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Rubicon swaybar not re-connecting.

Rcoe

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Did a bunch of wheeling this weekend and for the 2nd time now my swaybar will not reconnect. I drove it around putting it a different angle and rocked the Jepp but nothing. Last time I un bolted the drivers side and got it to reconnect and pulled the motor off but everything inside was greased and looked to be in perfect shape.

I have the metalcloak 3.5 GC lift with the very long 12.5" swaybar arms, the put the sway bar at a pretty good upwards angle. Could the added length be the reason it will not reconnect, or should I look else where?
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JTdiRtyD

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my guess is the end links are causing it. It's probably detecting the swaybar is clocked at too high of an angle and thinks you're not on level ground.
 

ShadowsPapa

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Did a bunch of wheeling this weekend and for the 2nd time now my swaybar will not reconnect. I drove it around putting it a different angle and rocked the Jepp but nothing. Last time I un bolted the drivers side and got it to reconnect and pulled the motor off but everything inside was greased and looked to be in perfect shape.

I have the metalcloak 3.5 GC lift with the very long 12.5" swaybar arms, the put the sway bar at a pretty good upwards angle. Could the added length be the reason it will not reconnect, or should I look else where?
Why the upward angle, I'd think you'd want it "level" or parallel to the ground.
I suspect that's it.

OOps, I see another (Wes) has beat me to it!
 
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Rcoe

Rcoe

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Why the upward angle, I'd think you'd want it "level" or parallel to the ground.
I suspect that's it.
I asked metalcloak and they said longer arms are needed for more downward flex.
 

ShadowsPapa

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I would think it would not matter with a sway bar disconnect or another thought - won't it limit how far that end could flex up?
 

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Why the upward angle, I'd think you'd want it "level" or parallel to the ground.
I suspect that's it.

OOps, I see another (Wes) has beat me to it!
The reason they put the arm at an upward angle is so the end links don’t flip when fully flexed out. It was common for JKs rubicons to flip when disconnected.
 

Stan H

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I asked metalcloak and they said longer arms are needed for more downward flex.
I wondered the same thing with my lift and was told in a heavily flexed position the sway bar is still able to apply pressure. But Im like you for most of my serious flxing at slow speed I disconnect the sway bar . But the longer the front springs the links have to be longer. That part makes sense.
 

MaximusTX

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For everyone saying the swaybar has to be level to lock I don't think that is necessarily accurate as mine is definitely not level and has no issues locking and unlocking. This is what mine sits at on level ground locked. It is on the list of things to get fixed but for now it seems to work fine and I have had no issues with it.

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Jeep Gladiator Rubicon swaybar not re-connecting. 1761657665608-x3
 

fourfa

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I had this issue once - turned out, one of the ends (driver upper in my case) had lost its nut and was completely loose and floating around. Those particular adjustable front endlinks (Clayton) were very hard to get properly torqued and the nuts were constantly wandering off. Pretty obvious visually, so presumably the OP would have noticed - but worth mentioning
 

ShadowsPapa

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I wondered the same thing with my lift and was told in a heavily flexed position the sway bar is still able to apply pressure. But Im like you for most of my serious flxing at slow speed I disconnect the sway bar . But the longer the front springs the links have to be longer. That part makes sense.
On the flip side, your truck sits higher on those springs - so you have gained height. With the tires now sitting 3" below the fender flares, you also have to allow for that tire to be shoved UP when the other side goes down.
If you give all that length to let the other side droop, doesn't that length prevent the other end of the axle from moving up because the link is so long it holds that end down?
Think about it - extra long links means you can't shove that end up as high, and it's already sitting down farther from the body/chassis from the lift.
 

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Stan H

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On the flip side, your truck sits higher on those springs - so you have gained height. With the tires now sitting 3" below the fender flares, you also have to allow for that tire to be shoved UP when the other side goes down.
If you give all that length to let the other side droop, doesn't that length prevent the other end of the axle from moving up because the link is so long it holds that end down?
Think about it - extra long links means you can't shove that end up as high, and it's already sitting down farther from the body/chassis from the lift.
Good point 👉
 
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Rcoe

Rcoe

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Dug into it last night and the arm length has nothing to do with it. Seems like the motor in the disconnect is not allowing it to re-engage. Will have to dig more into this weekend to see why and what needs to be done to fix it.
 

ShadowsPapa

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Dug into it last night and the arm length has nothing to do with it. Seems like the motor in the disconnect is not allowing it to re-engage. Will have to dig more into this weekend to see why and what needs to be done to fix it.
The motor only disconnects it. Once the magnet let's loose of it when power is off, it's just spring pressure against the motor pushing it back to engaged.
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