READ THIS BEFORE REMOVING YOUR SWAY BAR!!

Before you go to remove your sway bar, please take a few minute to read this little story. It will be worth your time for the many lessons you can learn -- the easy way -- at my expense.

I bought my 2015 Tacoma SR5 4x4 a couple of months ago, and immediately started buying a bunch of stuff for it and upgrading it. The purchases were really beginning to upset my wife… to put it nicely. She has made me swear, upon threat of divorce, that I will stop buying stuff for my truck.

Then I discovered the Tacomaholic youtube channel. One of his videos talks about a few things you may want to remove before going off road, one of these things is the sway bar. In his video, he says how it only requires removing a few bolts, and didn’t even require him having to remove his after-market skid plate. I thought to myself, hey, this would be really easy -- I’ll do this some time!! Another youtube video I watched was literally one minute long, and it made the process look like the easiest thing in the world. I just KNEW, this wouldn’t end up being a 5 hour project like every other thing I’ve tried to do myself to my truck.

A couple of weeks later, I end up upgrading the shocks on my truck and getting slightly bigger tires, which raised the front end up about 3” from factory height. This comes into play here shortly...

After watching hours of random youtube videos, I finally decide that I’m going to take my newly upgraded truck to Disney, Oklahoma for a fun weekend of off roading and enjoying beautiful Grand Lake. I decide I’m going to surprise my 7 year old daughter with the trip, and drive us straight there for three days after I pick her up from her mom’s house. I made this decision on a Wednesday, and I planned to leave on a Sunday morning, after picking up my kiddo. I call ahead and pay two nights for a cabin for us to stay in, and Friday night, I decide I’m going to remove the sway bar before I leave on Sunday.

I drive my truck up onto a couple of wedge ramps so I can get underneath it easily, and begin trying to remove the sway bar links from their attachments to the suspension assembly. I had told my wife that if I couldn’t get the sway bar off in 30 minutes, that I wouldn’t do it… you can imagine where this is going… 30 minutes later, I had one nut about 1/8 of the way off of the bolt, and then my worst nightmare happens…. The old rusted out nuts and bolts underneath my 3 year old truck… STRIPPED. The freaking allen wrench fitting inside of the bolt that I was using to hold still while I torturously and slowly removed the nut…. STRIPPED. Not only could I not REMOVE the nut, but I couldn’t TIGHTEN it back either!! I thought to myself, “well, I only unscrewed it a little bit, it won’t really matter if that one nut is a tiny bit loose.” I went back inside the house like nothing happened, and told my wife that I wasn’t going to do it after all because it would take longer than 30 minutes.

The next morning (Saturday morning), my wife told me she bought a mini refrigerator for her classroom, and wanted me to go with her to pick it up in my truck. Of course I said yes, because this provided an opportunity for her to maybe grow to like my truck, instead of hating everything about it and what it’s done to me… But as soon as we started driving, I hear a knocking sound… and so does my wife… “Trey, whats that sound?” At this point, I’m in sheer panic mode. I know I can’t go off roading now until I fix that nut, and I know I can’t fix it until I get the sway bar off. I play it off and tell her, it’s no big deal, I’ll just get a dremel from Walmart and cut the nut off and remove the sway bar tonight after work.

The entire day at work this day though, I’m stressing out big time. Because I know that something will go wrong again, like it always does. I bought a Dremel, which came with about 8 small cutting blades, and after work, at 10:30 pm, I again go to work.

