So about 6 months ago I decided it was time to service the swaybar disconnect. It was a little rusty but pretty good in there for a 14 year old Ruby. It had given me trouble prior to the service hence the need to do it asap. When it went back together it just did not work so I disconnected it from the system using HPTuners. Recently I though that by re-enabling it it would perhaps disconnect but did not and I drove around with the sway bar light flashing. Two days ago a neighbour knocked on the door saying my Jeep was on fire. Turned out it was the plug onto the disconnect and the plug on the actual mechanism had burnt up and I suspect the motor was trying to move and heated the plug up. Lucky the harness was ok so I removed the plug and isolated the wires and told the Jeep it was not there anymore. In went a EVO manual disconnect - benefit is now I can wheel in 4 high above 20kph.
Why I am posting this is wwhat I found with the motor portion is that the small shaft (top-right in the pic) was siezed in place and most likely was the cause of the issue in the first place. My advice to others when servicing the unit is to split the bar and clean and very lightly grease the coupling gears but also remove the motor section and ensure the actuator works and the position shaft is free moving. Might prevent what happened to me.

 

Good info. I will probably go with Curry Antirocks when mine kicks the bucket lol. But the EVO is a good option as well.

 

Glad your neighbor is a good neighbor!

 

Yes I am glad he helped and the vehicle didn't burn up as the insurance value with the V8 is just not there. Loss other than fire is not as bad as I could buy the Jeep back and transfer the drivetrain to my pet dream project - a brand new built from parts CJ8 Scrambler or J10 with coilovers. Nice and simple.