Goodbye Torsion Bars | Page 2 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Goodbye Torsion Bars

the front will be limited at 12" to settle the debate
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





How much are you getting with the current setup with torsion bars?
 






about the same...11" but just upgrading to the c/o's won't allow me anymore travel...i'm basically limited to what the lower balljoints will let me droop since the upper has a horizontal uniball it would droop 90 degrees(theoretically) if it wasn't hindered by the shock clearance
 






Update

upper tower out of 1/4" plate:
explorer002.jpg

explorer001.jpg

old torsion bar w/key and sway bar:
explorer007.jpg

Mock up:
explorer005.jpg

explorer009.jpg
 












uh i'm not real sure at this point...it came off to disassemble the whole front but i'm thinking i'll probably leave it off it will free the front up a lot...it just depends on how it rides without it...

the lowers should have progress tomorrow. the plan is to box them with an x-gusset for strength...i should have pics of that tomorrow
 






Thats cool. My new lowers are on thier way to me, im gonna drop them off to him next week so he can weld them up and start on the uppers. That way everything will be good to go when i get the coilovers in a few weeks. Im still pretty anxious to see how this setup actually changes the handling and ride characteristics of an explorer.,
 






Alright this might be a dumb question, i've never seen a torsion key actually on a truck or on a torsion bar...what does it do exactly? Is that the right or left torsion bar? And why'd you install them, does arvin have them on his mountaineer?
 






I'm not sure I'd let "some guy" in his garage do fabwork on my nice expo, man...

:D
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x44/NODNARB79/EXPO003.jpg

^^^beefed up bumpstop pad

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x44/NODNARB79/EXPO002.jpg

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x44/NODNARB79/EXPO001.jpg

hope those links work...I'll add a couple more ribs to the underside of the arm tomorrow.

Also, since the towers needed to be taller than I had anticipated, I will be doing a simple bolt-on crossbar between the two shock towers.
 






Alright this might be a dumb question, i've never seen a torsion key actually on a truck or on a torsion bar...what does it do exactly? Is that the right or left torsion bar? And why'd you install them, does arvin have them on his mountaineer?

Torsion keys are on all torsion bars...tat is the driverside bar pictured. a bolt pushes against the smaller end (not attached to the bar itself) to provide the "twist" to the torsion bar.

You can get aftermarket keys, but they do exactly the same thing as cranking the bolt in further to increase the preload on the bar.
 






Thanks, thats kinda what i was thinking. I knew aftermarket keys weren't necessary.
 






By the way Brandon, everything looks real good, nice work, this suspension is gonna be so nice when completed!
 












I'm not sure I'd let "some guy" in his garage do fabwork on my nice expo, man...

:D
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x44/NODNARB79/EXPO003.jpg

^^^beefed up bumpstop pad

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x44/NODNARB79/EXPO002.jpg

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x44/NODNARB79/EXPO001.jpg

hope those links work...I'll add a couple more ribs to the underside of the arm tomorrow.

Also, since the towers needed to be taller than I had anticipated, I will be doing a simple bolt-on crossbar between the two shock towers.

oh well if it's 'some guy' doing the work i'll be sure to hang onto my receipt then...:rolleyes: everything looks like it's coming along great...
 












ok so the shocks were recieved today and the springs should ship out tomorrow....the shocks were the main conceren however since they were the only pieces needed for mock up...so since those are here brandon's going to cycle everything to make sure the lengths are correct and possibly fully weld up the drivers side by tomorrow,also he threw another gusset in the lower arm so those should be nice and strong...he said he'd post pics when he got a chance...so progress is being made...this should all be buttoned up by midweek next week...
 






That looks great! Let's see... What part of my explorer gets the #$%@ kicked out of it when I try to go over stuff... Oh yeah, my Torsion Bars! This is a great idea, I'll add it to the list of 'em I'm deciding to do...
 






okay, lets see if these pics work...
EXPO008.jpg


EXPO006.jpg


yeah, I know, what a tease...I gotta go back out to the garage & piss off the neighbors for at least another hour though!
 






How close is the clearance between the coil and the spindle/uniball?
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.











Back
Top