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Torsion Bar Broken

fsumotorhead

Well-Known Member
Joined
November 8, 2006
Messages
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City, State
Monroe, MI
Year, Model & Trim Level
'96 Explorer Sport
So around 3am I heard a loud gunshot that woke me up, looked out my front window and didn't see anything. I waited at the window for a few minutes, I didn't see anyone else's lights come on, nor did I hear any approaching police cars, so I went back to bed.

Then I went to leave for work this morning, and this I what I found...


IMG_6809_zps467b312b.jpg


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I did spend two days beating on it hard in the Northern Ontario Bush, I figure if that didn't do it, nothing would.

I've never heard of one of these breaking, and beyond that it let go in the middle of the night!

I'm really considering retiring this rig, we'll see.
 



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I can see a rusted scratch on the front part of the torsion bar. The twisting motion of the bar, doesn't get along well with nicks and gouges in the bar.

Gerald has had bars break on the road. It's not terribly uncommon for a rig with a torsion twist to eventually break a bar. Probably due more to scratches and gouges from wheelin' than from the twist itself.

Don't give up on her, just throw a boneyard bar in and call it good :D
 






I might find a junkyard bar, but she's pretty beat.

I'll probably buy a V8 explorer and swap what's good over to that.

I'll post a link with pictures of the beatdown that was given prior to the failure, it was my favorite wheeling trip to date, also one of the most difficult.
 






Ouch
Where did you get the front bumper/guard or did you make it its just what I'm lookin for
 












Ouch
Where did you get the front bumper/guard or did you make it its just what I'm lookin for

I made it with the help of a good friend. It might be for sale soon to finance a new build.


How lucky is that to have it happen right in the garage? Wow.

No **** right!


Here's a link to lots of pictures from the weekend. I believe the ones from my rig start on page 3, but I still have about 50 more to upload.


http://www.greatlakes4x4.com/showthread.php?t=268725


I looked over the explorer and the damage to the crossmember is not as bad as I thought, butit's still junk (shifted/bent 6" to the rear).

If I can pick this ride up for under $500, I will retire the red one and build it up.

http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/cto/4051601749.html
 






talk about gangster lean :cool:
 






How it happened while standing in garage. I still don't understand.
 






Explorer next to Mercedes. Love it.
Leaning like it's hitting on the Merc. ;)

But, you're ever so lucky that it happened in the garage, and no one was near it.
 






Haha, it does look like it's leaning in close to whisper sweet nothings in the merc's grille.

I wonder what would have happened if that broke while you were driving. You would still have steering, braking, and (for a little while at least) drive power to that wheel. I wonder if you would have been able to limp it off to the side of the road.
 






This rig has been a trailered, trail only, rig for the last 5 years. It maybe saw up to 20 miles on the pavement at any one time. Our trip to Canada was 30+ miles on the way to the trails and 60 miles back (the street driving suuuucked!). We were headed northwest from Goulias River on Highway 17 North around Batchawana Bay. We were doing 50-55mph to keep the logging trucks from stacking up behind our group.

If the torsion bar would have broke while driving (or the tire falling off, AGAIN), I am 90% certain me and my co-pilot would not have survived. There were many parts where the inland side of the road was sheer rock, and the other side was a 3 wire "guardrail" to prevent us from careening into Lake Superior.


I can not ignore how lucky I am that it broke in the garage and not while driving, or even if it would have broke on the trail we would have been fine physically, but it probably would have taken two days to get it out of the bush.

...and added up with some other difficulties we had on the trail, the slave cylinder went out and the left front tire fell off TWICE, I think it's time to start the search for a new rig.

I'll be parting this out soon and everything on it will be available.

My next rig is probably going to take two years to build, but my plans are for a V8 four door on 1 tons, probably running 37" MTRs
 






Looking forward to watching the build :D
 






I wonder what would have happened if that broke while you were driving. You would still have steering, braking, and (for a little while at least) drive power to that wheel. I wonder if you would have been able to limp it off to the side of the road.

It's happened to Gerald before:eek: You would have to ask him, or dig through some old threads to see what exactly happened. He may have even done it more than once...
 






It's happened to Gerald before:eek: You would have to ask him, or dig through some old threads to see what exactly happened. He may have even done it more than once...

This is an old thread but I just noticed it.... mine broke in below-freezing weather when I hit a hard dip going across an intersection way too fast. I figure old wear from the trail + hard bump + frozen metal = break.

It was quite exciting coming to a stop. The tire stuffed into the wheelwell which effectively gave me one-sided braking which threw me to the right into the shoulder of the road, but I recovered enough to prevent getting taken completely off the road.

I wish it had happened in the garage, that's for sure. That was a very long night in very cold weather waiting for a tow truck!
 






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