Need help with torsion bar!

[Kern Dog]

One other thing...assuming you did both sides.

There is a right and left on the torsion bars! If in the wrong side, the clocking of the bars won't let you get the correct adjustment. Some bars are marked on one end, for which side it goes.

I have read this before but haven't found it to be 100% true. Maybe I have just been lucky ?

From 2002 until early this year, I had Mopar Performance 1.0 torsion bars in my 70 Charger. Regarding installation, I had 2 choices: I could install them so the adjusters were almost bottomed out with the car still sitting low, OR with the car sitting right and the adjuster bolts sitting below the bottoms of the control arms. Check it out:

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Perhaps you have to go one more flat on the hex end. This will put the LCA down lower and be a bear to raise as their new (unsettled) torsion bars. In other words, the preload may be too light. Work safely as this can be a hazardous task.

I went back and read this post again. This is good info here.
My previous advice toward the beginning might have been wrong for a smaller, stock bar. I now have 1.15 torsion bars from Bergman Auto Craft. Pete told me for correct preload, the lower control arms are to be at full droop. The control arm socket that accepts the forward hex of the T-Bar has a "lever/finger". This is where the vehicle ride height adjuster bolt is leveraged against. That lever/finger needs to be level/horizontal. This allows the T-Bar to slide from the rear (Through the rear T-Bar anchor) to the front. Once the front hex is near the lower control arm, some "clocking" of the control arm hex socket may be required to get the hex to engage. Maybe a helper with a hammer and a block of wood at the rear might help. Two eyes on the control arm socket with a helper knocking it in at the other end??? Now knowing that you have stock bars with much less stiffness, the more correct advice might be to have that lever/finger to be resting BELOW horizontal to allow more preload using the adjuster screw/bolt.
Maybe you can post up some pictures with clear close-ups? Pictures really do help! You might be right at the point of success and some of the helpful eyes here can be what you need.
People with experience often say..."Oh, it is easy! All you have to do is....."
That can be annoying to people having trouble. These jobs are easy to someone that has done it successfully many times. Suspension/brakes/steering come naturally for me. I am just now getting better with soldering and electrical systems. I've run into problems, asked advice and felt like an idiot when guys say..."Oh, that is easy! All you have to do is...."

 

[miller]

WHAT! You mean they don't 'slip right in???' Sure, your right saying it's hard to explain things to someone who hasn't done it before. But, it can be done.

Don't know if it will help, but this is how it's always gone for the handful I've done. But know, best if the car is on the ground. If it's stuck on a lift, need to work around it.

Front end frame needs to be up...why, because the front wheels need to be off the car, to allow the lower arms to drop fully.

Assuming neither torque bar is in. Best for someone doing this the first time, to set both bars on the floor, and look! Try to determine right and left, front and back. On the floor, with one hex flat at the rears, look at the other end of each bar. No hex 'flat' on the front end will be flat against the floor. But...per side, one will be angled one way, the other bar the opposite. If they are the same, you have two of the same sides! The 'clocking' of the front hexes are opposite.

Don't pull the nut off the lower control arm...simply loosen it, to allow the pivot (and hex receiver) to slip into place. The lower arm needs to be at it's lowest point, but all parts in place. Look at the receiver hex, noting which way the hex is going. Adjuster screw needs to be in place, but backed off fully. If the bar is right, everything in position, bar should pretty much fall right in. Only thing I've ever had to do was a few light taps with a plastic hammer.
Sometimes it's hard for people to understand the bars are 'springs', but simply twist. When you put bars in, there is NO pre-load on them, not until there is the cars weight in place, and the adjuster screws are turned.
Once the bars are in, and locked in, adjust the adjuster screws in, until about one half inch of threads are exposed on the top side. That's your 'pre-load'...after bars are in.

 

[RoyC]

thank you ...still trying to make them work with no luck..

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ive. been told to remove the upper castle nut on the ball joint to get more drop on the lca is this something that works or not..?

 

[miller]

It's easy to miss something. Since your new at this, and don't feel alone, think you probably need a second pair of eyes on it. Anyone you know that might take a look at it? 'Something' is probably wrong, and that's what's hanging things up. Or, if possible...post some pics, so we can have a peek.

 

[Burt36b]

RoyC,

If I still lived in Oviedo, FL, I would pay you a visit and try to get those torsion bars installed. I moved to the Allentown, PA area only to be laid off after a year. I now live in the Savannah, GA area.

If the adjuster bolts are backed out until just 5-6 threads are engaged (with the front end up in the air), can you slide the torsion bars in? If you can, the adjuster bolts can be turned to adjust heights part way until the wheels are back on the ground. It sounds like you have tried this. I had to rotate the lower arms as far down as possible to engage my bars, then tighten the bolts 22 turns on my truck. I did have the same problem on my 2001 Dakota, but finally figured out the bars slide toward the rear, then to the front in order to engage. I did this myself, but it would have been far better to have another person guide one side while you work on the other.

Any chance there might be a wrench flat on the new control arm to position the hex?

Burt

 

[RoyC]

thanks for your support.. yes i have tried many times sliding the bars in and out with no luck turning the bolt clock wise to the max raising the car but just not enough ..no there is no wrench flat on the bars ..1968 dodge charger with a 440 its a general lee car ,

 

[CoronetDarter]

I just installed new torsion bars this weekend on my 69 Coronet. I also upgraded to disc brakes with new spindles, new tubular upper A arms, new tie rods, etc. My passenger side bar went in pretty easily, the driver's side took awhile. There was two of us, the second person is a big help; they can clock the T-bar in the cross member while the other person checks the LCA. With the car resting on jack stands we placed the floor jack underneath the rotor (or you can position under the LCA if the rotor isn't installed) and slowly raised the LCA. Raising/lowering the LCA should rotate the hex opening enough to clock the T-bar.
On the drivers side, we had to pull the T-bar back out of the cross member, then rotate it clockwise one "hex" to change the orientation in the LCA. We rotated the T-bar 3 hexes before the front orientated with the LCA. Theoretically it shouldn't matter, but I think with tolerances in the cross member, LCA and the T-bar, one has to find just the right orientation for clocking. And it still needed coaxing at the back with a block of wood and hammer to drive the T-bar into the LCA.

Check out post 343 for a pic of how mine looked after installation:
http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/showthread.php?75162-My-69-Coronet-project/page18

Someone else mentioned throwing some pics up so we can get a visual; it makes a difference. Good luck, let us know how it goes.

 

[Kern Dog]

I doubt anyone here can help any more than we have already. Looking over the posts here, I cannot imagine why this job is so difficult for anyone to do. Maybe check with your local Mopar club and see if they have monthly meetings. Here in Sacramento CA, our club has a website with contact info for many of our members. I'd expect other clubs to do the same. Maybe there are some YouTube videos online that you can watch? Hell, I don't know....Most of the time when I've had trouble with stuff I just fumble around with it until it fits.