Poor-mans Antirock (tm) type stabilizer bar build.

I had been wanting to install a swaybar on the front of my flatty jeep to give it a little more stability on the street and trail. I briefly looked into installing a factory sway bar from a 76' to 86' but it just was not going to work with my combination of parts. I had a look at buying a Currie Antirock stabilizer bar but at about $400 I just couldn't justify it in my already out of hand budget. After looking at the Antirock I though, "Why not try to make one myself". I used to have a small Nissan pickup and I remember the torsion bars on that were similar to an Antirock bar. I ended up going to the pick-a-part wrecking yard and pulled a couple of bars from a 91 Nissan Hardbody 2wd front end for $20. I think the 4wd bars are too thick. The bars are splined on both ends and are 7/8" in diameter 36.5 " long, very similar to the Currie one. I used the keyed piece at the back end of the bars and just cut off the splined end and welded it to a 12.5" arm. I would have liked to make the arm longer for more leverage keeping the bar soft enough for articulation. I drilled into the end of the torsion bar and threaded it to 3/8" x 16 to hold the arm on the spline. For the frame mount I welded some 1.5" DOM tubing to the frame and modified some energy suspension PN 9.107g bushings to fit in the tube. I had to drill out the center of the bushing to 7/8" and then used a small drum sander on my die grinder to smooth them out a little after. I also had to slice the bushing with a razor knife to fit them over the bar. I added a grease fitting to the pivot to keep it lubed as well. It looks like it should work well. If you had a little more room in the area were the bare was being mounted you could just use a standard 7/8" sway bar bushing with a welded on flat mount. I still need to make the links down to the axle but I will probably do that today. I have some Rubicon Express sway bar disconnects that I might modify into a longer link that still can be disconnected. I know that the Currie bar is not meant to be disconnected but I want to see if mine will limit articulation before making links that are always connected. I am hoping it works well. It is definitely more backyard engineered compared to the Currie bar but it should work out ok I think. The bar is the same diameter as a stock 76' to 86' CJ bar but with a 4" longer arm on it. I am pretty happy with how it all turned out. Here are the pictures.




7/8" diameter bar 36.5" long splined both ends.




Splined arms made from the splined end key piece that was used to tight the bar at the frame of the Nissan. Splined end cut off of the Nissan arm and welded to a 12.5" 1/2" plate arm. Hole drilled in the end to bolt it to the threaded torsion bar.




1.5" DOM tubing welded to frame for mounting bar.




Poly bushings before and after. They were drilled to 7/8" the sanded smooth inside and split with razor knife to fit over bar.






Here it is all assembled in the frame. Now I just need to make the links down to the axle. I will post the links when completed.
What do you think?
Greg

 

that's pretty darn sweet. I was thinking about the very same thing (using torsion bars as sway bars) let us know how well it works for you

 

Looks great. Will you be hitting the arm pivot with the tire when you turn while stuffed?

 

It is possible that it could hit if I don't make the links right. I will check that part today when I build my links. The bar is mounted pretty high compared to the tire. I believe it will be high enough to be cleared by the arc of the tire at that point.
Greg

 

Very innovative and a clean fab job! Good work. Curious to see how it handles. Bound to be better than nothing.

 

Looks good, very clean workmanship. Not quite sure about the use of a torsion bar for a sway stopper. In a sprung application the force is always the same direction, up or down, depending on your prespective. The sway bar will load it both ways clockwise and counterclockwise. The force applied may not be equal turning left to right, also possibly weakening the bar to the point of breakage. The ones I have seen broken looked like twisted strands of egg noodles.

 

The tire definitely won't hit the bar arms. There is a ton of clearance when the wheel is turned. There are inches to spare and it will never get any closer as it will move up and down with the tire. Here is a picture wit the wheels turned to the stops.

I guess it is possible that it would fail due to twisting. I can't picture it mattering if it twists clockwise or counter crosswise. They are splined the same both ends and could be installed either direction. I would be more concerned that may be twisted too many degrees of rotation. The longer arms will reduce the rotational twist. If it breaks I have another one still and they are dirt cheap. I can always bring it to a spring shop to get it re-heat treated. I have not found any info of people using torsion bars on for Jeep sway bars but I have seen info on people using them for hotrods as well as on British Sports cars. There were no good detailed posts but no mention of problems either. It is just spring steel that is meant to twist. I believe it will work fine. Some one has to give it a try.
Greg

 

I finished fabbing up my swaybar links today. I ended up cutting up some shocks I had in my junk pile as well as using some 3/4" x .120 Dom tubing and a couple of rodends. Used the shock shaft which is 5/8" diameter welded to the 3/4" Dom then I fit the 5/8" rod into some 7/8" Dom tubing and drilled through it to use a 1/4" pin making it a quick release sway bar disconnect. The 7/8" Dom was welded to a shock eye. The other end I welded on a lug nut so I had 1/2" fine thread to tread my rod end into. It should work well and I can disconnect it at the axle then zip tie it up to a spot near my bumper when I want unrestricted articulation. Should work well.







