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Addcos? Who needs em? (Aaron's attempt at a suspension upgrade thread)

13K views 73 replies 10 participants last post by  01grand 
#1 ·
Well after many strong recommendations from fellow forum members (*cough TJXJWJ cough*) :D and a very nice gift from Santa I will be installing my front and rear addco sway bars this weekend, along with new end links and the energy suspension greasable bushings for the rear. I was thinking, its too bad the bushings don't come in green... :lol: :slapfight:
 
#3 · (Edited)
All these damn player haters hatin' on Green lol, I'm gonna have to change my sig to Red.

:D and a very nice gift from Santa I will be installing my front and rear addco sway bars this weekend, along with new end links and the energy suspension greasable bushings for the rear.
Man I wish Santa brought me Addco sway bars :(. How's Santa gonna fit CheapJeep's WK axles in his sleigh a few years down the road from now? lol
 
#4 ·
You will LOVE the transformation!

I only done the rear but the stocker is like a brake line next to the Addco. I was gutted all the paint/powedercoat came off after one Winter though.

I think I'm going for the Eibach front/rear kit when I eventually order the Eibach springs and Bilstein shocks. I like the red bars, look sexay! :D Although the Eibach rear is slightly thinner than the Addco.
 
#6 ·
Hurry the hell up! I gotta do this project and I can't read directions.I NEED PICS!!:D.Let me know what you think of the Energy setup over the Addco bushings.That's what I have too.
 
#8 ·
The energy bushings definitely are an improvement. They seemed to be made of a better material, and the ability to easily grease them is a plus.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Ok, here we go! Everything went well with the sway bars, but I discovered a few other problems along the way. My Dad helped me with the install, and provided the heated garage space. While this job could be done alone, it probably went a little faster and easier with 2 people.

We decided to start with the front bar, which meant taking off the skid plate first. Pretty straight forward, 4 bolts and some rust hold it in place. For fun here's a picture of what gets in my way every oil change... lol.



Heres the new front bar just out of the packaging. It is the same diameter as the OE one, but solid instead of hollow steel.



I didn't get any pics of the old bar coming out, but its pretty straight forward, 2 bolts on each bushing mount and 2 end link bolts. Here is the front one back in, I did put some grease in the bushings to help eliminate any squeaking as others have mentioned, but I did not tap them for zerk fittings.




Ok, the front bar is in, the skid plate goes back on, and on to the rear!

My Dad's first comment on seeing the rear bar was "wow why did they even bother with this?" There is definitely a huge difference in going to the Addco, bar, 9/16" hollow up to 1" solid steel. Here is a comparison picture:


No skid plate in the way back here, but I did replace the rear end links due to one having a bad bushing. The new ones I ordered from rock auto, they appear to be the same diameter as stock but they are noticeably heavier, so I think they must be solid instead of hollow. I also put on the energy suspension grease-able bushings, I'm not sure if they Addco supplied bushings would squeak but I heard they can and I didn't want to deal with that later. Here's a shot of the bar installed with new end links and bushings:


There's a little less clearance around the rear diff now, but the sway bar would probably have to come off anyway to do any major diff work.


Now, time for the test drive. Whoa! I could already feel the difference hitting the end of my Dad's driveway, which is kinda steep. Much less "sway" lol as you hit the street. I zoomed around a few off ramps, this thing definitely handles corner 700% better. I would recommend these bars to anyone who drives their Jeep on the road and likes to use the gas pedal during turns. This is a very easy mod to do as well, we only had to jack the vehicle up to remove the rear upper end link bolts, the rest we did on the ground.

Now, of course everything can't go perfectly, but other than the expected rusty hardware we only ran into one other problem. The Mevotech end links I bought for the rear, the bottom bushing sleeve wasn't big enough to fit the original bolt back through, but by a very small amount. We filed off some small burrs in the sleeves, cleaned up and smoothed out the bolt shank, and we were back in business. A little anti seize on the bolt and everything went back together perfectly. Gotta be careful with the stuff you buy online sometimes.

So, to answer the question in the thread title, EVERYBODY needs addco sway bars! IMO lol
 
#10 ·
Heres the new front bar just out of the packaging. It is the same diameter as the OE one, but solid instead of hollow steel
Thanks bud I didn't know that.I think you might have changed my mind about the front now.Gonna have to wait though,the mod budget is shot for a while.Another $250 gone from my life plus some quick disco's THANKS.That's one thing about the front skid,you never have to worry about the back side rusting:D
 
#9 ·
Now, for the problems we found. Many of you V8 owners living in the rust belt will recognize this, and mine appears too far gone to patch, I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and replace it:



:madder::madder::madder::madder::madder:
Yep, time for a new oil pan. Given that it has to come off anyway I might end up with a totally new exhaust system at the same time. Thanks Chrysler/Jeep/Mercedes for using unprotected sh!t steel on a critical engine component. Saddly my transmission pan isnt much better, but it does seem a little thicker, and doesn't require removing anything else to replace.

