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PSA: Check your front sway bar for cracks

Pillow

Pillow

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Location
Warrenton, VA
My front sway bar on the Suburban was cracked on the ends... It is just a crimped tube of steel where they go into the end links. Anyway after years of rust and bouncing, I guess they gave up the ghost... When, who knows.

This weekend I put in a new "upgraded" Addco swaybar. Solid bar 1 1/8" thick versus the stock 1" tube.

Pretty straight forward installation which took maybe 2 hours. If you have done it before I bet a pro could manage 1 hour. Man is the new bar heavy! That is a good thing ;)

WOW what a difference!!! The Suburban handles much much better with no more "wandering" over bumps or road irregularities. All in all probably the 2nd best money I have spent on the Burb.

One day when changing the oil take a peak at the swaybar and make sure it is in good shape. In retrospect it is definitely a safety improvement.

... I ordered a rear Addco swaybar as well. So more to come on that when it arrives.
 
Same thing happened to our 98 Tahoe... the original fron anti-roll bars are made of spring steel rolled into tube. When it snapped, it went with a !@#$%^& loud "DONG!!!" that I looked in the rearview mirror to see if I had run over anything, like a loose manhole cover or something.

What didn't help was my habit, now changed, of taking speed bumps one wheel at a time, i.e., driver side in gutter, passenger side on bump. Worst thing to do to your anti-roll bars other than taking the truck off-road with disconnecting the end links.

Took me over three hours to remove and replace... kept running out of cold beers.
 
Sway bar? :D hmmm, our trucks have those? I was just under my truck this morning and there sure as hell wasn't any sway bar thing under there :devil:
 
I'm not at all surprised it broke, those sway bars were thin. I never did have a problem with my 88 before.

BigBlueChevy said:
Sway bar? :D hmmm, our trucks have those? I was just under my truck this morning and there sure as hell wasn't any sway bar thing under there :devil:
Click to expand...

I still have one, with disconnects. I couldn't imagine driving on the road with out it.
 
Mine had a crack on the passenger side when I pulled it out for the axle swap. But you have to figure, the sway bar is designed to balance the driver and passenger side suspension so that both flex in a similar fashion. When you "one wheel" over things like speedbumps, pot-holes, and general the roads, you subjecting them to tremendous forces at a variety of different angles. Like the torsion bars on our trucks, they where under engineered.

I have to say, its not nearly as bad as I expected it to be(driving without a sway bar that is). But I also don't wip around corners in my truck like its a vette'. Sure there is some body roll, but the additional suspension articulation is worth it. Especially for a truck thats see's nearly 40% of driving time offroad. Thats the one thing Jersey is good for- Redneck shortcuts.
 
I'm not sure how your front springs were, but mine are pretty soft. Driving it on the street without the sway bar, is honestly, not very enjoyable. I'm glad we built the sway bar with disconnects, so I can have the best of both worlds.
 
After I snapped my front anti-sway bar, I ordered the HD Hellwigs and while waiting for delivery, found a sale on HD Hellwigs for the rear and ordered them, too. Now, there is minimal body roll, really solid going around the curves but no off-roading without disconnects... I'll take pics this long weekend and post them.
 
88gmctruck said:
I'm not sure how your front springs were, but mine are pretty soft. Driving it on the street without the sway bar, is honestly, not very enjoyable. I'm glad we built the sway bar with disconnects, so I can have the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...

Do you mind sharing a few pictures of your sway bar setup with disconnects? The original leaf springs I got from the junkyard with the axle has 2 broken leaves on the drivers side(not good since its only a 4 pack:eek:) She leans to the drivers side if I work her to hard or take a corner to fast. So I've been babying it. I'm rebuilding a set as we speak that will replace the originals. These will be a stiffer pack, but they will be able to flex so much better than the old ones I threw on there. Nothing better than doing the work yourself.
 
Glad to see I am not the only one here with this issue!

Pics... Can come when I install the rear... Whenever it arrives.

So far the Burb 99.9% of the time is on blacktop... No need for the disconnects here.

Again more to come.
 
The front sway on the 'burb snapped back when it only had around 60K miles on it. It was just a poorly constructed bar. I put Hellwig bars on front and rear, and yes, they make a HUGE difference.

I have front and rear sway bars on both rigs, and they help tremendously in making the rigs stable and safe on the road. Putting adjustable shocks (that I have set pretty stiff) on the Tahoe also helped the handling a lot. Great safety mod, much more fun to drive now.

-Rob :)
 
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