Solved Torsion Bar 101, Everything you Need to look for!

[albi1cnobi1]

Hey duggyd123,

I picked them up at www.desertrat.com . I believe they were about $69.

Good luck, Al

 

[steelo1]

Ditto, and they should not be the same all around. The truck is made of hundreds of parts, and variations in fenders, body mounts, the frame, control arms, and mounting hole tolerances, those affect ride height.

The suspension should be level, not the body. The suspension does the work, the fenders are just hung there for looks. Doesn't anyone ever watch car racing, and know what handling balance is, jacking a corner etc?

When you make the suspension not level, the truck doesn't handle the best it can. It will be better in one direction and worse in the other. That may be great for a circle track car, NASCAR etc, but bad for street use.

Make the suspension level, measure from the suspension to the ground, on level ground. Find a suspension point at each corner, and make the left and right measurements the same. Do that and then go get an alignment. No one on Earth can look at your truck and tell if the left fender is different than the right, plus they don't care. Worry about the suspension, the handling and safety. Regards,

I was maybe being to general as there is a difference of about 1/2" left to right. High side being the left, as down here that's the side of the road we drive on. Centre of the road being the high point, is on the right & lower the left (for us Aussie's), isn't this called the "camber"?

 

[CDW6212R]

... as long as a consistent reference point is used, it shouldn't matter much how you measure the suspension.
...

I agree, and the key there is to measure the suspension and not the body. I measure from level ground up to the LCA bolt, to the center. That is very easy to measure, my lower Mountaineer is near 8", while my Explorer is about 9.5" there.

Both of my trucks are well over 1/2" different in height at the fenders. I set them both where I liked the height in my driveway, and had the alignment shop level it more precisely on their rack.

I'm not sure on stock heights, but I do recall ending up with about 33.25" on my Explorer, about .75" more in the back. I have 1" lowering blocks on that truck, and it could use going down some more for my taste.

The best height for ride will be where the front LCA's are level with the ground, horizontal. As you go farther away from level, the suspension is getting close to it's limit in that direction. You feel more bumps and they are harsher, than with the LCA level. The torsion bars don't like a lot of wheel travel, it's not an ideal spring. They are just adequate.

 

[jay3253]

Aside from the skyjacker kit is there a way to lower the front diff a little (an inch or so) to crank the Torsion bars a little more? This will help with the CV alignment and make it less likely to bind.

 

[mandkfink]

How to measure the right way

Hey all!

First off i have to say this is a very informitive board. And im not posting this to start any arguments.

I have noticed a lot of questions on how to measure your ride height. And after reading the entire thred no one has said the correct way to measure. People are saying to measure from the ground to the fender. This is incorrect.

See every one has different size tires. So for the purpose of examply, these numbers are used just for reference none are real. If from the ground to the fender is 35inches with a 30 inch tire it would not be the same for someone with a say 32 inch tire. The measurement would be estamated at 37 inches off the ground.

The correct way to measure is from the center of the wheel to the fender. This measurement will not be affected no matter the size of the tire.

Again not trying to start a fight or argument just giving my 2cents

 

[CDW6212R]

There is no way to measure like that and be consistent, the bodies are all different from the factory. Go to any Ford lot and measure from your preferred wheel center up to the fender, on a truck. The distances will be different left to right, truck to truck.

What is more important, the appearance from 30 feet away(and you can't tell by eye how much each side is different), or the suspension being straight and true? I prefer to worry about the suspension and the measurements to ground. You cannot look at my truck and tell one side is 1/2" different at the fender than the other.

 

[mandkfink]

Well i can tell you that 3 friends of mine have sport tracs none lifted and all are with in 1/2inch, including mine.

If you could explane better to me how the bodies are diff on the same make and year of a vehicle, i dont fully understand.

And i will do as suggested. Tomorrow when i go to work at the ford dealership i will measure them for you.

 

[CDW6212R]

Members on here have reported as much as about 3/4" difference from one side to the other, when their truck was stock. It is very rare to discover that both sides match.

