Homemade disco's (w/ pics)

I've never done any kind of write up before, mostly doing this for feedback to see if it can be improved on.

When I installed my 3" lift, I sheared off the top of a bolt on one of the sway bar links. Figuring it was going to happen to the other one, I went and picked up 2 replacements.

I know that discos are a pretty useful upgrade, and considering I just paid $40 for a pair of new links, I figured I should try to work with what I have first, before forking over tons of money for a pair of new discos.

This is what I was working with:


I wanted to try 2 ideas. One was to use cotter bolts, and the other was to drill through new replacement bolts and use a washer and a cotter pin.


And for the record, this was SO easy and def the way to do it. Under 60 seconds it took me to cut the bolt down and pop it out. SO EASY



Cotter one one side. I might make another run back to Lowes, but I felt like the cotter was a bit thin, and gave too much wiggle(not that it matters??) If lowes has a thicker one, I might give it a try.



The bolt drilled to 1/8"




The idea is I pull a cotter pin from each bolt, slide the bolts out, and lift the sway bar up..... with links still attached. It LOOKS like the links would stay out of the way still attached.



I then thought to run a cotter pin through the top of the sway bar links to make each completely removable with the pull of 2 pins; but I drilled too low, and couldnt get a pin through. It got dark and I packed up.

Not sure how motivated I am to put pins though sway bar bolts, or If I want to try leaving the ends attached and seeing if I can get away with that. Just makes bumpstops an even better idea.

Suggestions?

If anyone has discos for sale cheap for a 3-4.5" holla!

Get wing nuts for the uppers. That's all the Tomken Machine ones are, but longer. They also drilled though the top and put a hair pin there also to keep the nut from backing off.

If you want to make longer ones, take your old ones, smooth out the place where they broke off, and weld on a 3" bolt of the same size. Cut to length, and use wing nuts for expediency.

-Ron

im sure i used half inch clevis pins in mine, why the bolts on the bottom?

i have a near identical setup, when i disconnect the ends and leave the link (zip tied to sway bar) i rub the crap out of them when in flex/turning my wheels and they end up dangling 4 or 5 times while im out... my plan is to replace the top bolts of the link with two more clevis pins so when i pull all 4 the links come out.

sorry if your post says exactly what i said im going to do to finish mine, it was a little confusing seeing clevis pins then a drilled out bolt and no upper pictures

EDIT, nevermind i see from pic 3 what your talking about for uppers.... i still have the stock link bracket on my swaybar ends with extended links, not stud style

wing nuts are a great idea, I think I'll go with that and call it done.

I went with bolts at the bottom because I felt the cotter bolts had too much room to wiggle. It def would have been MUCH easier if I had went with the cotter bolts, but now that its done, oh well..

fallacist said:

wing nuts are a great idea, I think I'll go with that and call it done.

I went with bolts at the bottom because I felt the cotter bolts had too much room to wiggle. It def would have been MUCH easier if I had went with the cotter bolts, but now that its done, oh well..

Click to expand...

I think they wiggle because they are 7/16", like I said I'm pretty sure the hole for the link and the pressed in bolt is 1/2". Mine have to be dead straight to get the pin through, no wiggle room. I have a half inch washer outside the mounting tab, then another between the link and the pin, ends up falling in line with the edge of the clevis pin hole at the washer, so the pin perfectly holds it with no side to side wiggle either.