I parked my truck up on the ramps so I could easily get underneath it, and begin cutting the sway bar links right through the middle, as I can’t reach the nut with the dremel without removing the tires, which I have been avoiding attempting because I’m not sure my factory jack will actually bring the truck up off the ground after the small lift. After about an hour of cutting with the dremel, I went through 7 out of the 8 blades that came with it. I was about 90% done cutting through the second link, when my last blade SHATTERED. I was also blocking my wife’s car in the garage, so I couldn’t go to Walmart to buy more blades in either my truck or her car at this point. My bicycle tires were flat and hadn’t been ridden in years, so then I start looking at my rollerblades over in the corner of the garage thinking… I gotta do what I gotta do… I finally decide to try one more time just prying the last bit of steel with a hammer and a wrench, and maybe I could break it off. And wouldn’t you know it, like a blessing from God, I was able to break off the last piece of steel with the power of my hands!! I ran inside, gave my wife a big high five, and told her, “I DID IT!! IM ABOUT TO PULL THE SWAY BAR OUT AND BE DONE!!” But of course, this high was quickly shattered by an even lower low…

I go back outside, and start trying to pull the sway bar out. Thinking in my head… tacomaholic said he didn’t even have to remove his skid plate, so this should be easy!! After about 40 minutes of me trying my hardest to get this damn sway bar out from under my truck, I realize it wasn’t coming. Then I think, well maybe if I remove my factory “skid plate,” I can get it off. So I start removing those bolts. Well wouldn’t you know it, not only would that have made no difference whatsoever anyways, but I stripped one of those bolts too!!

At this point in the story, I’m sure some of you reading are thinking to yourselves… man this guy is an idiot, does he not know how to use a wrench properly?! I don’t blame you for thinking this, not one bit. But let me defend myself just a little bit here. My truck wasn’t previously owned by someone in Oklahoma, it was a “salt belt” truck to the tee. There is not hardly a single nut or bolt underneath this truck that can be removed without some type of rust dissolvent, and in many cases, even the best dissolvents wont work. I’ve come to learn about this fact a little too late though… anyways, continuing with my story here.

I got three out of the four bolts from the skid plate removed, and tried to bend it downwards so that I could see better what needed to be done to get the sway bar out. It was at this point I realized, my only option is removing one, or both, of the wheels. So I get my jack out from under my back seat, and begin to lift the truck…. Only to realize, the jack isn’t high enough. It’s about 12:30 am at this point, Sunday Morning. Once again, I begin freaking out. I don’t have a truck jack, and buying one at Walmart would mean a very difficult trip on my roller skates… So I begin searching for some type of block to put underneath the jack, to lift it up a bit more. That’s when I see it… some old ceramic tiles from when we had our kitchen retiled. Now I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but I’m not the dumbest either, so I wrapped the dozen tiles in a large bath towel, stuck them under my truck, put my jack on top of them, and began cranking…. Turn, turn, turn, CRACK!! Turn, turn, turn, CRACK!! Turn, CRACKALACKACRAAAAAACK!!! Eventually, like a phoenix rising from the ashes underneath my totally f*% truck, my tire raises off of the ground, just enough for me to get my jack stand underneath. HALLELUJIAH PRAISE JESUS!!!

I took the tire off, and again begin trying to remove this sway bar. But after another half an hour of unsuccessful attempts and yanking, I again realize, I cannot get this god forsaken thing out by myself… so I have to remove the other wheel. But what do I use now?? I only have one jack, and all 12 of my tiles are shattered… I can’t move the tiles, so I have to find something else. And that’s when I see my garage's second gift to me… my over-sized jenga game over in the corner. “I’m pretty good at Jenga,” I thought to myself, “this will be easy!”

Fortunately... MIRACULOUSLY... the Jenga blocks held, and I was able to skillfully raise my other tire off of the ground, and get my second jack stand underneath it. Once my tire was off this side as well, and my truck was completely up on blocks, I took a step back, and after seeing the state of my truck, I began to cry. I’m not joking you guys, this was one of the lowest points in my life…. My vacation was going to be ruined, my wife was going to divorce me, I was about to drop my truck on the concrete, and this sway bar was going to rip apart a bunch of important sh** underneath my truck. But d** it all to h**, “I can’t quit now,” I thought to myself.

