Sway Bar Interference problem.

Hey Everyone,

My former sway bar setup was a cut and re-welded stock bar hooked to the POS RE gen I discos. It worked OK but they way it all hooked up my tires hit it pretty bad. Also the gen I discos sucked, rattled, and were a PITA to hook back up.(previous owner setup, nice quality work but not functional enough for me)

So after going without a sway bar for almost a year I got some JKS Discos for 6" lift(which I have) and a stock sway bar. The JKS stuff is a nice product for sure, works 400x better than the RE stuff. Now however I have a problem. My swaybar hits my bumper brackets and one of the bolts. Looking at the pic below would it be OK to use some JKS discos for a 4" lift maybe? I think that would bring the bar down enough to keep it from getting into the bumper brackers on hard bumps and the bar will still not hit the springs.

And yes my bumper brackets are a little hardcore but they, if it comes off it will have pieces of jeep attached to it LOL. If it wasn't for the large bolt I could shave down the brackets. The bolt however is the biggest part of the problem. It sounds like the whole front axle falls out when the bar hits the bolt lol.



Also I am not sure how stock my axle side sway bar brackets are. They don't look the same as some others I have seen but I have the only 97+ jeep in my group of XJ buddies. The jeep was lifted when I bought it but that was it, the gen I discos were even bolted together. Everything else is my doing.

They seem to be aftermarket swaybar brackets.

I believe if you got rid of the SB drop bracket it may help you a little bit...

Could you not replace that huge bolt with a different one? Could you not grind half of the bolt head away?

It would take more than half. That huge ass bolt fills a huge hole in the frame and in that bracket. I could go to a smaller bolt but then I would need some kind of bushing to go around it or it would do no good.

The sway bar drop brackets keep the bar out of the springs and they would just change the pivot point and nothing else.

I really think I just need to buy another set of discos but I wanted some other opinions . Keep them coming.

Not sure how much help this will be but the axle end sway bar links on my stock 99' look just like the ones on my 95'. I don't know how far forwards the RE drop bracket moves the swaybar forwards, but at stock the point where your quick disco connects to the swaybar is almost at the same point as the top/front track bar bolt (swaybar end being a little lower and a little more forward) Dont know if its the picture but your setup looks way off-if that even makes sense.

Also, how far into the swaybars arc of travel is the end (close to the spring)? if its at the top, a 4" disco, will move the end closer to the spring as it will move the connecting point towards the ground, possibly cousing more problems.

The disco's arent the problem. If they are for a 6" lift and you have a 6" lift then you don't need the drop brackets. The front of the swaybar shouldn't be pointed at the ground. I would say if you like the function of the disco's then keep those.
Try it with the brackets removed and let us know if it is too far pushed back and hits your springs.

On the flip side(not accounting for ground clearance and things of that nature).If you put on a 3" lift and 3" drop brackets,everything would still be relative to itself,except the distance the the framerail.Shorten the links!!Also are you bumped stopped correctly,all these things come under 'fine" tuning!

88xjlover said:

The disco's arent the problem. If they are for a 6" lift and you have a 6" lift then you don't need the drop brackets. The front of the swaybar shouldn't be pointed at the ground. I would say if you like the function of the disco's then keep those.
Try it with the brackets removed and let us know if it is too far pushed back and hits your springs.

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I had the same problem, But with 2.5" lift & standard swaybar/links, My swaybar was hitting the large frame tie-in bolt on my Nates front bumper.
I thought about grinding down the bolt head but when I measured how much metal needed to be removed I ruled it out because I did not want to weaken it. I searched for a bolt with a thinner head but could not locate one.
I used the RE drop brackets (like the ones installed in your photo) to bring the bar down out of contact with the bolt. Problem solved!

With the sway bar drop bracket installed you do not need Discos for 6" of lift, If you remove the drop bracket the sway bar will still contact the frame tie in bolt!
The previous owner probably installed the drop bracket to cure the bolt contacting the sway bar in the first place! Because you installed the 6" Discos Your swaybar is tilted back up high in the rear allowing it to contact the bolt.
If I were you I would ditch the 6" Discos & install the Discos for 3" of lift dropping the sway bar 3" giving it the necessary clearence from the bolt.

good luck!

I didn't even consider the sway bar drop brackets when I ordered the 6" discos. Its an RE 5.5 ED lift so it came with the SB drop brackets and the bar will hit the springs without them, but it won't/can't with them.

I don't know why the PO modified the original bar. I was the one who built that bumper.

So....anyone with 3" JKS quicker discos need 6" discos? These only have like 1000 miles on them