michaelcurran
New member
Hello all, I was in the market for sway bar quick disconnects for the front sway bar (I removed the rear one entirely), and it seems that no one makes a set for the Disco 1. I did find an old forum post from Aedo Fab in Illinois; but they seem to have since closed up shop & i was unable to contact them. So i decided to make my own even though I have zero fab experience but all of the parts were off the shelf items. I also made a system to retain the sway bar when its disconnected.
I did some measuring before disconnecting the sway bar & removing the hardware from end link to sway bar. I decided I wanted to use a cotter pin as my quick disconnect method, and found selectable length pins on McMaster Carr's website with the matching pins. I also spotted several holes within the wheel well that were about 10" apart for mounting the straps.
Hardware for Sway Bar Disconnect:
- Selectable Length Clevis Pin
- Hairpin Cotter Pin
- 1/2" Flat Washers from Lowes
- 1/2" x 2" Fender Washer from Lowes
Hardware for Retaining Strap
- PRP Fab 10" Limit Straps
- M5 Stainless Hex Cap screw
- #10 Stainless Flat Fender Washer
- M5 Stainless Square Snap in Nut
- 1/2" Stainless Hex Cap Screw
- 1/2" Stainless Flat Washer
- 1/2" Stainless Nylon Lock Nut
Sway Bar Disconnects
My plan to use the selectable length clevis pin seemed pretty good when I first measured the existing bolt inside the end link to sway bar, but once I removed it, I realized it had a large shoulder to fit snugly in the bushings on the end link. the clevis pin was much smaller than the hole in the bushings. My first thought was to take the original shoulder bolts & have a machine shop drill a hole in it for the cotter pin to slide into, and I might still do that at some point. My solution was to wrap the clevis pin in several layers of Gorilla Tape. This sounds pretty sketchy and I was just trying **** to see if it would work, and honestly it's very solid; i have done about 100 miles with this as the solution & everything seems perfectly fine.
The end of the clevis pin was pretty small so I used a 1/2" zinc washer & a fender washer to give it the largest surface area & strength; and then used two 1/2" washers at the end against the cotter pin to make it very tight when its installed.
Works great, easy & quick to disconnect & have done some miles on the road & it feels totally fine; don't hear any bad noises or anything; I have the original bolts that I can drill out if i fell this isnt holding up but we'll cross that bridge later
Sway Bar Disconnect with bushings on it
Sway bar disconnect apart with tape shoulder
Sway bar disconnect installed
Sway Bar Retaining Straps
When I was searching the internet for retaining straps, they all seemed to have a strap the looped around the end of the bar; which worked for those applications because the end of the bar had something on it or was large enough not to slip out; but I didn't think this would really work on the Disco. I stumbled upon Limit Straps for suspension components on UTVs and they seemed perfect.
I utilized some holes within the wheel well & on the frame to mount the straps for when in use & not. The 10" straps worked perfectly and seem heavy duty enough to last a long time.
I drilled out the top hole circled in red below to about 9/16" for a 1/2" stainless hardware & to match the 9/16" holes on the limit straps. Then used an M5 square insert snap-in nut which fit perfectly in the hole on the frame for when not in use; and 1/2" stainless hardware through the strap & the hole on the sway bar when in use. Seems to work very well but I have not yet done any wheeling with it yet.
Holes I decided to use about 10" apart
Hole drilled out to 9/16" & the insert in
Retaining strap in storage position
Retaining strap holding the sway bar out of the way
I did some measuring before disconnecting the sway bar & removing the hardware from end link to sway bar. I decided I wanted to use a cotter pin as my quick disconnect method, and found selectable length pins on McMaster Carr's website with the matching pins. I also spotted several holes within the wheel well that were about 10" apart for mounting the straps.
Hardware for Sway Bar Disconnect:
- Selectable Length Clevis Pin
- Hairpin Cotter Pin
- 1/2" Flat Washers from Lowes
- 1/2" x 2" Fender Washer from Lowes
Hardware for Retaining Strap
- PRP Fab 10" Limit Straps
- M5 Stainless Hex Cap screw
- #10 Stainless Flat Fender Washer
- M5 Stainless Square Snap in Nut
- 1/2" Stainless Hex Cap Screw
- 1/2" Stainless Flat Washer
- 1/2" Stainless Nylon Lock Nut
Sway Bar Disconnects
My plan to use the selectable length clevis pin seemed pretty good when I first measured the existing bolt inside the end link to sway bar, but once I removed it, I realized it had a large shoulder to fit snugly in the bushings on the end link. the clevis pin was much smaller than the hole in the bushings. My first thought was to take the original shoulder bolts & have a machine shop drill a hole in it for the cotter pin to slide into, and I might still do that at some point. My solution was to wrap the clevis pin in several layers of Gorilla Tape. This sounds pretty sketchy and I was just trying **** to see if it would work, and honestly it's very solid; i have done about 100 miles with this as the solution & everything seems perfectly fine.
The end of the clevis pin was pretty small so I used a 1/2" zinc washer & a fender washer to give it the largest surface area & strength; and then used two 1/2" washers at the end against the cotter pin to make it very tight when its installed.
Works great, easy & quick to disconnect & have done some miles on the road & it feels totally fine; don't hear any bad noises or anything; I have the original bolts that I can drill out if i fell this isnt holding up but we'll cross that bridge later
Sway Bar Disconnect with bushings on it
Sway bar disconnect apart with tape shoulder
Sway bar disconnect installed
Sway Bar Retaining Straps
When I was searching the internet for retaining straps, they all seemed to have a strap the looped around the end of the bar; which worked for those applications because the end of the bar had something on it or was large enough not to slip out; but I didn't think this would really work on the Disco. I stumbled upon Limit Straps for suspension components on UTVs and they seemed perfect.
I utilized some holes within the wheel well & on the frame to mount the straps for when in use & not. The 10" straps worked perfectly and seem heavy duty enough to last a long time.
I drilled out the top hole circled in red below to about 9/16" for a 1/2" stainless hardware & to match the 9/16" holes on the limit straps. Then used an M5 square insert snap-in nut which fit perfectly in the hole on the frame for when not in use; and 1/2" stainless hardware through the strap & the hole on the sway bar when in use. Seems to work very well but I have not yet done any wheeling with it yet.
Holes I decided to use about 10" apart
Hole drilled out to 9/16" & the insert in
Retaining strap in storage position
Retaining strap holding the sway bar out of the way