Emergency! Help! Torsion key flip! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Emergency! Help! Torsion key flip!

ornithology

Well-Known Member
Joined
January 20, 2009
Messages
280
Reaction score
0
City, State
Vancouver, BC
Year, Model & Trim Level
'03 X Sport2dr 4.0 V6 XLT
Aw man...so tonight I tried my torsion flip. My friggin POS gear puller flipped on me. However I managed to still get the key out. But now I can't put it back in because my gear puller is messed.

I read somewhere that if I remove the upper ball joint it will relieve all pressure on the torsion bar and thus I can continue with my torsion key flip. Does anyone have any input on this? Please help me! I have work tomorrow and my car at the moment is NOT SAFE to drive around with the key out! lol...
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year or try it out for $5 a month.

Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





disconnecting the upper control arm at the pinch bolt should help relieve some of the tension of the bars but i'm not sure if it will relieve all of it for you to be able to finish up.. yes, its worth a try so go ahead and do that..

what happened to your gear puller? did you brace it so it wouldnt move?
 






I disconnected the pinch bolt but the spindle wouldn't come off...I just took off the control arm. So far I only did the driver side and that took me 6 friggin' hours. My arm is sore as heck. Hopefully the spindle will come off on the passenger side when I do it in the morning...
 






You can try and spread the spindle a bit for some help...then use a hammer to drive the control arm up out of the spindle. Now you need an alignment...which you were probably planning on anyway.
 






Canadian tire also has tools for loan program, you put down a deposit and when it is returned you get your money back, , it's a good deal,,just don't break the tool,,
call your local canadian tire parts counter ,and see if they have the one you need,, they might even have a torsion unloading tool,,
 






Torsion unloading tool eh, if only I knew that earlier lol. I managed to get the driver side back on and to work...now to do the passenger side today...

I'm going to see if I can get the spindle off on the passenger side this time to drop the tension more. Damn this is a lot harder than what I thought haha.
 






Yay! Success....finally got it done.

Took some pics, but having issues uploading, I'll try to link to a imageshack photo or something later.

Thanks all for you rinput.
 






stupid question.......what is a torsion key?
 






under 2nd gen front end are the torsion bars,, one end is into a hex shaped spot that is made into the lower control arm on the front end of the vehicle,
on the other end it is hex shaped as well, but it is put into a torsion key that is mounted in a holder, it has a bolt thru a retainer that goes to it, , that can be adjusted to allow for raising or lowering the front of the vehicle,, some people flip the keys for various reasons, uaually to make the front lower,
 






thanks for the info.I have done a torsion twist to raise my x but I had no idea about the whole torsion key flip.
 






I managed to get it done. Thanks for all the input. Will post pics shortly.
 






Here they are, not a huge drop, but a drop none the less. Getting an alignment and new wheels mounted tomorrow.
Before
03sport007.jpg


After
sonyw1100251.jpg

sonyw110010.jpg
 






Back
Top