Also, on the way home I had the CEL come on, and noticed the tranny wasn't shifting right and not going to overdrive. Did the key dance, and got just P0700. So, not having a code reader that would talk to the TCM, I used my Superchips to restore the factory programming, and I still had the code. So, I pulled the battery for the night, hopefully resetting it. If it comes back I will have to find a shop on Monday to futher check it out, hopefully its a simple sensor and not a major problem. It did drive fine for the few miles back home, just no overdrive and it didn't seem to downshift all the time when stopping. :(
 
#12 ·
http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/we...tra-Premium_10004574-P_1270_R|GRPENGPAMS_____ and $79 shipped from Rock Auto I feel your pain brother,I really do.Don't touch it.Just take some fiberglass resin and coat it up real good to buy some time.They say it can be done without removing the exhaust but you just have to remove the track bar for clearance.Also if your y pipe is good don't mess with it.That's a $500 part even aftermarket. You can always cut the bolts and lower it down out of the way.
 
#11 ·
Good to see you are enjoying the upgrade. Didn't know the front was hallow, kinda makes sense to upgrade it now.

Sorry to hear about the oil pan. I had a quick glance at the tranny pan on mine and it looked like the paint was still present but will have a good look under there when it goes in for an oil change and goes up on the ramp.
 
#13 ·
Glad to hear you're liking the bars! HUGE difference!
 
#14 ·
HUGE doesn't even begin to describe it! LOL it is great, I always had a feeling I should listen to you about this. Its still hard to believe, and it was such an easy mod for such a big improvement. One each of 15mm and 18mm socket and wrench and an extension for the ratchet and half a can of PB Blaster is all the tools necessary. The air impact helped out too though.
 
#15 ·
Yeah it's almost "too easy" for the payoff. Those bars combined with the Bilstiens changes the whole ride. It's annoying now when I ride in my wife's WK and she's weaving through the parking lot and the Jeep feels like a boat. You get used to the improvement really fast.
 
#16 ·
Certainly. I'm loving the feel! Lol its like riding a roller coaster, the vehicle doesn't lean but if you are going fast enough you will still throw stuff around.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Thanks for the info Aaron, really appriciate it. Sould be able to widen the hole on the end link if required easily enough too.

Can't wait to order my overhaul. Thinking next month, hopefully install in March. :D
 
#21 ·
#26 ·
The rear is about $150 now from Summit Racing minus the greaseable bushings. You can pick those up at your local Advance auto for about $25. The front bar is $250 Just drill through the saddle and bushing together before you put them on the bar then tap the saddle for a grease fitting. Shouldn't be too bad. You'll have to check with Aaron about what bushing Addco uses in the front. If they use an OE rubber bushing you don't need to worry about it. If it's a poly bushing I'd probably do it though.
 
#28 ·
I'm not sure what kind of bushing it was, I guess I didn't pay too much attention. I did brush on some grease before installing it, and no sqeaks yet. Also note that the front bar comes with new bushings, but the old bracket is used. The rear whether using addco or energy bushings also come with new brackets, FWIW.

And yes, the ride qaulity improvement with addcos and bilsteins is excellent!
 
#29 ·
It's a VERY hard poly bushing and it does squeak like a motel bed. I applied a coat of GREEN grease when I installed and it lasted quite awhile before it started squeaking. I then drilled and tapped the saddle and through the bushing and tapped for a grease fitting.

E-err....E-err....E-err
 
#30 · (Edited)
E-err....E-err....E-err
Sounds like my bed! :eek::eek::eek:

You are correct now that I think about it, it was very hard to get around the bar. If it starts squeaking again I'm gonna have to pull off the skid plate again to get to it... :banghead: Too bad my power steering leak didn't hit those bolts lol
 
#31 ·
hahahah....yeah it never works that way where the oil leak is actually beneficial...
 
#32 ·
Tell me about it! Try removing an oil filter that is soaked in steering fluid. Thats why I started using K&N, wrenches off fine every time!
 
#33 ·
I know WJ Jeeps says that Kolak at Aol dot com has some good prices on the sway bar but does this guy have a website or anything? I'm not too big on sellers who operate strictly through an e-mail even though I've heard many people praise his service.

Where did you guys order your sway bars from?
 
#34 · (Edited)
Got mine from Nick (Kolak) no issues what so ever.

He just purchased a domain name recently but no website as of yet....

Good guy - I do not have anything bad to say about him. Recently purchased replacement PRECATS for my exchange to resolve a Check engine light issue...
 
#35 ·
Mine came from Santa lol. My parents ordered them from jegs.com
 
#37 ·
I thought that i would point this out. I found something that apparently Aaron was trying to keep secret from all of us. Even his Dad has a stockpile of Toxic Green material in his garage! You see people in the "know" realize "Green Material"= technically advanced suspension components and you're just a "closet toxic greenie":eek::lol:

 
#40 · (Edited)
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Dave, you are hilarious! Green stuff =:drool:

Or it could be as lame as a recycling bin, I guess you will never know....;)
 
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