Rubicon sway bar internal spring

spinuck

spinuck

New member
My Rubicon sway bar wont reconnect by itself anymore. Taking it apart, it looks like the spring that pushes the guide fork for the locking collar is all corroded and lacks the tension to push the collar back into place. Wondering if anyone has tried replacing that spring. I went through and cleaned all the grime, and regreased it, but it doesn't want to lock up. :grayno:
 
Sorry bro. That sucks. You can always go with the EVO no limit sway bar disconnect. I also have a rubicon sway bar motor from a 2013 Rubicon that I am selling cheap. Let me know. Good luck. Some guys have been able to clean everything and then get it to work again.
 
mackey said:
Sorry bro. That sucks. You can always go with the EVO no limit sway bar disconnect. I also have a rubicon sway bar motor from a 2013 Rubicon that I am selling cheap. Let me know. Good luck. Some guys have been able to clean everything and then get it to work again.
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i think he is talking about the little spring that pushes it back into lock. i have to do the same thing i think, ill call the dealer today and see if i can get a part number.
 
noroad said:
i think he is talking about the little spring that pushes it back into lock. i have to do the same thing i think, ill call the dealer today and see if i can get a part number.
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I dont think they sell just the spring, looks like you have to buy the entire sway bar, minus the motor actuator. Going to see if i can get it covered under warranty, but I'm sure any of the mods I've done must've made that spring corode and weaken. They put a lube locker style gasket on the housing where it locks together, but not where the motor connects :hmm:
 
spinuck said:
I dont think they sell just the spring, looks like you have to buy the entire sway bar, minus the motor actuator. Going to see if i can get it covered under warranty, but I'm sure any of the mods I've done must've made that spring corode and weaken. They put a lube locker style gasket on the housing where it locks together, but not where the motor connects :hmm:
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let me make a couple calls and see maybe we can just get the spring rate if not.
 
Re:

When I broke mine down to rebuild it, the first time I over greased it and it wouldn't work properly. Cleaned that up and it worked fine. Also make sure you put it back together right.....A little bit of rust on the plunger will restrict it's movement, clean it up good.
Unless the spring is almost rusted to crap, it should still be retaining it's strength...
 
just got a tip from my crown guy said the people who made the rubi bars are in mass 15 mins from my place called pollak engineered let me give them a ring!
 
OHIORUBICON said:
Interesting thread, I'm having the same problem currently. What's the cheapest way to get rid of the whole system?
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have yo tried to clean it up? and do you mean get ride of the motor or the whole thing?

side note

left a message that the place waiting for a call back.
 
noroad said:
have yo tried to clean it up? and do you mean get ride of the motor or the whole thing?

side note

left a message that the place waiting for a call back.
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I have not, and i just mean replace it with a quick disconnect saw bar like i had on my TJ
 
OHIORUBICON said:
I have not, and i just mean replace it with a quick disconnect saw bar like i had on my TJ
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Why?

As Mackey said above "you can always go with the EVO no limit sway bar disconnect." My disconnect motor is perfectly fine but I removed it and put the EVO unit on anyway. I didnt want the sway bar auto reconnecting when I didnt want it to. To connect or disconnect, its a simple few twists of a knob. Dead nuts reliable and not that expensive at all..

Good luck!
 
olram30 said:
I'm confused on what's broken. The motor or the sway bar itself.
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I believe he is (the op) referring to the internal "return" spring, the little spring that pushes the gear inside back to the locked/connected state. I personally just rebuilt mine,but my return spring was still good.
 
Kalums said:
I believe he is (the op) referring to the internal "return" spring, the little spring that pushes the gear inside back to the locked/connected state. I personally just rebuilt mine,but my return spring was still good.
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Right, it appears that the spring isn't strong enough to push the collar back into place. The evo no limit wouldn't solve that issue. It does work slightly better after cleaning and greasing it. Taking it to the dealer next week for the off chance they cover it under warranty. I'm wondering if putting a washer between the spring and the sliding part would help.
 
spinuck said:
Right, it appears that the spring isn't strong enough to push the collar back into place. The evo no limit wouldn't solve that issue. It does work slightly better after cleaning and greasing it. Taking it to the dealer next week for the off chance they cover it under warranty. I'm wondering if putting a washer between the spring and the sliding part would help.
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It won't, it will just mask the problem and then you will have the off chance of a random washer floating around inside that could mess something else up..... You could try places like Grainger, InMotion, Copperstate Nut & Bolt. They might be able to help or at least point you in the right direction. On a side note I personally would not think about "beefing" up the spring either, then you will run in to problems like is the piece of junk electric motor strong enough to push /disconnect and hold it... Etc. The list goes on.... Just my 0.02

Oh did you grease the "fork collar" where it slides in/out of the housing, where the motor attaches? This helped mine considerably. Let me see if I can find a pic on the interweb to show you what I am talking about.
 
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The No Limits WILL help as it doesn't rely on a spring to actuate the disconnect. You use a knob to screw in and manually engage the disconnect and screw it back out to disengage it. I have been running this system since it came out on Moby and I have NEVER had an issue with it not reconnecting.
 
wayoflife said:
The No Limits WILL help as it doesn't rely on a spring to actuate the disconnect. You use a knob to screw in and manually engage the disconnect and screw it back out to disengage it. I have been running this system since it came out on Moby and I have NEVER had an issue with it not reconnecting.
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I think my issue is the spring that reconnects the sway bar on the backside of the guide fork, opposing the disconnect motor. The motor disengages just fine, which I assume the no limit does when you un screw it. The part that he was pointing to with the purple text doesnt slide back into place as easily any more.

I did grease that lobe on the fork part and it does seem to work better, just nearly as good as it used to.
 
This is the stuff I used to reassemble with, worked amazingly well, that on all the gear faces and anywhere metal meets metal seemed to work best. Then a good quality gear grease (I used the valveline semi synthetic). Hope you can figure this out. I will say that personally the No Limits disconnect is the way to go once your electric motor kicks the bucket tho. Just throwing that out there. 😆
 

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OH! and make sure that big washer gets put back in between the "bar" faces (where the two pieces of the individual sway bars meet inside the sliding gear) forgot that once.... Had to disassemble and reassemble, what a hassle.
 
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