Greg

 

1st love it looks great and nice craftsmanship but ,,,question ,with the shackles in the front the front would travel forward or with droop will it hit the shock body , looks real close could just be the pic though.jack it up from the bumper and check how it looks?

 

Yup. It is pretty dam close. It might hit somewhere through the suspension cycle. I can shorten it a bit if need be. The arm only gets farther away as it moves through it's arc but the spring lengthening and shackle movement might be more. I will see. Wish I had a forklift to cycle the suspension to the stops.
Greg

 

Really do hope it would work as well as it looks. The clockwise/counter-clockwise rotation doesn't matter, it was perhaps a poor attempt to show that there is a left and a right torsion bar. For lack of a better term, a sway bar goes both ways. A torsion bar always pushes in the same direction.
I don't worry so much about it being out of the working range, because the stock A-arm is probably longer than your lever arms, although a sway bar does double the twist. Here is a link to an Installation Guide that warns about switching left and right loading.

http://www.swayaway.net/joomla/images/InstallInstructions/9924_MINITRUCKTORSIONBARS.pdf

 

They seem pretty adamant not to swap sides or direction of those bars in the instructions don't they? Oh well. We will see one day when I start driving this rig. I still think it will work just fine but maybe the bar won't have a long life span. I will probably only put a few thousand miles on the Jeep a year and the links can be disconnected when off road for max articulation. I can always buy a real Currie bar in the future and fit it into my setup. I only have like $40 invested so far. Thanks for the interest and comments. I will make sure to post my observations once I do get to driving this thing. If it does work out I was hoping to have the info here for others to replicate it.
Greg

 

I love the home-built aspect of this. Keep us posted after you get some miles on it.
This might just be what my Wagon needs to get it tightened up for highway speed.

 

To your point, the duty cycle will be quite low & I have always been a rabid fan of clever and cheap.
Think the big problem with switching bars side to side is that they have a built in twist to hold the weight of the vehicle which helps put the suspension action in the "sweet spot". As a swaybar, there is no pre-load so that initial severe loading is not there, and the twisting load is only half the time against the grain as it were. I am curious if you will even be able to tell which direction is the strong side once you start putting some miles on it. You might want to change to the other bar if you find it is reversed from the way you usually drive, such as a right hand clover leaf.
Now if you had access to a controlled furnace and could heat it up to cherry red, then cool down slow until it is nice and annealed, then heat/quench/temper it as a plain bar of spring steel with splined ends. Wonder if it would stay straight and clocked when you release the internal stresses?
Might want to go with the 4x4 bar since the longer arms put more leverage on it. Stock CJ5 bar probably was not too stout, and you have reduced that effectiveness by a 1/3 maybe?
None the less it should dampen any oscillations, so it will be better than one without.

 

I wanted the smaller bar to keep the effectiveness mild. I was hoping to end up with something like what the Antirock is. I would like it to be mildly more stable on the road but also add offroad stability without much restriction to articulation. Word is that the Antirock works OK on road but is a big help in stability off road. I was hoping that this would be the case with my setup so I don't have to disconnect it off road. I did build it to be disconnected in case I do find it restrictive off road. Any added stability on road will be a bonus especially compared to my original plan of no sway bar at all. Thanks for the interest. I enjoy coming up with innovative ways to build stuff with cheap junkyard parts.
Greg

 

FYI there is a guy that I've rode with a couple times that is using an Toyota IFS torsion bar and his buggy is on rockwells and 42s, he has had great luck with it. As far as I know he has never had it break nor wear out.

 

I love this, hope it works out. I've been wanting the Currie for a while now but after spending that much it's still a pretty good project. This is about the same amount of work for little money.

 

As can be seen in this pic,



the arms capture the outer poly bushing, but as far as I can see, the inner bushing is not locked in place.

Have you done anything to insure the inner bushing stays put???

Looks very clean, and should work well. I may steal this idea for my jeep.

 

Good Eye there. I had thought of that. I am just going to bond them in place with some polyurethane adhesive sealant. I have some black stuff from Lepage that sticks bigtime. I am sure that will hold it well. I was originally going to put a piece of tubing all the way across but I felt that their would be too little bushing surface with only one on each end. I think this will work well.
Greg

 

Would be fairly simple to fab up a couple of bent tabs that mount to the top frame rail, reach around the end of the bushing to capture it.