9/29/02

Originally I constructed these disconnects out of 3/8" hardware. After crossing up the vehicle off road with the disconnects I was able to snap one side. For the street the 3/8" hardware was strong enough but if you wheel with the disconnects installed they will break. Hence, I built bigger ones shown above. You can also see the difference in hardware size from the other picture below.

I am no longer using the design below. It is here simple for edification. My concern over the aluminum turnbuckles were well founded. After numerous disconnection/connection cycles and simply many miles of driving the threads, on the design shown below this section, wore out and rattled badly. They were also becoming more difficult to install and I had a concern that they would let loose on an inopportune time. Normal installation also required going back and forth between both sides tightening them incrementally. That gets a bit old too.

Ok, so the Rockstompers don't inspire confidence. So here is my revision, based on Roger Brown's design. The Rockstomper article is still below, but here's how mine are built using stock pieces.

My design basically uses the stock lower balljoint and a stainless steel turn buckle. Here are the parts and tools you will need. All of them can be purchased at OSH.

2 - 3/8" Stainless steel 7 3/4" turn buckles with eye screws.
2 - Left hand thread (reverse) 3/8" - 16 coarse nuts. Nylock if you can find them.
1 - 3/8" - 16 NC die (normal coarse thread)
1 - die wrench
1 - vise
1 - hacksaw or similar device

Take a deep breath because you are about to destroy your stock endlinks. You may want to email me before you do this to get an idea of how I still like this mod.

Disconnect the stock endlinks and remove all the hardware. Cut the stock endlink about 3/4" from the balljoint where it tapers from 10 to 12mm. If you are doing this mod to the shorter rear endlinks, which is probably a better choice assuming they fit on the front, you can cut them anywhere because the entire shaft is 10mm. Clamp the balljoint in the vise with the shaft sticking perfectly straight up and use the die to put threads on the shaft. Go carefully reversing your direction occasionally to clear the threads. Use some light weight oil to keep the threads from galling.

Now assemble the endlink. Remove the normal thread eyebolt and thread the balljoint into that side. Use the stock bushings and washers with a left hand nut and assemble them on the left hand eye bolt. This threads into the left hand thread side of the turn-buckle. You should have the picture above. Repeat to build the other side.

Now you can install the two endlinks. I recommend marking the top side of the turn-buckle because the threads are different. Assemble the balljoint with the shaft sticking up because the boot won't like being rotated after the fact. The bushings on top are straight forward. Since the shaft on top is longer, that side should be threaded on a ways first. Get both of them started and then crank them down. I could only thread about half way by hand before I had to switch to the other side. They are definately slower to install than the Rockstompers but they should always be connectable since you just start with the side that's closer. They are slightly longer than the stock setup which suits my lift but should easily fit on a stock height vehicle as well. The top eye bolt is also an ideal hole to bungee the sway bar when it is disconnected.

Time will tell if this system will last. Rust shouldn't be a problem. My only concern is whether the threads will hold out. I would suggest you read Roger Brown's article as well. I'm also thinking of drilling a hole through the top bolt so I can stick a retainer pin through it just for safety sake. So far they don't seem to unwind. I ran for the first time without the bar and it does smooth out the ride and give more travel. The vehicle doesn't seem to pitch as much. Traction appears to have taken a step up. Reconnecting the setup takes some practice but I can now do it in almost the time it takes to install other disconnects. I thread the top so that the threads just show through the shackle and then start the link that is closer. The balljoint wobbles some so two hands are needed to get it started. Once one side has a couple of threads, hopefully the other side isn't to tight or loose to get it started. The top and bottom threads never seem to bottom out at the exact same time but that doesn't seem to affect anything. So far, no breakage and no noise.

11/28/2001

One day while ramping my truck to see what it would do, I got the brilliant idea of disconnecting the front swaybar to see how much of a difference it would make. For more on ramping (RTI) read the bottom section of this page.

So anyway, I thought I'd disconnect the front swaybar and then jack it up. As things stood I couldn't max out the suspension with my floor jack anyway but I did notice that there was considerably more flex in the front end without it. Instead of the wheel compressing maybe an inch when I jacked it up, it would now go about 3 inches. From there I started researching what kind of disconnects people were using. Here are some links to other people's ideas.

http://4crawler.cruiserpages.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Images/disconnect1.jpg This is Roger B's design and quite possibly the best one around for the do-it-yourselfer. It's easy to reconnect and won't make noise on the road.

http://www.geocities.com/pmurf1/swaybarinstalled.html This one is pretty good too because it mimics the stock setup and uses 1/2" hardware.