The suspension doesn't care how the body is hung, low or high etc. But if you jack up one side of the suspension to make the fenders even, then the weight on each corner is altered, just like race cars do. They do it to improve handling for racing. On a street vehicle it probably will not be enough to feel actually, but the steering and handling in each direction will be changed. Race car drivers jack weight into the car for a purpose.

For street use it's generally best to always strive for balance, in this case equal suspension height. The control arm bolts should be at equal heights when on level ground. Any alignment shop can do that easily as part of the alignment.

Of course for off road use being a little off is no big deal. I just keep mentioning it so people understand that they aren't perfect to start with.

 

[mandkfink]

thanks for the explanation i understand now. just to clarify it was not that they were same on each side. I worded it wrong. What i ment was each side was with in 1/2 an inch of each other.

Guess i was wrong.

 

[CDW6212R]

There's no problem with a tiny change, but often some people set about cranking the bars to level the fenders. If the LCA ends up 1/2" or so different on one side, that's not good. The real problem is when people measure the fender, but never the LCA points. I hope people learn to mention that when they get an alignment. It's easy for them to level the LCA if they are asked.

 

[BrianDye]

I'm hoping to study up on this more this week, and hopefully drop my front about 1.5-2" this weekend to level my explorer out. I just hate that I'll have to drop like 9"$ to have an alignment lol. Am I putting more stress on any parts or affecting the ride at all by dropping the front a tad? My leafs are sagging so until I can get new leafs and lowering blocks for the back, I wanna drop the front.

 

[CDW6212R]

Front axles don't like being far from level, so keep them within about 2" or so of level. The ride gets worse as the LCA gets far from level also. People say that that is due to the torsion bars. I think it has more to do with the angle of the LCA, putting more bump forces into the chassis than when the LCA is level.

The special lift spindles help the ride for that reason. I hope to be able to modify stock spindles to move the BJ's down some. Doubtful I know, but we'll see.

 

[Fifty150]

Okay, 22 pages is ridiculous. Can we have one of the moderators simply take the photos from the initial post, some details as to which parts & tools are needed, plus perhaps a step by step tutorial with photos - and just make a sticky? Who is going to bother reading 22 pages?

 

[BrianDye]

22?

I see 11

The info you need is on the first page on what to crank/twist. The rest is just questions and answers about this and that with the bars.

 

[corkey]

be careful with leveling the a arms as that will make the cv's level across too, and they are not really designed for that , as the arms move up the length shortens, and that can bind the cv's joints too , as they are meant to be on a bit of an angle.
if you have ever had a cv apart and looked at it the bearing race sufaces are elongated so the holder in the middle can move causing the ball bearings to move too, and the races are not really designed to have the ball bearings either far in or out, ,

 

[BrianDye]

So my best bet would really be to just leave it alone? Im not looking to drop it 5" lol, just like 1.5-2"

I dont really have money to shell out when parts are wearing prematurely and failing etc

 

[Fifty150]

22?

I see 11

The info you need is on the first page on what to crank/twist. The rest is just questions and answers about this and that with the bars.

22 if you count it twice

Great photos on that first page. Now all I need to know is if you have to jack up the truck, place it on jack stands, take the wheels off, which tool to use (ratchet handle & socket? wrench? torque wrench? breaker bar?), which size tool (metric or sae?), use penetrating oil, which way to turn (clockwise? counter-clockwise?), is this a 6 pack job or 12 pack job? All the little details that aren't on the photo. Don't get me wrong. I love the photos. But a step by step tutorial would be over the top.

Now let me go count those pages again. I could end up with 33.

 

[Fifty150]

Page 22 of 22 < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 ......33

 

[bowhunter98]

exploder, i cranked mine 3x then measured between the floor and front crossmember on each side.

Do you mean 3 full revolutions?

 

[Fifty150]

.....another one that lets his wife tell him what to do!

Thats a great, but now my wife says she does not no way want me to do the tt shackle lift, and thats after I bought the warrior war153's, and had help promised.

I'm only running 31's but the spine on the drivers side wore through, and I was thinking that when I replaced the 31's I'd go with 32's, Oh well.....

Thanks for responding though, and maybe she'll change her mind again, who knows