Lug nutz and an idea

[brushogger]

I haven't had the wheels off my truck since it's purchase and today I decided to pull them and look at the
brakes. WOW. It's a good thing I haven't had a flat because I'd have never gotten the lugs off without my shop tools. After removing them I spent some time spraying them with PB and brass brushing the corrosion off. Here is the before pic. I know it doesn't look that bad but I had to stand on a 2 foot breaker with a 2 foot cheater to get them loose.

 

[brushogger]

Here us the after. I also used a 12 ga brass bore brush soaked with PB to clean out the lug holes in the wheels. I then put a very light coat of spray lithium grease on the lugs and wiped off the excess. I think this will go a long way towards preventing the swollen lug syndrome i've read about. Things went back together smoooooooth. I also hit all the nuts and bolts with the PB that potentially I will be removing as I start the build. This truck is low mileage and has had very little exposure to salt also. I can only imagine what you guys up north deal with.

Now the idea. I was looking at the front swaybar considering how I want to build the disconnects. I noticed there are collars near the bushings to keep the bar from moving side to side. I wondered if I could carefully rosette weld a couple of pieces of 1/4" key stock along the top and bottom of the bar and then cut it in two. I'd then have a sliding collar about 4" long machined with key ways to interface with the keystock welded to the swaybar. It would have to be long enough to support both bar ends when disconnected. The sleeve could be held in locked or unlocked position with a couple of drilled holes and a captive tractor pin. The sleeve would slide back and forth to lock or unlock the swaybar. I hope this makes sense. I'll try to make a drawing and post it. Has anyone seen this before ? Carefully rosette welding the keystock would be the hardest part. Just rambling and thought if throw it into the pool and see what comes back.

 

[Antichrist]

Never-Seeze on the lugnuts.

I don't know if it's different for a DII but neither of my D1's have sway bars.

 

[brushogger]

I've read several posts about people removing the sway bars and not missing them. Especially if they have installed HD springs. High crosswinds are the only downside from what I understand. We get that from time to time here in Oklahoma. You know that old wind comes sweeping down the plains thing. Since this is also my dd I sometimes have to make a high speed manuever in rush hour traffic to avoid an accident. I can do things in my disco with complete confidence that would have rolled my old cj6. I guess I'll try it with the bars removed for a while just to see before taking this on. It made a huge difference off road with them diconnected.

 

[Antichrist]

High crosswinds are the only downside from what I understand. We get that from time to time here in Oklahoma. You know that old wind comes sweeping down the plains thing.

You mean nothing between The Rockies and the Mississippi River to stop the wind but barbed wire fences?

 

[Viggen]

No sways and crosswinds hit me but you get used to it and I wont ever, well, I dont think I can, put them back on. After a couple of hours in the seat, youll adjust and be fine with them not being there. Just upgrade your springs to stiffer ones.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Personally, I don't like driving the truck without swaybars, and I do have HD springs. YMMV. Some people will put up with more than I will I guess.

Your idea of welding keystock to the swaybar... yeah..... I don't think so. I'd think the weld is going to embrittle your swaybar.

 

[David Harris]

The problem with driving sans sway bars is the emergency response factor. Sure, in normal controlled driving you're probably fine as long as your not going too fast. However, if there comes a time when you have to make a quick maneuver to avoid something, you can go out of control much more easily without the sway bars.

 

[brushogger]

Personally, I don't like driving the truck without swaybars, and I do have HD springs. YMMV. Some people will put up with more than I will I guess.

Your idea of welding keystock to the swaybar... yeah..... I don't think so. I'd think the weld is going to embrittle your swaybar.

I've been thinking along the same lines. I'm now thing about doing it " in reverse". Having the key ways milled into the sway bar ends and having the "key" machined as part of the sleeve. I don't know if this would work either. I'm no metallurgist. That's why I'm putting this out to get more knowledgable opinions than mine. I'm completely open to any critique on this. It may be a completely stupid idea. I prefer to keep the bars for on road use though.

