So Ive been pretty dissapointed with the off road performance of my 4Runner so I w decided today I was gunna ditch my sway bars and go on a run to see if itd give me a little more artichulation. I dont know if its a 4Runner thing or if my shocks are too short but it would pulls wheels off the ground all of the time and today I did some flexing and didnt notice a bit of difference with the sway bars off. Before itd have a wheel off the ground with about 6 iches between the tire and the fender, now its got about 8? Is this normal for a 4Runner or is it just that my shocks are too short? Its got aprox 1'' lift with 32x11.50s

 

What lift? If you're running cranked T-bars, that will naturally limit articulation up front. Pulled my sway bar off awhile back, and flex seems to have improved a bit. Didn't affect my street behavior much so I haven't considered putting it back on. Otherwise, the IFS on these rigs just doesn't flex much whatsoever.

If you're wanting more performance regear and lock up, that will get you twice as far as flex will.

Can't speak for the rear...No experience with coils.

 

Yah I turned the T-Bars up a tiny little bit, cranked is an over staement, and its got Eibach springs on it, Im planning on running a locker soon.

 

I actully took some measurements of this with my 87 pickup. I used a car ramp under the driver's side front wheel for the test. The numbers are at home (and I'm at school) but there was a noticeable improvement. The general idea the numbers gave was that the front flexed more, so the rear didn't have to make up as much. The truck itself was a little more level when flexed.
I also added some low profile topout and bottom stops which helped even more.

I'm still pretty new to this, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

 

T-bar's can be purchased AM, in larger than stock diameters, these ride softer. And have less tendency to "pre-load" when cranked above stock height. 26mm(Downey Off-Road) are the largest(softest) I've found. They've been designed for high-speed, pre-runner type desert racing, etc.

 

Has anyone had any luck with a front locker? I was thinking about doing one but I have to drive this vehicle in the winter also. Good or bad idea?

 

Search this site many,many,many opinions. I sum mine up like this, of all the stupid, moronic, waste-of-time, things I have ever done, welding my front diff. , may reign King. I couldn't stand it the first instant I tried it, after all my time and labor. But, hey, maybe you got stronger arms than me! Wrestling 35's doesn't help, in this case, serious DIS-advantage. Very rare, ta hear me dis on 35's. Pun incident #2 today, sorry.

 

A selectable up front works well even with IFS, but permanently locking the front like MudHippy will not allow you to steer.

 

Have you got'n rid of your rear sway-bar yet?? If not, you may want to. That was one of the first things to go, and I will never put it back on. Thinking about taking off the front one as well. But that is as far as I have got with that.

 

Make some discos for the front with a simple wing washer and you're good.

 

I ditched my swaybar and did low profile bump and droop stops and it seemed to help quite a bit. When you're flexed out look and see if you have any room between the bumps or droops to see if you're getting full travel. Here is a pic of mine almost fully flexed (I was on the droop on the left and had about a half inch of gap on the bump on the right):

 

Okay i know this is an old subject, but is it worth it to take the rear swaybar off of a 2nd gen 4runner? How much better does it flex? THANKS GUYS

 

My 2nd gen fully flexes from bumpstop to bumpstop with the SB still on. The difference is that the front starts to flex sooner and doesn't wait until the rear is almost flexed out before really flexing.

 

I got a noticeable amount of flex when I took out both of my sway bars. Here's the rear with performance Products springs, fully stuffed:



And the front (slightly cranked torsion bars, not quite fully flexed):

 

The factor limiting my rear flex is my shock absorbers. The factors limiting my front flex are my bumpstops. The front sway bar does force the rear to flex first, then only when the rear is mostly flexed out, the front starts flexing as well. I think removing the rear sway bar would perhaps be a disadvantage because this would once again cause the rear to be way more flexy than the front. It would be hard to stay balanced I think.

 

I wonder if its my shocks? Because it doesn't flex great at all, the tire likes to come off the ground when trying to go up little hills or a rock. I do have rancho 9000's front and rear. Would those flex more than stock or be the same?

 

Be carefull after you remove the swaybar that you dont hit a bump to hard and your shocks arent worn out. As it will max out and smash the bumpstops quite well.

I wasnt so lucky and managed to tweak the drivers side a decent bit. I replaced some parts, but the upper bumpstops are about 1/4" out of whack now and its way to much to take apart to fix. I put my swaybar back on so it cannot overflex and put on new shocks.

 

Okay good advice