Sway Bar Rubbing Coilovers

[MENTION=66389]BlackWorksInc[/MENTION] I have mine off, for awhile now so it will be easy for comparisons.

I have the v6, are they the same for the v8? And mine measured approx. 46 3/8"
inside to inside.
 
BlackWorksInc said:
It's pretty damn centered, it's off by a mm or two towards the passenger's side (barely not touching on that side); but there's not much room there to begin with.

I've thought about a spacer, or even longer links; but I am not entirely sure if that will help. An alternative idea is to somehow spread the ends of the sway bar another 3~5 degrees as that would give me plenty of clearance; but I have no idea how I'd go about that...

I recall the Tacoma sway bars being a bit different and wider, but I don't have any take-offs laying around at work as far as I know...

View attachment 198187View attachment 198194

I was aware of this when the vehicle flexed a bit before I put the 35's on, but I hadn't thought about it for a long time. Now that I am running something like 4.5~5° Caster, it's probably taken up any remaining clearance I might have had. I'm not to keen on running without a sway bar, while the 700lbs springs on the OLW 2.5" suspension is well balanced for the vehicle set-up; the body roll was too annoying and at times unnerving with how aggressive I can drive sometimes.
Click to expand...

What coil overs are those?
 
[MENTION=135930]pliance04[/MENTION]

Well the fix is the relocation bracket that Overland Warehouse included in their lift kit (Radflo sells it as well) which pushes the sway bar further forward to clear the coilovers. I have that installed, it's not so much a failing of the lift kit as it is an unfortunate consequence of the sway bar being very tight fitting on our vehicles.

Keep in mind I've had the kit installed for about 4yrs or so now and have recently gone from 33's to 35's and as a result I bumped my Caster up higher than I had before, that may contribute to the situation as well as the fact it seems the sway bar got pushed around a bit before with my 33's (The relocation kit does allow the sway bar to move side to side a bit more than the factory location does.)
 
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BlackWorksInc said:
So I chucked the bar up in a vise and used a giant pry bar to try and bend it out, I think I managed to get a total of 1/16" according to my tape measure. That should be enough for what I need, I hope. I also noticed one of the collars was loose so I tried to punch it tighter (doubt it will hold, but worth a shot). I then pushed the relocation brackets and sway bar brackets as far forward as I could after I centered the bar, seems to have given me a good amount of clearance for now; but time will tell.
[MENTION=88231]having fun[/MENTION]

Still would like the measurements on the Tacoma bar, it seems my 4th gen 4WD bar is just a hair over 46" from the inside edge of the sway bar link bracket to the other.
[MENTION=124121]dkyleb[/MENTION]
Click to expand...

I wanna say I bent the driver's side of mine outward so that it measured 47 and some fraction from outside face to outside face of the sway bar link tab ends. Don't think I could have opened it up that far without heating it though. Fingers crossed, it still isn't broken yet. Haha
 
Pardon me if this sounds too primitive, but if your original concern was simply clearance, why not hit the SB with a grinder. The wall thickness looks to be plenty enough to handle a little shave. Just keep taking a little bit out until it quits squeaking.
 
CAMELPRO said:
Pardon me if this sounds too primitive, but if your original concern was simply clearance, why not hit the SB with a grinder. The wall thickness looks to be plenty enough to handle a little shave. Just keep taking a little bit out until it quits squeaking.
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This was going to be my alternate path. The area of the bar where it typically contacts coil-overs is not one which undergoes tremendous amounts of torsional stress. I'd go so far as to say you could easily grind away 1/8" on that inner surface without causing problems. Possibly even more.

The sway bar doesn't need very much clearance to avoid contact with the coil-overs. It took me a few times looking at it to realize the obvious; that the way the linkages are set up, the end of the sway bar moves in an almost identical path (direction and rate) as both the lower control arm, and the lower half of the coil-over. In other words, if clearance exists, it will exist by roughly the same amount through the entire path of suspension travel. Only exception to this would be if the entire sway bar somehow shifts laterally in its mounts, far enough to close the clearance gap at one side. This is what the retention collars on the bar are there to prevent.
 
In regards to grinding it, I thought about it... But then the bar now has about a 1/16-1/8" groove/scallop from where it's been scraping the spring so I didn't want to grind it too much more.
 
Hey Paul,
You can have my swaybar if you want it, is for a v6 though.
I wont ever use it... if you want to bend or cut on it, its all you.
Hit me up if you want it.
 
BackOff said:
Hey Paul,
You can have my swaybar if you want it, is for a v6 though.
I wont ever use it... if you want to bend or cut on it, its all you.
Hit me up if you want it.
Click to expand...

I may take you up on that offer in the near future. I think I will get a set of sway bar collars that someone on the T120 forums mentioned and see if that keeps it centered.
 
[MENTION=66389]BlackWorksInc[/MENTION] so here's the deal. Only 1 guy had his SB still on, bad news is he wasn't letting me remove it. So he had his skid off and I did the best I could at eyeballing the measurements. The stopper ring for the bushing area is .5" wider than mine v6.

Ruff measurement I can see is 47.75", which is 1 3/8" +/- wider. Might want to find one and do a better comparison.



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@HavingFun

Thanks, that's what I was getting with a tape measure when I was eyeballing it as well. Hopefully we'll have a Tacoma that has some work where the bar has to come off and I can take a quick measure in the near future.
 
Any further updates on this problem? I recently replaced my sway bar end links and this problems reared its head--my sway bar is ever so slightly rubbing on my shocks (2.5 Radflos also).

I'm about ready to bend / hammer / grind to get clearance. The squeaking is driving me crazy.
 
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