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magical trackbar destroyer

Archdukeferdinand

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Boone, NC
Alright, since I've lifted my jeep last year I've had problems with the trackbar. This may be a case where I'm making things more difficult than they have to be.

I'm lifted 3.5" in front and I keep blowing trackbars. I've been through 2 stock bars and now the RE trackbar I put on a month or two ago has done my frame side bracket in. I'm on 31s and the heep sees some highspeed gravel road runs, some minor trail crawling.


is it likely that some other form of adjustment has been neglected and that's what's causing the undue stress on the track bars (they always die at the TRE side, or in the latest case, the heim joint wallowed the frame bracket out).

OR is the fact that I run no swaybars the cause? I can't really see that anything else in the front end is reponsible for keeping the axle laterally centered (other than the control arms loosely). That seems like a lot of stress for a relatively small link to undergo all the time. I really like the feel of no swaybars, but $500 in swaybars in the last 6 months has me convinced to try other things.


I'd put my front sway bar back on to see if that helped, but I threw it away. (Yeah, I'm an idiot). Anyone else trashed a bunch of trackbars?
 
Definately not uncommon for a stocker,and not real uncommon with the RE 1600 bar.Get a good trackbar and bracket like RE1660 or TNT's.My 1660 is almost 7 years old with Zero issues(6" and mostly off-road only).
 
Just installed K.O.R. trackbar and really like it so far, I haven't installed the extra hard (60d) poly bushings yet. Feels solid, now I look for pot holes and giggle with no worries of wobble.
 
I appreciate the replies, but my question hasn't really been addressed.

To put it simply:

DOES RUNNING WITHOUT SWAYBARS CONTRIBUTE TO A DECREASE IN THE LIFESPAN OF YOUR TRACKBAR?


At 3 trackbars in the past 6 months, I'd say it's painfully obvious to me that failing trackbars are common in XJs.

as far as I can tell the only difference between the RE 1600 trackbar and the HD trackbar is the heim joint vs super flex joint (held them in my hands side by side when purchasing and the dude at our local 4x4 shop said that was the case). My heim joint isn't blown out, so I don't think I need to switch to the HD.

Before I buy the RE bracket, I want to know on a DD if going back to the front swaybar will aid in the longevity of my trackbars.




IF YOU'RE GOING TO SUGGEST A TRACK BAR SETUP THAT YOU'VE USED, PLEASE TELL ME WHETHER OR NOT YOU HAD YOUR FRONT ANTI-SWAY BAR CONNECTED.
 
TNT, Lifetime warranty on the bracket.
This thing is pretty stout.
TNT is also a NAXJA sponsor, click the banner.




My swaybar is connected while on road.
Disco'd while offroad.
 
I think the lack of a swaybar would cause the track bar to do more work. You are going to get more body roll which will put more load on the rest of your front end components. I run a swaybar on the street and do not have trackbar issues. 4.5" lift.
 
TomH said:
I think the lack of a swaybar would cause the track bar to do more work. You are going to get more body roll which will put more load on the rest of your front end components. I run a swaybar on the street and do not have trackbar issues. 4.5" lift.


Yeah, that's what I was thinking, it's gotta make the track bar work harder. Mine's long since been thrown away though. I don't mind the body roll and rarely get above 50 mph living in the mountains.

The TNT thing is interesting, I love me some lifetime warranties...

Thanks for the replies.
 
i definately fail to see how not running a swaybar leads to premature tracbar failure.

perhaps if your running poly or rubber bushings in your control arms those will see a wee bit more stress. But How can heim joints, cartridge joints or rubber bushings in the trackbar wear quicker. The joint will just move around the bolt, no funky angles or anything. The only thing i can think of leading to premature wear is not having your tracbar adjusted properly leading to a binding suspension.

With that said Ive run no swaybars with the stock trackbar for about 6 months and for another 8 months ive run the tnt customs.
 
I have had no sways on my xj for three years now and have not had a problem with trackbar. My only thought is after some hard wheelen I would make sure to get under there and make sure everything is nice and tight. I have hand bolts hand turn loose before and let the bracket and bar move. My jeep is a trail rig now, but for the past 2 it was a DD.
 