One more time, I began trying to get this sway bar off. Walk to one side, make an adjustment and pull, walk to the other side, adjust and pull, walk to the other side, adjust and pull… and repeat. It’s 1:15 in the morning, and I begin screaming obscenities in my driveway. After seeing a couple of porch lights turn on, I finally decide to shut up and think again.

Then it hits me, TURN THE WHEEL!! So I begin, very slowly, inch by inch, turning the wheel all the way to the driver’s side, checking and adjusting the loose, yet wedged sway bar to make sure I don’t snag it on something that can break. And once the wheel was turned all the way to the driver’s side, I was able to maneuver the sway bar out the driver’s side. After about 10 seconds of dropping to my knees and crying out of pure joy and frustration, I stood back up with my fists held high, and began making laps around my front yard, like I just defeated Rocky himself in the boxing match of the century. I couldn’t believe I had finally done it!!

All I had left to do was put my tires back on, and ziptie (yes, ziptie) the other end of the sway bar links to the piece they were connected to, because if I didn’t do this, I would likely pop both of my tires. Yes, one day, I will take the tire off and remove this damn thing the right way, but for now, zip ties will work.

After a horrible 3 hours of sleep that night, I woke up and picked up my daughter and drove to Disney, and had one of the best vacations of my life, thanks of course, to my truck, which is now driving better than ever, if you ask me.

I hope this story helps any of you guys out there that are planning on doing this, and If there’s one piece of advice I can give you, it’s not to put 100% of your trust in videos from Youtube!! Joking aside though, if the tacomaholic guy reads this story, I love your channel, and I don’t blame you for this in the slightest!!

 

Par for the course for me brother. Thanks for the write up though. I am getting a set of skids that were designed to run without a sway bar. Now I know to treat the bolts beforehand. That is pretty much a given in PA though. I for the life of me can't figure out why so many allen and Tor-x bolts were used on these things. Personally don't care for allen keys at all.

 

Damn dude. I can only imagine the frustration. At least you got it all done and were able to enjoy the trip with your daughter.

 

I know you said that is rides better than ever, but can you speak to body roll? That is my main concern. I wanted new coils because my OR was too soft for turns at speed. Also what type of lift are you running?

 

I WANT MY TIME BACK.

 

I removed my swaybar last year. Broke one of the bolts welded inside the frame. As for the links that go through the knuckle, I've had to remove these multiple times for suspension upgrades. I've used a large pair of channel locks to grip the link, while using a large ratchet on the nut.

 

It's awful man, I had the same issue trying to get the shocks off myself

 

Aside from it being a bitch to remove...prepared for that now. How is the ride afterwards? Would you put it back on?

 

I don't plan on putting it back on, unless my wife forces me to. It's very smooth and 90% of the time I can't even tell a difference. It's worth it if you ask me.

 

@boogie3478

 

The body roll isn't that noticeable honestly. My only lift is Bilstein shocks set at 2.5 inches in the front, and a 1 inch block lift in the back

 

Great story!! I feel your pain, as many of us have had similar experiences - Murphy's Law. As an aside, a couple of years ago, against the recommendations of most of TW, I drove my bone stock Sport, w/ front and rear swaybars and factory Bridgestones, from Ouray to Telluride CO. There are "degrees" of off roading, know the road, your vehicle and tolerance for mechanical risk. These trucks are far more capable stock, than many on TW have attempted or will acknowledge.

 

I'm at work in tears picturing your truck hoisted up on Jenga blocks.

 

@3pooches

 

Post a TL;DR, please

 

OP thanks for the info. I have a little more lift, but hoping that the results are the same. I just don't want to body roll. That was my biggest complaint about the offroad suspension. I love the way my truck handles now. Great slow off road, and can still rip though the backhills of PA comfortably. It is perfect for my driving situation. Only one way to find out though. I just have the same luck as you. When it rains it pours.

 

LOL the great thing is, those 6 blocks fit under my seat so I can have them any time I need to change a tire!!

 

have proper tools. jobs aren't as easy as others make them seem