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Greasable Sway Bar Bushings for XJ?

Mighty.Mighty_XJ

Mighty.Mighty_XJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
VA ... in the dark
Has anyone used these on their XJ? My poly bushings have been on the Jeep for years & they're wallowed out pretty badly. On-road handling is hair-raising. I figure it has to do with the age of the bushings, plus friction. So I'm thinking grease should help with the friction. But every greasable set I see it says "will not fit your vehicle" or something similar. I have a 28mm bar.

Any reason why I can't use bushings with grease fittings??

If you have, which brand/vendor did you use?
Thx
 
Thanks for the replies guys.
Anthropy like I mentioned, I have been looking at greasable bushings, which would be a strong indicator that I am getting ready to buy bushings, NOT grease the existing ones.

trippled, to put it simply, the Jeep wanders. On the highway, I keep both hands on the steering wheel as it will sometimes tip-toe to the left or right, sometimes into the other lane. In this instance, I like to start cheap/simple & work my way up. Sway bar bushings first & see what happens, then take it from there. Regardless, the bushings have had it, so they need to be changed, although I recall that when I bought them I was led to believe that these bushings should have lasted "the life of the vehicle". So much for that! I might need an alignment as well, but since I'm getting ready to have heavy duty ball joints added, the alignment will have to wait until after.

I did search Google dears, that's where I found the ones that kept suggesting that they weren't for my application
 
Doesnt sound like sway bar at all... if it were sway bar related, it'd be fine until you tried to change direction, then youd get body roll and a general 'loose ness', not wandering.

Wandering sounds like a bad alignment, or a worn out steering box.
 
ALtho it could be, I doubt it's the steering box. Swapped in a new Durango box a few years back & haven't driven it much since then. Track bar? Could be. But the bushings is still a good place to start & work up from there.
 
Mighty.Mighty_XJ said:
But the bushings is still a good place to start & work up from there.
Click to expand...


No, no it's not. It's good if you get a lot of body roll but wandering is from worn out tre's and track bar bushings. You're going to have quicker and cheaper success looking into those than just replacing everything down a list.
unless that's your plan to just change out everything to new then go at it and start at the sway bar.
 
Geeeez, if a guy wants to replace a part just because it is worn out, let him! It sounds like he'll be replacing a bunch of worn out parts. :)

My stock (rubber?) sway bar bushings are getting sloppy, so this thread has my interest.
 
Usually the biggest problem with worn bushings is from clunking. They won't affect wandering. Also the bushings aren't supposed to be too snug or tight, since the sway bar needs to rotate freely in order to work properly, so a little play is desirable. Greasable can work too I suppose, but I personally hate poly. No harm in beefing up your build though

Slop and wander is probably from something else, bad caster or toe-in usually. Also get a friend to turn the steering wheel back and forth while you watch for loose TREs.
 
VAhasnoWAVES said:
havent had a swaybar for years... side wind is an issue at highway speeds. wandering is not.
Click to expand...



X2 i as well pulled my sway bar as soon as i bought my jeep. Been running without it for years. Sway bars control body roll, not steering input. There are deffinately other places to start than the sway bar in this instance. It is deffinately not causing the problem you have.

First thing i do when i have issues in the front end is i have someone jump in the jeep. Start it up and put there foot on the break. Then cycle the steering wheel slowly between 9oclock and 6oclock. With their foot on the break the tires will put pressure on all the steering components even trackbar. Youll see what ever is worn at all the joints bushings and tres
 
Yes, this "guy" is a "she", lol! And yeah, the old sway bar bushings will be history after this weekend, regardless. They're really bad, been on the XJ for many years. However, I am taking careful note of all the wisdom posted in the thread. I ain't no front end guru, so this information is valuable. Come the weekend I'll be looking into all the other options before taking it to someone to fix. I know my limitations and TREs etc. are outside my abilities to handle.

Funny thing is, I just today picked up my Durango from getting new TREs, upper & lower balljoints & steering rack among other things. Even before the work, it handled way better than the XJ does, and none of those pre-fix symptoms duplicated the XJ's. Yeah, yeah I know it's a different system, not modified, blah, blah, but still, it never wandered.

GordoSmasho said:
... have someone jump in the jeep. Start it up and put there foot on the break. Then cycle the steering wheel slowly between 9oclock and 6oclock. With their foot on the break the tires will put pressure on all the steering components even trackbar. Youll see what ever is worn at all the joints bushings and tres
Click to expand...

This right here is particularly helpful. Gonna try that this weekend. Thanks guys. Me and the XJ are gonna bond again after virtually ignoring her for the last 4 years or so.
 
Ya don't let our answers scare ya. All we are trying to do it save time and money for ya. If you wanted to replace everything then starting at the sway bar is a great way but as you described. It'd be either the tre's, track bar, or possibly control arm bushings or simply a alignment fix. Which would happen anyway after replacing things like tre's
 
Also of note, the Durango may have an Independent Front Suspension of sorts whereas your XJ has a solid differential front end. WAY different in how they handle the road. My wives Liberty (KJ) feels like driving a sports car compared to my XJ due to the different suspension geometry on the road. :)
 
Yeah, my D got a cracked windshield & I decided to park it for a few days but even then I felt that there was something wrong in the front end. I ended up driving the XJ 90 miles daily to work for almost 2 weeks. I finally took it the D for service on Tuesday, got it back yesterday and driving it to work today after 2 weeks of XJing it is like pure heaven!!
 
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