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Car Forum / Jeep / April 2007removing the rear track bar
removing the rear track bar on a yj good idea or bad idea....What are your thoughts ? >removing the rear track bar on a yj good idea or bad idea....What are >your thoughts ? I think that you'll never notice it's gone. We've got 2 YJ's, both daily driven, both with the rear track bars gone. Never had a problem. -- Old Crow "Yol Bolsun!" '82 FLTC-P "Miss Pearl" '95 YJ Rio Grande BS#133, SENS, TOMKAT, MAMBM  SignaturePosted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com > removing the rear track bar on a yj good idea or bad idea....What are > your thoughts ? It depends on a lot of things.... When everything is brand new and the springs are as still stiff as a Yuppie Jeeps springs get, then you might get away with the vehicle tracking in a straight line down the road. When bushings get worn and the springs go flat, then you can get a nice 'puppy walk' or 'crab walk' down the road when you give it gas. It also can overcenter as the springs bend to the side around a corner if you have a load on. Basically it is a major safety feature on the vehicle, just like an anti-sway bar. If you remove this and get into an accident where the vehicle gets inspected (any injury accident), you can be royally screwed because you intentionally disabled a major safety item. That can turn an 'accident' with a death, into vehicular homicide. I was told this by police and insurance and was told they 'do' check this, especially on 4x4's. Even companies that sell lifts, have trackbar relocation brackets.... Mike 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2115147590 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page) >> removing the rear track bar on a yj good idea or bad idea....What are >> your thoughts ? [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > Jan/06 http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2115147590 > (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page) Is he talking about the rear "panhard rod"? That's what I call it, anyway. Spdloader >>> removing the rear track bar on a yj good idea or bad idea....What are >>> your thoughts ? [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] > That's what I call it, anyway. > Spdloader The track bar is the one that holds the axle from going side to side and is a major player in preventing death wobble among the other things mentioned. The CJ7 with it's shorter shackles and really stiff leafs doesn't have this leaning and tracking issue like the softer YJ has. Mike >> Is he talking about the rear "panhard rod"? >> That's what I call it, anyway. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Mike That's what I thought, we old timers call that a panhard rod. NOT good to unhook it, at all. Spdloader >>> Is he talking about the rear "panhard rod"? >>> That's what I call it, anyway. [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > >Spdloader On a coil spring vehicle, I'll buy this. On a leaf spring vehicle I don't. Take a look at various pickups and even older passenger cars. Leaf springs in the rear and no "track bar". Both our Jeeps are approaching the 250k mile mark and neither one of them have any handling problems. My '95 actually had the track bar on it when I bought it. I took it off when it broke and started to rattle against the bottom of the body. Never saw a difference in handling and I was driving 135 miles a day back then. Several months later I bought my wife's '94 and while crawling around underneath noticed that her's was already gone. Couldn't tell by the way it drove, then or now. -- Old Crow "Yol Bolsun!" '82 FLTC-P "Miss Pearl" '95 YJ Rio Grande BS#133, SENS, TOMKAT, MAMBM SignaturePosted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com >>>> Is he talking about the rear "panhard rod"? >>>> That's what I call it, anyway. [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > BS#133, SENS, TOMKAT, MAMBM > Well for some 'strange' reason, when the engineers designed the soft sprung 'Yuppie Jeep', they decided it needed track bars to be safe on the road. This 'might' have something to do with the tendency of the short wheelbase Jeep to roll over in sharp maneuvers so they want to keep the weight centered over the axle rather than allowing the weight to shift the vehicle sideways as you go into a corner. Have you ever driven your YJ with it's full legal load on it? I drive my CJ7 that way all the time when going camping and I really notice the extra lean that happens. I also have been in an accident where the person that hit me might up and die and was told point blank if any of my 'safety' features like the track bar or anti-sway bar were disconnected, instead of 'me' being hit in an unfortunate accident, I would be charged as the 'at fault' driver and maybe face homicide charges because I 'maybe' could have avoided him had my Jeep been 100% up to spec. Thankfully I keep my Jeep 100% up to spec and was found not at fault. Mike 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2115147590 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page) On my YJ with no track bar, the axle will shift over an inch or so just making the hard turn into my up hill driveway. I fixed it before I went off road again, suspect I would have had serious rub problems with 31" tires. Accident avoidance on the highway would depend a lot on tire adhesion and road conditions. I'd imagine that sliding into a curb without a track bar could be interesting. >>>>Is he talking about the rear "panhard rod"? >>>>That's what I call it, anyway. [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] > BS#133, SENS, TOMKAT, MAMBM > >On my YJ with no track bar, the axle will shift over an inch or so just >making the hard turn into my up hill driveway. I fixed it before I went >off road again, suspect I would have had serious rub problems with 31" >tires. Accident avoidance on the highway would depend a lot on tire >adhesion and road conditions. I'd imagine that sliding into a curb >without a track bar could be interesting. You guys got me thinking so I decided to check this out. I've got a fairly steep bank behind my shop where they graded the pad for the building. This past weekend I put both Jeeps sideways on this bank and looked for any sign that the rear axle was shifting from side to side. Measured tire sidewall distance from the outside of the body on both the uphill and downhill sides, then turned the jeep around and measured again. NO appreciable difference in any of the measurements on either Jeep. My '61 Ford F-100 has leafs in the rear(and the front for that matter)and not a track bar to be found. I'm officially gonna quit worrying about it. -- Old Crow "Yol Bolsun!" '82 FLTC-P "Miss Pearl" '95 YJ Rio Grande BS#133, SENS, TOMKAT, MAMBM SignaturePosted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com > >On my YJ with no track bar, the axle will shift over an inch or so just > >making the hard turn into my up hill driveway. I fixed it before I went [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > -- > Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com It probably has to do with how worn the bushings are. But this is something that needs to be maintained anyway. On my '87 YJ, when I broke my track bar mount on the axle, I found that there was a LOT of side to side movement. Not too much of an issue on roads but it would shove the tires over quite a bit when off camber in the woods. > removing the rear track bar on a yj good idea or bad idea....What are > your thoughts ? > On my '87 YJ, when I broke my track bar mount on the axle, I found that > there was a LOT of side to side movement. Not too much of an issue on [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >> removing the rear track bar on a yj good idea or bad idea....What are >> your thoughts ? Thanks man that clears up a lot |
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