Sway bar installed today - lessons to pass on

[Huggytree]

Today I installed the baja Ron’s sway bar and links. I watched the Ryker Ryder video a few times in advance. All went well until removing the 4 bolts that hold the rubber bushings which hold the sway bar. Nothing is easy on this process and I noticed Ryker Ryder video kinda stopped here and skipped over the process. I know why. Ughhh

The right side isn’t that bad. A small channel locks worked well to hold the nuts. There are slots to get at them. The left side has something in the way. It’s its own animal. I dropped both nuts into the channel. It slides inside the channel and gets stuck at the bottom where you can’t hardly see it let alone get them back out. I used a 24” screwdriver to flick one out. The other I just left there and gave up. Bought a new nut. I strongly recommend you bunch some paper towel down this chute and block the spot the nuts get stuck. I think it’s 100% chance you lose a nut if not both. Plan on it. I used 4 different methods for the 4 nuts. A small socket worked on 2 of them. Chanel locks worked on the other 2. I had various length sockets and extensions to make it work. I’m in the building trades. I’m used to problem solving. If your not able to sit back 15-20 minutes on each nut to figure out how to get at them id skip this project. To get the nuts back on was another trick. You cannot get your fingers to the end of the bolts. I used thick grease on my finger tip. I was able to point at the bolt with the nut on the end of my finger. Pretty much all 4 nuts needed this method. I almost gave up several times but forced myself to figure out another way to do it. Shove your hands into every crevice to see if you can get a finger into that spot


Total time spent 4 hours. If I had to do it again I could cut it down to 2-2.5 most likely.

Knuckles bloody and glad it’s done

Blocking the chute where the nuts fall into is the biggest tip!
Otherwise plan on buying more nuts

[Myron Ah]

Always easy till you do it! I'm glad you got it. you will love the difference in handling if aRyker is anything like my 2013 RT. Noticed it on the first ryde at 25-35 0n the twisty road.

[Spyderdale]

Put my sway bar on last Saturday. Had the same problem with the nuts. Dropped one down there and never could find it so just went and got another one. Other than that not a bad job. Didnt have an angle grinder so went to Harbor Freight and got one for $10.00. Did the job of cutting the origional sway bar just fine. Bike definitly handles better.

[Huggytree]

I would call most of the project a 2 out of 10 difficulty

Those 2 bolts on the left side I’d call a 7-8 of 10 difficulty.

Got fat fingers? It’s a 10

What is that box on the left bottom side? If that weren’t there it wouldn’t be too bad

[Pantera]

I would call most of the project a 2 out of 10 difficulty

Those 2 bolts on the left side I’d call a 7-8 of 10 difficulty.

Got fat fingers? It’s a 10

What is that box on the left bottom side? If that weren’t there it wouldn’t be too bad

Does the bike handle better with the sway bar installed?

[Quickdraw]

I watched a video where someone suggested a swivel head socket.

[Greven]

What size are the nuts? Will probably upgrade the sway bar this winter, might as well prepare and buy a few extra nuts before doing the job