Luvtohunt Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Did all MJ's come with a rear sway bar? If so, mine does not have one. Can a new one be installed if it originally didn't come with one? Any information on this would be appreciated. Thanks for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motion Offroad Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 The MJ never received one from the factory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvtohunt Posted June 9, 2008 Author Share Posted June 9, 2008 The MJ never received one from the factory. Can one be installed, and if so, are they beneficial? thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeepcoMJ Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 not very beneficial. i'm sure you could install one, but it wouldn't be worth the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLHTAZ Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Sway bars are for coil springs. The MJ leaf spring rear has no need for such a thing as they are farily stiff to begin with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comanche87 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 thats odd. how come the xj's have them in the rear when they have leaf? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 thats odd. how come the xj's have them in the rear when they have leaf? They would be a hindrance off-road but help control body roll on the highway. Aftermarket MJ rear sway bars are available from Performance Suspension Technology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLHTAZ Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I should have qualified that as "my opinion", but I have never met a leaf sprung vehicle that needed a sway ber as far as I was concerned. Our YJ has no sway bar and no track bars front or rear and my wife drives it nearly every day with SOA and 35" tires ;) . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 XJs (except the Up Country package) all came with rear sway bars. In my autocross days, the first thing any of us running AMC Javelins or AMXs, or Mustangs, or Camaros did was install an Addco rear sway bar. Those were all leaf springs in the rear. They keep the ride more level, and they also reduce understeer. They are VERY beneficial. Most, if not all, American vehicles have horrible understeer. IMHO, ALL American cars need rear sway bars, and those that already have them (like the XJ) probably need a much larger one. However, they interfere with articulation off-road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
500 MJ Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I've been thinking about putting one on mine and then putting a set of discos on it too. I bought some used YJ ones a month or so ago and I'll modify them to put them on the frontend. I could make a set for the rear. "Its one of those, if I get bored I might try it" projects. I would be really interested in hearing what other people say about them and if anyone else has installed one... A while back there was a MJ featured in JP. It was the one for the Currie Ent. Shop. They had one on the rear of that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEAD_NOT_FOLLOW Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I wheel my XJ pritty hardcore and the rear swaybar has NEVER hindered me on the trails. Swaybars on leafs do not hinder articulation like they do on coils w/control arms. A leaf pack will only drop so far before it can not be pushed down anymore. Having a swaybar connected to the axle with the proper length endlinks will NOT hinder that drop. With coils on the other hand thats a different story... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvusse Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 My Suburban has leaf springs on the rear and a factory rear sway bar. Also has a front one with a torsion bar suspension. With a vehicle that height and weight, though, you want to limit body roll as much as possible on the road. Unless you drive with a few 1000 pounds in the bed, or build a street racer, I don't see the point of putting one on a Comanche. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I wheel my XJ pretty hardcore and the rear sway-bar has NEVER hindered me on the trails. Sway-bars on leafs do not hinder articulation like they do on coils w/control arms. A leaf pack will only drop so far before it can not be pushed down anymore. Having a sway-bar connected to the axle with the proper length end-links will NOT hinder that drop. With coils on the other hand that's a different story... Dude, I get your gist, but that post was just incorrect. Like Eagle said, most vehicles that have one could use with a larger one. Any sway bar, properly attached factory, will hinder articulation. If you like this better, they will articulate more with out the sway-bar attached. If you like yours and don't feel it hurts you, great. but your only fooling yourself to say it makes no difference. Having one is a personal choice. I would DEFINEATELY have one if I have a street only vehicle. The advantages and increased handling and drive-ability are outstanding. CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEAD_NOT_FOLLOW Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 Dude, I get your gist, but that post was just incorrect. Like Eagle said, most vehicles that have one could use with a larger one. Any sway bar, properly attached factory, will hinder articulation. If you like this better, they will articulate more with out the sway-bar attached. If you like yours and don't feel it hurts you, great. but your only fooling yourself to say it makes no difference. CW Explain to me why than I can score the EXACT same on a RTI ramp with it connected or disconnected? It was done both ways as well and received the EXACT same score. Everyone argues that they hinder; so we proved with an RTI ramp that it does not. I'd really like to here why you think they hinder articulation on a rear leaf sprung Jeep? You only can go up so far before you hit the bumpstops or you max out the tire in the wheel well and it bumpstops itself. The swaybar does not make a bit of difference in the uptravel hindering how far up you can go. If you want to argue the downtravel I already explained in my prior post that once a leaf pack is at full drop you can't flex it anymore anyways as it's physically unable to. You don't have enough unsprung weight to force the leafs down any further past their normal arch point. So PLEASE explain why a rear swaybar on a leaf sprung Jeep infact does hinder articulation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jared Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 well most lift kits don't include discos for rear sway bars just longer links. why? because they don't hinder off road flex as much as a front one does. my opinion is its a truck with pretty stiff leafs so it doesn't really need a swaybar in the rear, but a cherokee is shorter and has more weight over the rear end, and thats why it had a facotory one. so i wouldn't waste any money on one. jeep engineering it without one and they know more than we do ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comanche87 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 curious. I'm not using my mj off road, but would it handle better with one on road? