While underneath truck today i noticed the front stabilizer bar has disconnected at both ends,Haven't noticed anything in the handling,How important is this thing ?

 

Are you asking about the front anti-sway bar? I'm not familiar with the 4x4 front suspensions as I own an E250 but I can tell you its very much an important part of safer handling of your truck, any truck or vehicle that is.

On the RWD vans the sway bar is attached to the frame rails then extends back when the ends fit into the I Beams with cheap rubber bushings. These bushings wear out allowing the bar to flop around which renders it somewhat useless. Urethane replacement bushings cost less than $20 for the complete set and a great item short of adding a better sway bar.

I run the brand Hellwig which is a very noticable improvement over the stock bar.

Hope this helps!

 

The sway bar/roll bar/stabilizer bar is there to reduce body roll when cornering. Your 4x4 may have quite stiff suspension anyway and you might not notice much difference with it disconnected. However when carrying a load or when braking hard in a corner it might make the truck more stable.
You probably just need a couple of new drop links to get it operational again, shouldn`t be either expensive or difficult.

 

Thanks for usefull info

 

I realize this is about a month and a half late, but I'm searching for sway-bar specs and came across this thread.

A previous owner could have disconnected the sway bar to get more articulation from the suspension when off-roading. For both ends to be missing, it seems as though both ends were disconnected intentionally - this could have been for access to complete a repair (like tie-rod ends?), or as I stated earlier, for sport driving. It could also have been a redneck owner who broke one and didn't want to buy a set, so he d/c'ed the other side, but I digress...

It may be too late for you, but for other guys looking in to this, a cheap and very noticeable upgrade would be to buy polyurethane sway bar bushing end-links (Such as those from Energy Suspension). Sometimes just making the OEM sway-bars work harder via better bushings can do wonders for cars and trucks for sporty road driving.

Edited to add: I have done this to the end-links on my '99 4x4. In the past I have done the end-links, only, to other vehicles, but have found that some car's stock frame bushing sway-bar brackets tend to break when the sway bar is put back to work by superior end-links. If you're going to change to polyurethane end-links, I suggest switching to polyurethane frame bushings and new, and sometimes preferably stronger, brackets. Some vehicles and drivers may need brackets that are really strong, such as these: hotchkis frame bushings , but often enough the stamped steel ones from Energy Suspension will hold up.

 

Im the original owner,i think the original links just corroded and broke off,Replaced links and bushings ,was an easy fix, all good now .
thanks for your input

 

Hello are you still on this site? I have a 99 Ford F-150 4x4 Lariat and I'm trying to install my sway bar because I bought it and years later realized that it was not here. Do I need to disassemble anything, take tires off, etc. I'm doing my front suspension bit by bit and no videos online for the whole install/replacement, just the end links . Thank you