Anatomy of a SmartBar

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DamageWagon
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Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by DamageWagon » Sun Oct 23, 2016 10:11 pm

I thought I would throw this together since I knew the concept behind the SmartBar, but have never seen the inside of one. Mine has never locked up since I've owned it (2 weeks) so I wanted to get it fixed so I could feel safer towing. If you have never driven around town or at higher speeds off road with the swaybar disconnected or removed, you're missing out.

First, my situation. My SmartBar was rotated so that the exhaust hanger that supports it had its bushing facing the wrong way - it was intentionally rotated to never engage. It also clunked around a lot, to the extent that the SmartBar actuator would rest on the long-side shaft. You could push the middle of the bar and get over 3/4" deflection. After rotating the SmartBar to normal position, I was unable to get it to engage using any of the normal techniques; pushing the bar, rocking the truck, driving up on a curb. I loosened the housing bolts and sprayed silicone lube inside, tried again, no change.

Finally I took the entire bar off the truck, and this is what I found:

ImageImageImageImage

I don't know how that much dirt got in there. I actually scraped and vacuumed most of it up before taking the pictures. The side with the collar and yoke was completely solid with dirt. There was no way that mechanism was moving! I cleaned everything heavily with water, Purple Power, a toothbrush and a screwdriver. I could not easily figure out how to removed the splined parts on the shafts, so I left them on there.

Here is everything after cleaning:

ImageImage

I applied Royal Purple grease to all moving parts and the area under the splined parts to keep dust from increasing from the seals. I used anti-seize on the bolts and silicone RTV on the mating surfaces when I put everything back together. ImageImage

I did some testing with the actuator. The first pic is with the actuator at neutral; this is swaybar engaged for normal driving: ImageImage

This is the actuated state, where the swaybar is disengaged: ImageImage

If you engage the SmartBar and push the metal rod next to the plastic piece, it will sense that it has locked. Even if you let go of that rod, it still thinks it is engaged. This might help someone doing troubleshooting, though I doubt this could ever give us false positive on engagement, as once it is engaged it should stay there.

The actuator is pretty strong, but the return spring is weak! If you have water ingress into the housing, it is possible to have corroded that spring and broken it. This is a possible cause to a permanently unlocked swaybar.

I manually connected the bar during assembly, and put everything back on the truck. I disconnected/connected several times in the driveway, and it seems fixed! The light would finally stay green, no more flashing. My helper said he heard a definite click when it both locked and when it unlocked.

I took it for a few test drives and really played with it, and found that the bar is now engaging as designed, if not even easier than normal. On the downside, there is slop in the collar/spline interface leading to there being about 1" of vertical movement available between the swaybar ends. This lets the body roll a moderate amount, then the swaybar will engage to prevent massive /dangerous) body roll.


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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by olyelr » Sun Oct 23, 2016 10:37 pm

How in the heck can there possibly be that much dirt/rust/debris in there when the seal and mating surface of the two parts looks so clean??!?!??!
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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by RustyPW » Sun Oct 23, 2016 11:03 pm

olyelr wrote:How in the heck can there possibly be that much dirt/rust/debris in there when the seal and mating surface of the two parts looks so clean??!?!??!
That's my question too!!!
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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by coder » Sun Oct 23, 2016 11:11 pm

olyelr wrote:How in the heck can there possibly be that much dirt/rust/debris in there when the seal and mating surface of the two parts looks so clean??!?!??!
I agree, I don't know how that much dirt could have gotten in there just by driving off road it's a sealed system. It almost looks like someone took it apart and stuffed dirt in there and closed it back-up I'm not sure why that would happen but, how else could you explain it.
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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by Reloaderguy » Mon Oct 24, 2016 12:47 am

You should have planted tomatoes in there.

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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by DamageWagon » Mon Oct 24, 2016 2:06 am

coder wrote:
olyelr wrote:How in the heck can there possibly be that much dirt/rust/debris in there when the seal and mating surface of the two parts looks so clean??!?!??!
I agree, I don't know how that much dirt could have gotten in there just by driving off road it's a sealed system. It almost looks like someone took it apart and stuffed dirt in there and closed it back-up I'm not sure why that would happen but, how else could you explain it.
I'm still thinking about this! I opened it up and thought "are you freaking kidding me? How?". The seals were both clean! Even if someone stuffed it full of dirt, it would have gotten over the seals when they closed it up. I think what might have happened is that dirt went into the outside shaft seals, which are damaged but still don't look THAT bad, and then the dirt got crushed between the bar and the housing into a fine silt. Then that somehow made its way into the housing and just stayed inside, getting spread around by the movement of the splined ends. The truck has never been submerged or anything, the winch is pretty clean. I wanted to show people so they could check out their bar. I will put up pictures of my outer shaft seals soon.


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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by fbenross » Tue Oct 25, 2016 11:19 pm

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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by Bakes » Tue Nov 01, 2016 10:39 am

Maybe the sway bar popped out and the prior owner drove it around in the mud for a year before sticking it back in and then selling it to you.

Frankly, I think RAM owes us a recall on these stupid things.

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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by DamageWagon » Sat Dec 03, 2016 2:02 am

Ok, it took me long enough Image
ImageImageImage
It really isn't bad. I don't know how so much mud got in there!


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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by Reloaderguy » Sat Dec 03, 2016 2:22 pm

Is it me or is there really no sealing surface? It looks like there is a huge gap between the bars and the cracked/old seals.

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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by DamageWagon » Sat Dec 03, 2016 5:25 pm

Reloaderguy wrote:Is it me or is there really no sealing surface? It looks like there is a huge gap between the bars and the cracked/old seals.
Correct, they are totally beat. It's a straight path inside. If it was mud that got in there I could accept that maybe. Otherwise I don't think dust could have done it. But man that thing was PACKED.


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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by Pit Slave » Sat Dec 03, 2016 8:08 pm

Would you be interested in a fresh housing compared to what you have? At the very least, you will have a sealed surface.

Or, if you want, I can look up the part number for the seal.

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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by DamageWagon » Sat Dec 03, 2016 8:24 pm

Uh... Is it free? :lol: I'm happy with how it runs for now so some seals would be nice. I snapped an end link (it was a regular 2500 link) so I'm halfway to taking it off already! If you have a housing sitting around though I would take it. I actually love how fast my smartbar and lockers engage. All I did was clean the smartbar connector and interlaid, and locker magnets and used GP101's.

Do you know a good place to get a stock swaybar end link?


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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by Dickydobler » Fri Jul 08, 2022 1:53 pm

Pit Slave wrote:
Sat Dec 03, 2016 8:08 pm
Would you be interested in a fresh housing compared to what you have? At the very least, you will have a sealed surface.

Or, if you want, I can look up the part number for the seal.

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Hey.. was just reading through this old thread and was curious if you ever looked up the part # for the exterior seals on the smart bar housing? Mine have a lot of play and I’d love to have that part #.

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Re: Anatomy of a SmartBar

Post by UncleYarbie » Tue Jan 17, 2023 5:52 pm

I came here looking for the seals as well. I read through the factory manual and it only states that it's a sealed non serviceable unit. I'm going to keep looking and see what I can find. Has anyone else out there attempted a seal replacement.

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