Another new design which is very well received is from someone at http://www.tacomaterritory.com He is selling them so you could contact him at nuke@tacomaterritory.com Steve Schaefer was instrumental in having Nuke build them for the 4Runner. You can Check them out here http://www.roadrunner4wheelers.org/Cornfed/misc.html

Erik Bibelheimer's setup allows the sway bar to slide along the endlink. http://home.off-road.com/~bibelheimer/4runner.html#Swaybar disconnects:

Persson's disconnects. Now discontinued is my understanding. http://www.off-road.com/toyota/reviews/swaydis/index.html

Initially I wanted to build some myself but couldn't easily find hardware that had the right combination of strength, length, correct thread to mate and ease of use. So I broke down and ordered a set of Rockstomper disconnects. I had heard of people breaking them and I was also concerned about noise but after talking with them on the phone I felt confident that they would function. While they were on order I made some more inquiries with people on the net and the results were not inspiring. NOBODY I found was happy with them. This was disheartening! I basically took all the problems people had brought up about them and thought about whether there was a way to solve them.

The heim joints used by Rockstomper are 3/8" which is about the size of the top nut on the existing endlinks. However the bottom balljoint is 7/16". This may not sound like much difference but strengthwise it is. The reason for the stronger connection on the bottom is that it bolts in perpendicular to the force on the link. In other words the lower link is in shear while the upper link is in tension/compression. Most people have commented that the lower link tends to bend or break. I figure I can swap to a chromoly 3/8" or move up to a 7/16" or 1/2".

To help minimize breakage, I was very careful to align the heim joints with each other during installation. I also took a full size bushing and cut it radially in half to make two half thickness bushings. This allowed me to use a rubber connection on top similar to the stock setup. Unfortunately the heim's shaft is not long enough to accommodate full size bushings. There is a big advantage to incorporating bushings. First, it allows the top heim to rotate on it's shaft axis in case the two heims can't  swivel enough. Second, it allows the the heim to deflect further than if it was just bolted to the bar. Third it absorbs some of the shock.

Noise was my other concern. Everyone I've spoke to said they rattle like the snake over bumps. On a previous trail runs I overheard some friends discussing just that issue. The comment was that the noise originated from the heim sliding along the pin and slamming into the endlink forks. The solution was to bend the forks flush with the heim so that no sliding could happen. The problem with this is that it limits the distance the heim can swivel. I, of course, wanted it quiet so I immediately bent the forks flush.

After installation, I jacked up one side of the car to check for binding and couldn't locate any. Thereafter I went for a spin and couldn't find the slightest trace of noise coming from the discos. Disconnecting the links is done very easily by pulling the four pins and removing the link. I will probably need to bungy the swaybar out of the way for extended jaunts but I tried driving around the block with it disconnected. It drove pretty well but I wouldn't trust that setup in an emergency maneuver. Reconnecting involves holding the link in place, pushing the bottom pin in, latching the retainer spring and repeating for the top. Some thought should be given to which side the retainter spring arches around to minimize chance of it interfering with other suspension components. The hardest link to get in is the last one. Parking on level ground and keeping the wheels straight is important. Even then, the bar may have to be flexed a little but it was not a big deal. Grease the pins and heim balls regularly to minimize wear and assist in reassembly.

My truck can flex the rear bar and articulate completely so disconnects are not needed there. If the Rockstompers hold out, I'll post results here for sure, then I'll put the longer endlinks from the front on the back to compensate for my lift and level out the rear bar a bit. If they don't hold up, I may cut the ball joint from the rest of the link where it tapers to 10mm and thread the shaft with a 3/8" die. To this I would attach a 3/8" stainless turnbuckle and create a setup like Roger B.

For those of you who are interested, I ramped the truck by driving it up on to my floor jack and VERY CAREFULLY jacking it up. When one other wheel leaves the ground you take a measurement of how high the wheel under the jack went (ie how high on the ramp). We'll call this distance O as in opposite the angle. We want to calculate the distance along the slope of the ramp we traveled. We'll call that distance H as in Hypotenuse. The angle, X, of our theoretical ramp will be 20 degrees which is a standard ramp. Serious Rockcrawling machines use a 30 degree ramp. To solve for H we need a formula which, for those of you who paid attention in geometry is:

sin(X) = O/H. (Remember SOH CAH TOA?)

Solving for
H = O/sin(X).

The sine of 20 degrees is .342.

My floor jack maxed out at 20 inches so we'll use that of O. Therefore
H = 20/.342 = 58 inches along the ramp.

To get the RTI (ramp travel index) you've been reading about in the magazines you need one more measurement. Specifically the wheelbase of your vehicle. This is the distance in inches between a front and rear wheel center to center. My 4Runner is 105 inches.

RTI = ramp/wheelbase * 1000
RTI = 58/105 * 1000
RTI = 552

This was the result with the sway bars connected, tires fully inflated and front wheel lifted. Eventually I will find a proper way to max the suspension and acurately measure the RTI.

Here is a better test. Here I ramped about 715.