bigger torsion bars causing ride height problem

[red79]

I installed a new set of 1.03" torsion bars, and now I'm having a weird ride height problem.

My first attempt resulted in there not being enough twist in the bars, and so even with the adjusters all the way in, the car only lifted off the lower bump stop about an inch. I figured I needed to rotate the LCA around each torsion bar 1 socket position (60 degrees) to get the proper setup.

I had a difficult time installing the t bar this way, I needed to unbolt the upper ball joint and the shock in order to allow the LCA to rotate down that much. I also had to completely back out the adjusting bolt. Unfortunately, once everything was put back together, there was *too much* tension in the bar, and now the car is sitting against the *upper* bump stops with no way to adjust it downward. 

What am I doing wrong?? Please help, thanks!

[tan top]

    have you got pictures whats happened 


make sure the  lower control arm cam finger is at the lowest position ie right on top of the torsion bar adjusting bolt at its lowest position , bolt wound right out  the same both sides
   use plenty of antiseize copper grease  on adjusting bolt

[femtnmax]

Are the Tbars installed on the wrong side of the car?   Seems I've read something like this and was caused by Tbars on wrong side of car.

[HPP]

Depending on the manufacturer, there may not be a right and left bar on sizes over 1". Mopar bars typically do not, but others do. So, the first question would be who's bars do you have and do you have the bars on the correct sides? Second would be going all the way back to the original t-bar de-install proceedure.  Did you unload the adjusters all teeh way, drop the control arms all the way down, pull out the old bars, then install the new bars in the identical position? If not, then you altered the install. If either of the arms or adjusters moved up when you installed the new bars, then you may have the ride height problems you described. The only reason you would move the control arm assembly up from this position before installing the bars would be if you were running even bigger, like 1.22, sized bars.

[red79]

The bars are from p-s-t, and according to the tech they've sold over 700 pairs with no complaints of improper fit, so I figure it's an installation problem. The bars are marked left- and right-, and I verified that they are on the correct side. The bars have an inbuilt 30deg twist like stock bars, but no preload due to the increased rate.

I am installing these bars after a complete teardown of the suspension, including blasting, powdercoating, and all new bushings, so I wasn't able to simply replicate the original position. However, I figure there are only two possible ways to orient the LCA socket relative to the bar--adjacent 60 deg steps due to the hex end, nothing else is in the range of combined suspension travel + adjusting screw position.

The first socket setting seemed to work, installing the bars unloaded with the screw about 2/3 out and the LCA at approximately the lower end of suspension travel, but when setting the ride height, the adjusting screw bottomed out all the way in with the car less than an inch off the lower bump stops.

I then rotated the socket to the next 'lower' position. This required backing the adjusting screw all the way out, as well as disconnecting the upper ball joint to give the LCA enough downward travel for its socket to rotate a total of 60 degrees. In order to bolt everything back together, I had to jack the LCA up to meet the UCA. Unfortunately, the load in the t bar was great enough that the suspension now remains nearly at the top limit of travel even with the full weight of the car on the tire. Because the adjusting screw is already all the way out, there's no way to drop it down any more.

I guess the only thing to do now is fiddle with it, and see if there's anything I missed. The tech from p-s-t offered to accept a return if I can't make them work, or accept them as a partial trade for a more costly MP set they also carry. They've been very helpful so far, I talked directly to their mopar guy who had just got off the phone with someone successfully using a set in an E-body. It's just unfortunate, I've never thought of t-bar installs as particularly tricky, but I'm starting to pull out my hair.

[HPP]

Okay, so the entire front end was rebuilt so everything was apart. Both of your installation methods sound like there is a problem in hex alignment.  If the height bolt was only 2/3 of the way out on teh first install, it didn't drop enough, so yes, I can see the next 30* drop requiring you disconnect a ball joint. The t-bar socket and height adjust arm are fixed to the control arm, so you couldn't have goofed their orientation when the bushings went back together. But, you can goof up teh control amr install in to the K frame.

When you installed the lower control arm, did you torque down the main control arm stud and put the cotter pin in before you installed the t-bar? I wonder if perhaps you locked it in to a range of motion that wasn't jiving with the hex alignment. What you could do is back the t-bar out of the socket, turn the height adjusting nut all most all the way down, remove the upper control arm bumper,  remove the cotter pin and loosen the control arm stud nut, then rotate the hex socket to align with the bar hex, shove the t-bar in, then tighten down the stud nut. This should correct the hex alignment. Then everything should all go back together normal an dyou adjust the ride height with the bolt. However, with a 1.03 t-bar, it might not take much adjustment to get it to ride height.