Archdukeferdinand said:
I appreciate the replies, but my question hasn't really been addressed.

To put it simply:

DOES RUNNING WITHOUT SWAYBARS CONTRIBUTE TO A DECREASE IN THE LIFESPAN OF YOUR TRACKBAR?


At 3 trackbars in the past 6 months, I'd say it's painfully obvious to me that failing trackbars are common in XJs.


Before I buy the RE bracket, I want to know on a DD if going back to the front swaybar will aid in the longevity of my trackbars.

IF YOU'RE GOING TO SUGGEST A TRACK BAR SETUP THAT YOU'VE USED, PLEASE TELL ME WHETHER OR NOT YOU HAD YOUR FRONT ANTI-SWAY BAR CONNECTED.

I would say, no. Not unless you sway like a hay wagon ;)

Track bar issues are not that common. I run a stock swaybar at 4" lft with the stock track bar brackets, the Jeep gets off-road every month or more, and I am generally not real kind to it when I am. Sometimes I put the swaybar links back on, but most of the time, it's not hooked up (PITA RE links :D ). In the last 4 years, I replaced my trackbar once, and it was the OEM bar at 150K miles (It now has 185K miles). I lube the ball end every trip off-road and check the bolt end every once in a while. I did relieve the axle side bracket when I did the lift and moved the hole slightly inboard. The bracket, in stock form, stops upward movement of the track bar, you just cut a little bit off the top so the bar can contunue it's upward movement (same with LCA mounts at the axle).

There is some part of this equation which seems missing. A pix of your front end may be of help.
 
I'd have to agree with Ron.
I've abused my stock trackbar at 3", the Mj is my DD, and it's seen it's fair share of use in the rocks and trails. I don't even know how many miles are on it, but I've put 20K on it in the last year.
Is it possible that your frame side bracket is loose, or there are cracks in the unibody, that would allow the bracket to flex, and might put some real odd loads on the joint that it wasn't meant to take.
Otherwise, I'd say you've got something else going on. A listing of what you've got in your front end. Perhaps some measurements of your tire to frame, so we know your axle is centered properly.
 
ktm racer 419 said:
i definately fail to see how not running a swaybar leads to premature tracbar failure.

perhaps if your running poly or rubber bushings in your control arms those will see a wee bit more stress. But How can heim joints, cartridge joints or rubber bushings in the trackbar wear quicker. The joint will just move around the bolt, no funky angles or anything. The only thing i can think of leading to premature wear is not having your tracbar adjusted properly leading to a binding suspension.

With that said Ive run no swaybars with the stock trackbar for about 6 months and for another 8 months ive run the tnt customs.

To picture how running swayless puts more stress on the track bar, instead of thinking of the track bar's range of motion in the individual sense,think of what links help keep the axle in place laterally after impacts or in bumps (not necessarily as their intended function). I don't think that it leads to premature track bar failure (never would have thrown away my anti-sways if I did), I was just trying to find out if somehow I'd missed something and it was common for lifted XJs before I went and got a new bracket. Most people I know run sways on the road and disco them for the trail. I don't mind the body roll and like the bump compliance that comes from having no anti-sway up front.

As for how they've failed, the 2 stockers died at the TRE, the bolt for the heim joint on my RE track bar wallowed out the stock bracket on the frame side. The heim joint is still good, and I was expecting the bracket to fail considering it took me all of 1 minute to drill it out to fit the heim, it just happened quickly enough that I know it wasn't just because the bracket's made out of soft folded sheetmetal.


I'm pretty sure it's an issue of adjustment for me though, and with the play I have now I can't really get any better than it is. I'm just gonna order that TNT bracket, get a superflex end from RE so I don't have to drill out the TNT bracket and then I'll have the track bar adjusted at my local shop. If that doesn't fix it I'll resurrect this thread.

The biggest thing for me was identifying where to put my energy. It's driveable now, so if tons of people had said they'd blown trackbars by going without sways I was going to work on getting a new antisway for the front rather than fixing the trackbar problem right away.

