Buddy told me my sway bar disconnect was a waste of money... wish I listened sooner

My buddy Mike who builds Jeeps told me to just ditch my electronic sway bar disconnect and go with manual links. I spent $450 on the electric setup last spring because I thought it looked cool and modern. After the second time it failed on a trail in Moab I was stranded for an hour messing with it. Mike's old school manual links have never given him a problem and they cost like 60 bucks. Has anyone else had those fancy e-disconnects die on them at the worst possible moment?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo23819h ago

WAIT your buddy told you that and you STILL dropped $450 on the electric one?? Man I feel your pain though because I did the EXACT same thing last year. I was so hyped on having the cool new tech in my JK, thought I was hot stuff pushing a button from the cab. First trip out to the Ozarks that thing locked up on me with one side disconnected and I spent two hours on a muddy hillside with pliers and cussing. The motor just gave up and the mechanism froze solid. Mike was right all along, those old school manual links are BULLETPROOF and way simpler. I ended up ripping my electric unit out and going back to manual links after that trip too. Money straight down the drain but at least we learned the hard way I guess.

verap5218h agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, you are preaching to the choir right now. Same thing happened to me with a Rubicon I had a few years back. I drove two hours to a trail, hit the first rocky climb, and bam, electric disco connect just quit. Wouldn't engage or disengage, just dead. Had to have a buddy winch me out and then I limped home with a ratchet strap holding the sway bar link in place. My dad tried to warn me, he's got a YJ with manual hubs and a simple setup that has never let him down, and I just thought I knew better. I popped for the manual links the next week, took maybe an hour to swap them in, and haven't touched a thing since. You can't beat that simple, reliable stuff when you're out in the middle of nowhere, pure mechanical connection with nothing to short out or freeze up.