To remove the sway bar or not to

[andrew_wale]

G'day All

A few weeks ago I had an issue with the Sway Bar link pin.
A few people suggested to remove the sway bar all together.

I am aware it will give the GV some more travel but what will it do on the open road and city driving ?

Does anyone have any suggestions ?

Andrew Wale
1999 V6 GV.

[cj!]

Andrew,

Just undo the swaybar ends from the wishbones and push it up out of the way. You may need to use a cable tie or two to keep it up. Then go for a drive and see if you are happy with the way it handles. Only you can decide what suits you.

[andrew_wale]

Sounds like a good idea to leave it.

i say your wasting your time, removing it. you've got lockers, just get used to wheels in the air.

Andrew Wale

[muppet_man67]

I think it depends on the car. Mitches jimmy tended to be a bit like a vitara in that the nose tended to stay down and work the rear suspension. Sierras with shorter wheelbases are more likely to lift wheels especially under torque which is why its a fairly popular mod. Sierra's are much nicer off road without the sway bar. It made a huge difference in my coiler, which are worse then leaf sprung for lifting front wheels.

[gwagensteve]

Sounds like a good idea to leave it.

i say your wasting your time, removing it. you've got lockers, just get used to wheels in the air.

Andrew Wale

I'm not sure of the context of the quote you pulled up from CJ there, you don't have a front locker, and would say that there will be a useful improvement in feel off road with the swaybar pulled.

Just disconnect it and go for a drive. it's a 10 minute job. Nobody can tell you whether you will like the feel of the car or not - it's entirely up to you. If you drove my Gwagen or Hedgepig, I can assure you would say they were both terrible to drive, but I am used to them and that's how I set them up so I know what I have created. You won't know if you don't try.

I have found that removing the sway bar on the cars I have owned has improved their feel on and off road. I like to feel the weight transfer to the outside wheel - it tells me how hard I am working the car. Swaybars only really mask what the car is naturally trying to do.

Steve.

[Phantomzook]

With the vitara's IFS is there any added stress to anything else by removing the bar?

[cj!]

That quote above is Mitch's, not mine. Not sure how that happened.

Daryl,

I have run with and without swaybars on both the swb and lwb. I found it had less effect on the swb on-road handling, in fact it was not that noticeable at all but I did notice it more on the lwb but it was still acceptable to me. As for off-road, well it does allow a bit more droop and obviously that increases the range that the CV moves through but it is acceptable in my view. It's so easy to try and then you can decide for yourself. Carol may not like the increase in body roll on the road so let her try it and see or you could just undo it for those trips that you want maximum travel in the front.

[sierrajim]

I removed the bars off my old car (SWB Vit) it didn't make a whole lot of difference to be honest. Sway bars off the GU Patrol and it was a different kettle of fish, massive difference to on road handling.

I wonder if its a wheel base or vehicle weight thing that makes the difference. Vit to GU is a big difference in both, however a SWB to LWB Vit there can't be a lot of weight difference.

[mightymouse]

Its so easy to do - and completely reversible that you have nothing to loose
by trying it. If you don't like it then put it back.

As Steve said, you may feel some more body roll on the road, but you get
used to the feel very quickly. I think the gains for an IFS system are perhaps
greater than for a live axle ?

I went through the same thought process with the Feroza and would not put
mine back on.