Thanks for all the responses.
 
Archdukeferdinand said:
As for how they've failed, the 2 stockers died at the TRE, the bolt for the heim joint on my RE track bar wallowed out the stock bracket on the frame side. The heim joint is still good, and I was expecting the bracket to fail considering it took me all of 1 minute to drill it out to fit the heim, it just happened quickly enough that I know it wasn't just because the bracket's made out of soft folded sheetmetal.
.
The problem sounds like the original TREs were being fitted to a wallowed out hole and would fail due to movement. It was probably screwed up before you changed to the RE1600, especially if you didn't have much material to drill out.

And the heim on your RE1600 trackbar doesn't work as well as it's designed when in single shear using the factory bracket, which is likely not fitting that bolt well either.

Order the RE bracket and be done with it. I've got a zillion miles on my RE1600 with the correct bracket putting the heim in double shear and it works great, with or without a swaybar.
 
John90XJ said:
The problem sounds like the original TREs were being fitted to a wallowed out hole and would fail due to movement. It was probably screwed up before you changed to the RE1600, especially if you didn't have much material to drill out.

And the heim on your RE1600 trackbar doesn't work as well as it's designed when in single shear using the factory bracket, which is likely not fitting that bolt well either.

Order the RE bracket and be done with it. I've got a zillion miles on my RE1600 with the correct bracket putting the heim in double shear and it works great, with or without a swaybar.


That's good to hear about the the RE bracket, I may get that instead of the TNT. I like the lifetime warranty on the TNT though.

As far as the bracket, it was not blown out amazingly enough. Had to use a pickle fork to get out both stock bars, and I drilled out plenty of material- I just have the right tools at work so it only took me a minute. It fit quite snugly on the heim bolt when I installed it, it now has 1/8-1/4" of play in it with the locknut at factory torque.
 
I've put on over 100k miles on 2 heims and wheeled it pretty hard and the trackbar itself has worked out great. Using the right bracket gives you more droop, longer joint life and less popping and clunking.

The RE bracket is very stout....no worries about warranty as it's built like a brick .... you get the idea.
 
John90XJ said:
I've put on over 100k miles on 2 heims and wheeled it pretty hard and the trackbar itself has worked out great. Using the right bracket gives you more droop, longer joint life and less popping and clunking.

The RE bracket is very stout....no worries about warranty as it's built like a brick .... you get the idea.

I was looking at the RE bracket today, how have people gotten them to fit heim joints? The one I saw looked pretty dedicated to superflex joints
 
Archdukeferdinand said:
I was looking at the RE bracket today, how have people gotten them to fit heim joints? The one I saw looked pretty dedicated to superflex joints

You run a pair of high misalignment spacers, one on each side of the heim, and you're good to go.

I had to drill the whole out to 5/8" to match my current heim joint size.

To my knowledge, no other changes were made to the bracket.
 
John90XJ said:
You run a pair of high misalignment spacers, one on each side of the heim, and you're good to go.

I had to drill the whole out to 5/8" to match my current heim joint size.

To my knowledge, no other changes were made to the bracket.

Well that's a lot cheaper/easier than any of the advice I've gotten on it. Sean at RE said to weld the hole in my factory bracket back over and redrill the hole... Drilling in weld sucks and so does the factory bracket so I'm not the least bit inclined to do that.

The other guy I spoke to at RE said that even if I could get the 1600 to fit the 1665 bracket, the 1600 track bar doesn't have the right "bend" because the bracket is a drop bracket in addition to being stouter. He suggested going to more lift and switching entire setups or going less and going back to stock...

The guy at my local 4x4 shop had the best idea which was to get some 5/8" stamped washers and weld them on either side of the factory bracket, which would certainly add strength, but not where I want to go.



I like the way you've gone with it, where would I find these "high misalignment spacers?" You just get these spacers and then run the heim bolt double-shear, through both sides of the bracket? I could see how that'd make the whole setup a LOT stouter.

thanks for the info, btw.
 
The bracket for the 1660 is "NOT" a drop bracket,it locates the bar exactly as stock!
 
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