 

[Antichrist]

The problem with driving sans sway bars is the emergency response factor. Sure, in normal controlled driving you're probably fine as long as your not going too fast. However, if there comes a time when you have to make a quick maneuver to avoid something, you can go out of control much more easily without the sway bars.

Yeah, it really depends on where you drive and how you drive.
Personally speaking, in 12 years of driving in Atlanta traffic I've had to make an emergency maneuver maybe 2 or 3 times. But I'm constantly scanning the road ahead, behind and beside me for people out to kill me.
I also don't fiddle with the radio, talk on my cell, text, read books, eat bowls of cereal or any number of other things I see people around here doing.
The only severe swerve I've had to do was when a load of furniture fell off the back of a truck a short ways in front of me, and while it was sorta hairy, the Disco took it in stride.

All that said, yes, there are more than likely places where the anti-roll bars could mean the difference between rolling and not.
Luckily, in about 35 years of driving Land Rovers, I've only rolled once, and that was doing about 25mph (on-road) in my Lightweight. LOL

 

[TigerDan]

I've been thinking along the same lines. I'm now thing about doing it " in reverse". Having the key ways milled into the sway bar ends and having the "key" machined as part of the sleeve. I don't know if this would work either. I'm no metallurgist. That's why I'm putting this out to get more knowledgable opinions than mine. I'm completely open to any critique on this. It may be a completely stupid idea. I prefer to keep the bars for on road use though.

I kinda like the idea, but I think you'd have some problems keeping it in one piece once you've messed with the structural integrity of the metal. There are tons of torsional forces acting on that bar when it being stressed in a corner, and that would be a bad time to have it fail and possibly cause you to lose control.

Where I live it's nothing but twisty roads. I've had the sway bars clear off of my truck and while it's doable, I definitely like the feeling of control better with the bars in place. I think the best idea are the traditional end link disconnects. It's really easy to make your own (though I just haven't gotten around to it yet myself...)

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I've been thinking along the same lines. I'm now thing about doing it " in reverse". Having the key ways milled into the sway bar ends and having the "key" machined as part of the sleeve. I don't know if this would work either. I'm no metallurgist. That's why I'm putting this out to get more knowledgable opinions than mine. I'm completely open to any critique on this. It may be a completely stupid idea. I prefer to keep the bars for on road use though.

Metalurgically it's better. I couldn't guess if you'd have a problem with stress cracking stemming from the keyway cut.

What is the reason you're considering this avenue instead of the tried and tested endlink disconnects?

 

[Antichrist]

There are tons of torsional forces acting on that bar when it being stressed in a corner, and that would be a bad time to have it fail and possibly cause you to lose control.

Yeah, I don't think I'd want to mess with the sway bars. There's a big difference between never having them on, and having one break when you're not used to driving without them.

 

[Cleand]

It really is not a big deal removing the sways. At first it may seem different, but your driving skills adapt to no sways. The best of both worlds may be no rear sway bar and keep the front.

 

[brushogger]

Metalurgically it's better. I couldn't guess if you'd have a problem with stress cracking stemming from the keyway cut.

What is the reason you're considering this avenue instead of the tried and tested endlink disconnects?

I saw the Lucky8 video from the UK where they were demonstrating the swaybar diaconnect that used a locking hub on one side to operate it. What was especially cool was it used a disco axle shaft for part of the sway bar system that that could be removed and used as a spare in a pinch. I haven't found it available here and I'm sure the price is high. I started thinking about this idea, and figured if I could make it operate smooth enough, I could eventually connect a small pneumatic cylinder to the sleeve and operate it without having to crawl under the truck.

I kinda like the idea, but I think you'd have some problems keeping it in one piece once you've messed with the structural integrity of the metal. There are tons of torsional forces acting on that bar when it being stressed in a corner, and that would be a bad time to have it fail and possibly cause you to lose control.

Yeah, I don't think I'd want to mess with the sway bars. There's a big difference between never having them on, and having one break when you're not used to driving without them.

Those are both very good points.