need some help with my suspension

[drifter69]

I rebuilt my front suspension and put new 1.06 t-bars in the car. I have not had a allignment done yet but the ride hight in front is about 1" higher than the back and the adjustment on the t-bars is all the way out and I can't lower it any more. Will they be able to fix this with the allignment.

[dlo3575]

I like your signature.....Out law Josey Wales???

[drifter69]

Thanks.

[Chryco Psycho]

the alignment will not help , I had the same problem with a set of 1.25 " bars , the hex needs to be clocked at a different angle to make it work

[Budnicks]

It won't make the ride height lower by aligning it, maybe some Fat Jack or Magnumforce drop spindles will help...  Why the 1.06" diameter torsion bars ?  Are you doing auto cross or something ?  The .960" MP or Just Suspension 1.0" is usually well more than enough, even with an iron head Hemi, I'm just curious...

[drifter69]

I had ordered smaller bars from PST but they told me they were on back order for awhile. They then said they would give me the bigger bars for the same price.   I had no idea they would effect the ride hight that much.

[Chryco Psycho]

Contact them & see what they will do for you , going over 1" will give a firmer ride but not harsh just a more modern car feel , but the ends need to be clocked correctly or you end up with a 4x4 & no adjustment

[drifter69]

When you say clocked. do you need special tools to do that? How is that done. And yes it looks like a 4x4. The back looks great the front, not so much.

[Chryco Psycho]

clocking is the angle between the front & rear hex on the torsion bar when forged , nothing you can do to change it , are they marked left & right on the end of the bars , the factory ones have different clocking left & right

[drifter69]

The body shop is the ones that put them in. Is it possible that if they  went in onthe wrong side it would cause this. I am not sure if they are marked right and left, they are PST bars and I did not get a look at them before install. I will call them and ask. I have heard the larger bars did not matter but I wish I would have looked into this closer before I bought them. Can I make them work or will I need new bars to get the ride in front down.

[HPP]

The body shop is the ones that put them in.

That's probably the problem. A lot of mopar guys don't know how to correctly install t-bars after a complete front end tear down, so the odds of a generic body shop knowing this are even slimmer. Yes, it is possible they did not install them on the correct sides, but this becomes less important on the larger sizes than it is on the smaller diameters.

To correctly clock everything, the relationship of the adjusting blade/lower control arm hex/mounting nut and the lower control arm are important. You can't just bolt these together and shove in the bar.  The lower control arm must be installed, but not torqued down. The rest of the suspension needs to be installed and hand tightened. The final step is to put the suspension at full droop, make sure you have the right and left side t-bars on the correct sides, then slide in the bar and verify the hex in the control arm lines up with the hex in the rear anchor. This may require moving the adjusting blade to move the front hex. One they line up and the bar goes in, then you can torque everything to spec.

The exception to this process is if you use 1.22" bars and do not change the index on the rear anchor. But, the 1.06 bars you have should drop right in.

[ChargerST]

verify the hex in the control arm lines up with the hex in the rear anchor. This may require moving the adjusting blade to move the front hex. One they line up and the bar goes in, then you can torque everything to spec.

Are you sure that the hex on the front and rear of the bar line up? On my factory .92 bars the rear is 30° off (if one side of the hex lies flat on the ground the other side will lie on the hex edge.

[drifter69]

Thanks I have alot to look at it sounds like.

[HPP]

verify the hex in the control arm lines up with the hex in the rear anchor. This may require moving the adjusting blade to move the front hex. One they line up and the bar goes in, then you can torque everything to spec.

Are you sure that the hex on the front and rear of the bar line up? On my factory .92 bars the rear is 30° off (if one side of the hex lies flat on the ground the other side will lie on the hex edge.

Two different things actually, but it demonstrates how easy it is to install them wrong.

Yes, the actual hex ends on a t-bar may be offset. The stock offset is 30*. Most bars ever sold by Mopar have the 30* offset. This is why the chassis book always sugested re-indexed the rear anchors on lowered cars to allow cars to sit lower with the proper pre-load on the bars. Firm Feel and I believe Hotchkis, are building their bars with a 15* offset since they are offering higher rates and their customers typically tend to have lowered cars. Other performance manufacturers in days gone by made some bars with zero offset.

So what I wasn't clear about, the hex in the rear anchor and the hex in the control arm should not be perfectly in line with each other, but rather should be in line with the 30* offset of the t-bar ends. To many times guys just shove in the control arm, torque it down, stab in the t-bar, see they don't line up so they lift the arm until the bar pops in, and then wonder why they can't adjust their ride height any higher or lower. This is why I said slide in the bar and verify the hexs line up. If the suspension is at full droop and the hexes are correctly indexed, the t-bar will slid right in. As it can happen, the socket in the lower control arm can be off a bit and the installers feel compelled to lift the arm one way or another to align the hexes.

But, before doing any of this, always, always, always verify the left and right side are on the correct sides.

[Chryco Psycho]

at full droop the 30 degree bars line up you will have to raise the adjuster slightly to line up with 15* bars