Rear Sway Bar

[Kirby]

I installed the ride-rites on my '84 rader and them took it to the Oregon coast for a long weekend. I think I do need the rear sway bar, currently only have a stock front bar. I think this one will work but not sure

http://www.truckspri...-rear-7539.html

Any other suggestions. I have the 1 ton rear axle and know the sway bar is NOT interchangable with the 1/2 ton rear. Two week countdown until my wife's spring break where we will be desert hotspringing in the sunrader for a week. Want to get things dialed in before then.

Thanks.

[Allen]

Hi Kirby,

I have been trying to find a rear sway bar for my 85 Sunrader also. It too has the Ride-Rites.

Anyway, here are pictures and instructions for the Hellwig #7539 rear sway bar for reference: http://neverenoughauto.com/images/detailed/7539.jpg

and http://neverenoughauto.com/images/detailed/Hellwig-7539-Instructionsjpeg.jpg. Unfortunately, http://neverenoughauto.com/ appears to be having issues with their website tonight. This rear sway bar will not work as delivered, since it is only made for a 3" rear axle housing, ours are about 4". You will have to fabricate something and/or weld to the rear axle housing to make it work. The factory sway bar axle mounts are too far apart to work.

Addco also makes a rear sway bar which I did buy, #382, from neverenoughauto.com via eBay. Unfortunately, it did not work for various reasons: custom exhaust in way, 3" axle housing, and not enough clearance to mount on upper passenger shock bolt. Note: I brought this bar first (prior to me knowing about the 3" axle limitation), since it was about $70 less. Fortunately, it fit just fine on my 85 Toyota pickup (and it made a huge difference!). If I bought the Hellwig first, then I would of made it work!

If anyone has the factory Toyota part numbers for the rear sway bar and mounts, that would be greatly appreciated. I called the local Toyota dealer, and he could not find anything on this.

Thanks,

AllenL

Edited March 9, 2010 by Allen

[Kirby]

Allen

Thanks for the information. I've got some more info after a morning of dead-end phone calls and google searches.

Hellwig does not support the 1 ton rear ends. The #7439 will not fit. They used to make one for the 1 ton but the tooling is no longer around.

Found a 1992 1-ton box truck in Portland. They will not sell the sway bar seperately. But...all the parts for a conversion are in stock right now: axle, wheels, shocks, springs, sway bar, etc. They want $1000 if anyone is looking.

Although they would not sell the bar, they did give me the VIN which is valuable info when part hunting. So here it is: JT5VN94T4N0028967, 1992 toyo 1-ton box truck.

I used this VIN to call the local dealership and like magic, they found the exact parts! There are 4 available sway bars in the country (3 now) for this truck. The bar and associated parts is $253 wholesale, about $370 retail. I've got mine on order and will know in a week or so if it fits. I can post part numbers when I receive them.

Hope this is helpful.

Kirby

[Allen]

Hi Kirby,

Like you said, the VIN did the trick! There are now only 2 bars left in the country! Regarding the associated parts, they did not have the 2 metal U brackets that bolts onto the rear axle housing and holds the sway bar; however, I can get that on the after-market and in polyurethane. The only downside I see is that worst-case I might have to make my own upper brackets to bolt the end-links to, but that should not be that hard (will follow something like the Hellwig bar). Hopefully, it is just a mater of drilling a couple holes in the frame. For everyone's reference, attached is the Toyota illustration of the rear sway bar and the associated part numbers. Does anyone have a picture of where/how the end-links attach to the frame?

Thanks,

AllenL

[Kirby]

The sway bar is installed! I received all the factory Toyota parts except some bolts and the mounts on the chassis. I had to weld a steel plate for a new shock mount and make some brackets made out of 4"x4" steel tubing for the sway bar arms. I think the angles and dimensions are right, it just looks a bit more frankenstein than factory. Here are some pics of the completed install. So far the suspension upgrades are: salvaged 1-ton axle, new shocks, new steering stabilizer, rite-rite airbags, 6 yokohama tires, and the sway bar. I hope not to be under the rig for a while.

We are off to the eastern Oregon desert for a spring break hot springs camping journey. This will be the Rader's longest trip. I have total confidence in the rig; hopefully she has total confidence in me.

Allan- I have pics of the factory setup from an '88 1 ton sunrader. I'll post them later, they are on another camera. Let me know if you have any questions on your install.

[Allen]

Hi Kirby,

Nice install! So did it make a big improvement? Also, how was your trip to eastern Oregon?

I looked under our rig this past weekend. It appears that I will have to put spacers under the sway bar mounts, so not to interfere with the ride-rite hardware. Instead of "U" bolts that go around the axle, there are "U" brackets and screws that hold the ride-rites. This bracket will interfere with the sway bar, unless maybe a 1/2" spacer is install underneath the sway bar mounts.

In addition, it appears that the end-links can be mounted to where the spare tire cross member is welded to the frame. I believe that it is just a matter of drilling a couple of holes through them.

I would be very interested in the pictures of the factory 1988 Sunrader rear sway bar setup, when you get a chance to post them.

Thanks,

AllenL

[Allen]

Attached are pictures of the rear swaybar installation on our 85 Sunrader.  Below are some comments that goes along with the pictures regarding the installation.  Note: This frame is slightly different than Kirby's 84 Sunrader (1 model year different).  

1) Picture 1: Only had to drill a 5/8" hole in the front support cross-member for the spare tire on both sides.  Note: I used some polyurethane bushings and heavy duty Energy Suspense bushing washers instead of what came with the end-link set from Toyota, I felt the rubber bushing that Toyota supplied were too compliant. 

2) Picture 2: Put a 1/2" aluminum spacer under the sway bar frame bushing support bracket.  This is to allow clearance with the Ride-Rite air spring hardware.  Note: Since Toyota did not have either the bracket or bushing available (when I ordered the bar), I used the brackets and bushings from my 65 Oldsmobile Starfire (previously upgraded to polyurethane).

3) Picture 3: An overall picture of the rear swaybar installation.  Note: This picture also show what happens when one fills the transmission (automatic) to the top of the cold indicator on the dip stick (when cold, after idling for a couple of minutes), it overfills the transmission when hot and it leaks out.  The next time I check it, it will be only to the bottom of the cold indicator (if cold) or hot (within the hot levels)!