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jared Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 curious. I'm not using my mj off road, but would it handle better with one on road? like eagle said a rear sway bar will give a car more oversteer, which means the tail will come out easier but that isn't always the best thing to do. but if you tow a lot a rear bar could do you some good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 thats odd. how come the xj's have them in the rear when they have leaf? They would be a hindrance off-road but help control body roll on the highway. Aftermarket MJ rear sway bars are available from Performance Suspension Technology. EDIT: I spoke to PST today. Their sway bar is a bolt-on for the SWB only and uses the upper shock mounts for mounting points. But because the upper shock mounts on the LWB are in forward of the axle, not aft like the short box, it won't work w/o considerable mods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 Well, I'll try but I am no suspension expert.... You are correct in your comment, that once you compress one side of an axle, to the bump stops, you can go little further. But lets think here for a moment... What is this... The other side is connected... Meaning one side is absolutely, positively and permanently connected together. So if you think on how a sway-bar functions, So with one side stuffed, there is quite significant force on the opposite side in the same direction, UP. Its trying to pull up the opposite tire, while the vehicles weight is transferring and that same tire is being pushed down. The sway-bar is doing what its supposed to do, keep both wheels on the same plane so that the vehicle will corner more flatly. So in doing that it is INHIBITING droop/flex/articulation. Think for a moment what makes a solid axle better off road than a independent setup. When you stuff a tire, the opposite tire is equality pushed into Tera fir-ma giving/finding traction. A sway bar will inhibit the amount of opposing force. One other glaring point.. If it didn't do anything it wouldn't be there, now would it. How many miles on that sway bar? I venture its not as strong as it once was, especially with all that testing you have done. Speaking of that testing, How many different vehicles where involved? What where the mileage of these vehicles? Do you have actual results you can post up? Back to Eagle's comment about the sway-bar itself. Most rear sway bars are small and to be truly useful should be larger. Jeep knew the Jeep name would include off-road use. So they chose a rear sway-bar that wouldn't significantly restrict that use. While at the same time offer better handling on road. I again say that if it works for you and you cannot see any difference, great. More power to you, but don't try to pee on my foot and tell me its only raining. I am not "calling you out" here. Just pointing out that what happens to one rig running up one RTI ramp doesn't constitute how the rest of the jeeps out there will function. I have done the same "tests" as you on my TJ with the rear sway bar. I choose to leave it on. I do in-fact get better flex with it off, but feel my body roll on off-camber situations warrants the little lose of flex but running one, so I do. CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 curious. I'm not using my mj off road, but would it handle better with one on road? like eagle said a rear sway bar will give a car more oversteer, which means the tail will come out easier but that isn't always the best thing to do. but if you tow a lot a rear bar could do you some good. I didn't say it would give more oversteer. I said it would give less understeer. Since most American vehicles understeer to the point of being (IMHO) dangerous, anything that results in less understeer is (again IMHO) a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoloCamo Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 , anything that results in less understeer is (again IMHO) a good thing. If you know how to properly handle it of course. I've had my back end out on the manche on a rainy day once coming out of a u-turn, wasn't expecting and countered accordingly without wrecking (almost $#!& myself, though). I wonder how much a rear sway bar would have thrown the back out in that situation, in comparison to no rear sway bar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FxRacing282 Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 well i guess in theory if you had a limited slip or a locker or w/e a rear sway bar would have only made the fishtial 'worse' (some of us rate fishtails on the farther sideways the better) as the weight would have been more 'equal' allowing for more tire spinnage which would result in an awesome little power slide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWLONGSHOT Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 Your touching on it when you mention the addition of a traction device. Vehicles do tend to get some exaggerated fishtails when both rear wheels start spinning in a turn. The theory is with the sway-bar, you keep both rear wheels planted. So no one gets the weight transfer over the other to start the spinning. This is of coarse with the LS as the Locker doesn't have the biasing where it can slip a bit before power is really applied. Of coarse overzealous throttle or very slippery roads will negate this 10 times out of 9. ;) . CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comanche87 Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 i was just curious to see if it would help. if it will then ill look into getting one for my mj. since it seems to fit no prob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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