a) have a 2007 part like that in stock and b) willing to sell it to you for $68, the old price. Around here, no such critter has been observed. CDan? You have a lumpy old Dodge? You sell *eep parts?

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I spoke to my local Heep dealer this morning. They say they can source this out of Germany for me (where I believe they build Heeps for the Australian market). The price I was quoted works out to about $200 US, and it will take about 3 weeks to get here. I can only assume the popularity of this mod is not a worldwide thing yet!!

Now all I need to do is work out if it is worth all the stuffing about to make it work

Sorry guys this will probably take me a while, at this point I'm mostly looking for input from guys that have either removed their swaybar's or use the disconnects and weather it is actually making a difference. So far I'm hearing it doesn’t make a huge difference however I will probably do it anyway just for the fact it will be one of the few if not only 80's that have one. Time to use the ol search function. I'm also going to spend a lot of time under the rig thinking this thru, front end rebuild on the way so I'm sure I'll have my chance. I'll also probably need to stop by SLEE to make sure he has a used spare if I hack mine beyond use. After looking at it some the OEM bar compared to the heep seems to be quite a bit smaller and it defiantly has longer extensions out to the axle. This seem to be due to the drive shaft clearance. I'm also wondering is part of this is in the design causing the bar to flex more and allow a little more give.
I also need to check the clearances for the drive shaft. This will be a little tougher since the 5' mounds of snow in front of the house have now melted!

I wonder what it'd take to incorporate that into our OEM sway bars...

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Unfortunately I don't think this will happen, The OEM has more bends in it than the kids spaghetti and meatballs. As part of this design the housing needs to be attached to the frame to keep from spinning and unless it is at the same height as the bushings it doesn’t seem like this will be possible and still allow it to pivot correctly. I think there can be a small bend to allow for the DS clearance for this but both bushings and housing must be on the same level. That brings up another issue since it will drop everything down to allow for clearance so the disconnect will probably be around the same height as the mid point of the control arms. Don't like this idea and I think there may be more options. Who knows there are alot of smart guys out there in this forum that figure this out in their sleep!
Quote:
Originally Posted by aim
The first step would be to find a DC dealer dumb enough to a) have a 2007 part like that in stock and b) willing to sell it to you for $68, the old price. Around here, no such critter has been observed. CDan? You have a lumpy old Dodge? You sell *eep parts?

I spoke to my local Heep dealer this morning. They say they can source this out of Germany for me (where I believe they build Heeps for the Australian market). The price I was quoted works out to about $200 US, and it will take about 3 weeks to get here. I can only assume the popularity of this mod is not a worldwide thing yet!!

Now all I need to do is work out if it is worth all the stuffing about to make it work

Click to expand...

I called last Saturday and picked mine up Tuesday from PRO Chrysler jeep in Denver, don't mind sharing that since I paid cash and already have mine. Nice girl at the parts counter hopefully she is still there after selling me mine for $88.00. Took two days to get it and she didn't know where they were bringing it in from. All it takes is a few phone calls! I also was able to contact the manufacture that builds these for MOPAR to get more info and they actually sounded very interested in an aftermarket product. Who knows maybe well see more of these soon.

Very cool keep us up on the project I am in the middle of a front swaybar disconnect mod right now the pins are in and I am fabing a bracket to hold the bar up and out of the way.

I can tell you I will not be using it all that much because it will not be easy to remove those pins.

Also I have a 2005 Dodge cummings 2500 and was wondering if I could add this to my truck. And how much it would cost.

Click to expand...

I was trying to find this out as well but cant seem to find a power wagon at the dealership to look at one. I know the same manufacture makes both and would be willing to bet if they are not the same they would be easier to find for the dodge. It uses the same housing but I cant answer on the bar shape.

This sounds like it has some great potential. Unfortunately it sounds like the door for people to get a Heep/Dodge electric sway bar disconnect for $80 is now going to be closed. The fact that the manufacturer indicated they are very interested in aftermarket applications could be a good thing and may bring the price down to a more reasonable level.

I am assuming that the sway bar is splined where it enters/connects to the electric disconnect mechanism. Cutting and welding a sway bar or any other spring metal that will have a load is asking for failure. If it is possible to remove the swaybar all together and start with the disconnect mechanism, you could then look at making some torsion style swaybars with machined arms that connect to the ends of the sway bars via splines ala the Currie Anti-Rock sway bar set up for TJ's, and almost all Trophy Trucks in desert racing. You could then choose different torsion spring rates and lengths. Make arms with different lengths and multiple mounting holes for the end links to add further adjustability. The parts might already exist to adapt this type of setup to an 80 as well. This would be a great setup that could work for many different driving styles, rig designs and inteneded use. My .02


Great idea, looking forward to what you come up with.

There's a lot to clarify here, but I get the impression you're planning to take a swaybar from another vehicle and install it intact on an 80. I've been a vehicle developer for GM and for Lexus and would consider that a dangerous proposition for road driving as sway bar engineering is specific to the vehicle and you simply should not try that.

If you're planning to remove the jeep bar and cut your 80 bar to adapt it - much better idea. Be advised the bars are made of spring steel and that the torque applied to the ends is in the THOUSANDS of lb-ft range. I researched this once and its in a thread here somewhere but I think it's like 16,000 lbs-ft for a large SUV. So you'll need an expert to do this properly without weaking it with heat and to avoid a failure of the connection strategy.

With that in mind, could be a great mod for serious trail work.

DougM

Thanks for the feed back guys! This is exactly what I'm looking for before I do anything, some input from someone with more knowledge and hands on experience. unfortunately I'm not experienced with welding but my brother builds drag racing car frames and BMX racing frames so I will have him do the work for a few

Basically this bar is much bigger in size than the LC and shorter as well. I'm looking more for the function of the disconnect with the support of a stiffer bar and anticipate basically tossing both and starting from scratch with the disconnect and trying to attach the bar directly to the frame with modified bushings and brackets. with a drop linkage at the axle, if the front DS lets me anyway! I think you are right on the LC bars they are long and small and don’t offer much support and basically act like a long spring. I don't do any serious rock crawling so my main intentions are to get to and from the hills carrying the family along with the toys and enjoy a two to three week trip in comfort. I prefer saving the rocks for the MC at a much faster rate. Mark the good spots on the GPS and re visit them in 10-20 years in the LC. Slomo's description is exactly what I'm thinking of doing but I will keep your advise "IdahoDoug" in mind. I hang 250+ lb motorcycles off the front and back and never have issues but want to start venturing into bear country in Montana and Canada and would like to be able to pull a 6000lb loaded toy hauler. The canvas on the ol popup just doesn’t give much comfort when trying to sleep in these areas.
I realize that there are other things out there than will be needed like ld hitches, stiffer springs, the AVO if SLEE ever is feeling generous and slaps one on the discount rack and so on but I ended up getting this disconnect for a reasonable price and thought I would give it a shot. Who cares if I do a hack job and depreciate the value of the LC because I will never sell it! And yes I don't want to kill the . YET!!!!
BTW after throwing a few emails back and forth with the manufacture @ AAM (SALES) I tried to tell them what a great value the disconnect was at $80 and the amount of interest it was generating in the heep world alone and they never responded again after. My guess is that $80 is much cheaper than they can manufacture the part for and it didn’t sit well in their pockets.