Bilsteins & Rear Sway Bar

I just got finished installing a full set of Bilsteins and AAL's yesterday (with help from NJAX/MAXC people) but here's my question. How imperative is it to remove the rear sway bar for the bilstein shocks? (the right rear one is the only one close to it) I drive more on pavement than anything else, and want the stability of it, but I don't want to damage the shocks... Any thoughts on solutions?

FYI- rear model # is B46-2126-H0

[ 12-03-2001: Message edited by: Dayspring ]

It sort of depends on which shocks you got. One model of the Bilsteins is made to keep the sway bar, and one is meant for removal of the sway bar. The one's meant for removal are larger diameter and don't offer enough clearance. Which ones did you get--I don't know them by part number.

[ 12-03-2001: Message edited by: ILUVMYX ]

I honestly wish I knew...

here's a question. is your rear bilsteins as round or larger in terms of diameter as your front shocks? if they are then you have the shocks for use without the sway bar. if your rear shocks are thinner than you have the ones for use with the rear sway on.

personally i would remove the rear sway either way. you will only notice it missing for the first few days after you take it off because it will sway a tad bit more. once you get used to not having you'll never even notice that it's missing.

I've got the OEM size Bilsteins and have been running without the swaybar since the Shamokin run. You do sway a bit more, I'll notice it on jughandles and some on-ramps, but nothing making me feel like I need to put it back on.

I'll most likely put it on after the next run just because I'm running short on storage space.

Nick, Your shocks are bigger then Stock

While i test drove Nicks truck last night after installing shocks and taking off sway bar and AAL, all i can say , DAMN THAT ASS IS ALL OVER THE ROAD

on an empty street i was able to swerve enough to scare the shit out of me

so when i will do this mod sway bar will be there (some how)

I had to remove the sway bar to install the shocks on mine, thought I found no obstruction when reinstalling the sway-bar. I have even mad an off road run with the new shocks and have had no obstruction issues...FWIW

I took the rear sway bar off after installing Bilsteins and never noticed the difference. However I do not have AAL's.

The rear sway bar can come in contact with the rear passenger side shock even if you're still running the stock shocks on 2000-1's and seriously off-road. Nissan really needs to redesign the rear sway bar and leave more clearance to prevent the bar from banging/denting shocks.

The original Bilstein prototype shock was actually modified/made smaller to provide more clearance for the sway bar, this is now the rear OE model # BE3-6422-H0 that Bilstein recommends for X's.

All the other shocks such as the Bilstein # B46-2126-H0 or the Rancho 9116's that aren't actually made for X's have larger diameter bodies the will likely be dented on or off-road IMO with the stock sway bar on. I know my rear passenger side rancho was dented after a couple of day's on road way back when. In any case I have'nt missed the rear sway bar any since then.

I'm a little confused Are the shocks that fit with the sway bar also long enough to run with the AAL's? I was assuming that both the smaller and bigger shocks on SLR's site were the longer ones.

KY,

Can't speak for what SLR sells, you should ask them.

However, I can tell you that the Bilstein OE shocks as referenced above are the ones made with the X/sway bar in mind and are roughly the same length compressed/extended as the stocks ones. The Bilstein OE or stock shocks aren't long enough extended if used with a lift/AAL so you will need ones that extend more to cover the lift you are going for IMO.

Thanks for explaining