Crayz thought - Electronic Disconnecting Sway Bar
 

Out of curiosity has any one ever thought about, tried to or adapted the Rubicon Electronic Sway Bar Disconnect to a 4runner?

You can find them on ebay for a reasonable price (less than KDSS). Probably can shop around and get them for 1/2 that.
2007-18 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Electronic Disconnect Front Sway Bar #52121753AH | eBay

The innards of the assembly are pretty simple (Youtube). Two splines on each end of the sway bar pieces slide into a matching splined sleeve.The sleeve is moved to disengaged both sway bar ends by a fork activated by a plunger. The plunger is driven by a motor.

To disengage the motor releases the plunger and a return spring to pushes the fork, and sleeve, back into place when the splines align.

The motor can be worked around with some air or a screw, or rewired. There are kits for for air or screws. Rewiring seems a bit more work.

I suspect the splines in the middle are press fit on to the sway bar ends. It has to be two pieces otherwise they couldn't get the aluminum housing around it. It's unlikely to be welded to the splines because it would loose it heat treat and temper. So "I think" it might be removed with a bit of mild heat and a press.

The worst case is cut the Rubicon sway bar ends remove it from the housing. Then mill out the interior of the spline to slightly smaller than your sway bar. Heat the spline and press fit. Pinning it would help too.

The trick is to get a custom 2-piece sway bar that would fit the splines. Then heat and reattach the splines and install.

Yeah I know easier said than done, but someone somewhere must have at least thought about it.

Its an interesting idea but the reliability of the sway bar disconnect seems concerning. Several JL folks have complained about the system failing after a mud run.

Agreed, it’s one of the tons of Jeep features nowadays that don’t hold up to the intended use of a Jeep. I’m also a firm believer that any Jeep with more than 2 doors isn’t a Jeep, but I digress. I like the simplicity and reliability of KDSS.

It seems there are a lot of KDSS systems going belly up. And I'm not sure how much you get from the front. The rear seems to be the biggest babng for the buck.

Buddy has a dodge ram power wagon... the disconnect failed to reconnect after the 2 or 3rd use. He doesnt off road, but he was dragging his trailer across a field that was uneven.

Wasnt muddy. But it wasnt able to reconnect. When he got home he got it back in manually.

Said it was like driving a tip heavy boat on the way home. I told hin it was a dodge.

Never used it again.

I'd rather have KDSS and get a custom sway set made with small diameter bars - same as the regular non-kdss sway bar set. Could be the best of both worlds.

Jeep actually tried to build a KDSS system - but couldn't ever make it work.

This

Also FWIW - the dog clutch mechanism in the jeep setup seems to have a ton of failures. It's just not a good design. If you wanted to modify an OEM swaybar setup, I'd go for one of the BMW active sway bars. It uses a hydraulic motor internally to actively twist the sway bar. But you could pretty easily re-design the system in a way that the hydraulics are a close circuit with a solenoid. When closed, no fluid flows and it's a fixed sway bar. When open - fluid can freely flow side to side and it's just like a disconnected sway bar. The big benefit is that it would be a lot more reliable design using a servo in a hydraulic hose rather than an electronic slide collar on a dog clutch that has to perfectly align before locking in to place.


The part I don't know about the BMW version is cycle speed and thermal capacity. - I'm guessing if you cycle it a lot rapidly it'll overheat, so you'd still need a speed or fluid flow rate sensitive closure to keep it from overheating, or see if you can use a combination of very light weight fluid and large diameter hoses and fittings to keep friction low.

Just my .02. That's how I'd do it.

Generally people are saying that the Jeep design is crap for reliability. This would concur with the number of video of people fixing them. I suspect the offset from the actuator plunger to the sleeve can jam up. I might be a better design with a pivoting fork (like a clutch fork) rather than a sliding one.

I didn't know about BMW version and I can't find much info on it. Other than it twists the outside wheel down to level the car. We would need to reverse the sensor, no big deal but it should work.

How reliable are the Germans?

German one uses a pump and a lot of electronics to forcibly move it. I would not do any of that. I would simply use the mechanism on the sway bar with a closed circuit of fluid and a valve in the middle. When the valve is closed, the twisting mechanism internally is locked in place = fixed bar. When the valve is open, the twisting mechanism is free to wist without resistance and it becomes a disconnected sway bar.

I don't think the BMW system is particularly reliable. It's a BMW system... but the sway bar hydraulic part might be okay on its own. And they're dirt cheap.

I wonder if there would be any way to prevent vertical movement if your mechanism was at the link, instead of on the sway bar shaft. I'm thinking like a locked-up ball screw, but could then be freed up and allow vertical travel? If that makes sense..

Not an electronic solution, but what about installing something like the Currie antirock?

Interesting to hear folks complain about the Rubicon disconnect to me. I used mine in my 2012 JKU pretty much any time I was offroad (or even on dirt roads quite frankly to minimize bump steer if I was keeping below about 30 mph), and I never had any issues getting it to disconnect and reconnect in 84000 miles.

Oh well... Maybe the JL is not as reliable?

Why not just get out and disconnect the swaybar yourself like real Jeeps used to do? No need to add a faulty part to a reliable vehicle.

if you disconnect the stock one I guess it moves around and can destroy your CV boots.

There has been some specially made endlinks that all you to disconnect on the fly but I guess they are noisy when disconnected so they are not that popular.

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this post claims that disconnecting the swaybar for IFS doesnt do much anyhow

https://www.toyota-4runner.org/1358631-post15.html

Here's an idea.

Replace the KDSS cylinders with magnaride shocks. Yeah, the ones GM makes that are able to vary their compression and rebound on the fly thousands of times a second.

As the computer senses speed and roll, they can stiffen or loosen the sway bar as needed to either provide roll stiffness or articulation. And be variable for any speed or road condition.

On the freeway or on a windy road? The shocks are stiff to provide a stiff sway bar.

Going slow and need max articulation? The shocks go full soft to allow more movement.

I'm not sure what the actual specs are on those magnaride shocks, but its always been an idea of mine.