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Can the torsion bar go in wrong?

Wow I honestly had no idea of the risk of adjusting with weight on. Did my dad’s car a couple times.
30yr auto body guy. NOTED!
 
gkent said:
Why do you need to pull the t-bar ??? Just let the LCA drop down and the nut will come out. From the looks of all the crud it may need a tap with a hammer but that should do it. No need to pull the t-bar.


And the ONLY way a t-bar can go in wrong is if its on the wrong side. Front to back doersn't matter. They are stamped L and R on the ends.
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67RTblue said:
Wow I honestly had no idea of the risk of adjusting with weight on. Did my dad’s car a couple times.
30yr auto body guy. NOTED!
Click to expand...
I’ve been seeing some guys adjusting the torsion bars with jack stands under the lower control arms. Isn’t that’s the same as having the weight on them?
 
qkcuda said:
The scar has healed but first thing in the morning I can only close it about half way. I was told it could take up to a year to get back to normal.
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Not nearly as gnarly as what happened to you but a long time ago a defective cutoff wheel went thru the skin on my knuckle to the bone. I didn’t have insurance so I butterfly’d it closed myself. For the longest time, like a year or so, it was stiff, especially in the morning. There is still a tiny scar but it took forever to feel normal, don’t want to think about my hand opening up like yours.
 
67RTblue said:
Wow I honestly had no idea of the risk of adjusting with weight on. Did my dad’s car a couple times.
30yr auto body guy. NOTED!
Click to expand...
I've been seeing videos and some guys do the adjustment with the car on jackstands under the frame and some guys do it with jackstands under the lower control arms. And each will tell you not to do it the other way.
chrger1967 said:
I finished putting together and was adjusting the ride height so I could torque the lower control arms and the strut rods. As I was turning the adjuster screw there was a big bang and my socket and rachet went flying. I pulled out the adjusting screw and the threads from the adjuster itself were on the bolt. What could I have done wrong? The adjuster nut is tight and won’t move.

View attachment 1933666

View attachment 1933667
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Update. Looks like I didn’t do it wrong. Look at this smarter block. There’s no threads left. I put in the QA1 bolts and blocks on and brought the car up to 25”. No hits, no bangs no errors

image.jpg
 
chrger1967 said:
I've been seeing videos and some guys do the adjustment with the car on jackstands under the frame and some guys do it with jackstands under the lower control arms. And each will tell you not to do it the other way.



View attachment 1935678
Click to expand...
Do it any way you'd like, just don't do it with the control arms on the jackstands!! :lol:

( if you do it on control arms, could get ugly real fast. Put stands on frame rails)
 
When you think about it, it’s understandable that the threads might fail on these blocks. There’s a lot of stress on a very small amount of metal.
 
Jerry Hall said:
Were you adjusting the ride height with weight on the suspension?
Click to expand...
I was adjusting them with the car up on a jack with the wheel barely off the ground. That way I could drop it, check the height and raise it again to make more adjustments. I'm pretty sure it was the bolt and block that failed.
 
chrger1967 said:
I finished putting together and was adjusting the ride height so I could torque the lower control arms and the strut rods. As I was turning the adjuster screw there was a big bang and my socket and rachet went flying. I pulled out the adjusting screw and the threads from the adjuster itself were on the bolt. What could I have done wrong? The adjuster nut is tight and won’t move.

View attachment 1933666

View attachment 1933667
Click to expand...
After putting everything together, I found the driver side is much stiffer than the passenger side. I'm wondering if it could be the shock is tight on one side and a little looser on the other. I will see.
 
Kern Dog said:
So? I've done this numerous times over the years in different cars with a variety of torsion bar sizes.



Not all are. Some just have numbers or a manufacturers letters.

View attachment 1933910



That is unfortunate. That looks painful.
There are advisories against adjusting with the tires on the ground but it has never been a problem for me. Maybe the failures are much more likely with cars that have rusty parts? Out here, that isn't the case so I've often just made an adjustment, rolled the car back and forth to settle the steering and suspension and repeated the process until I am satisfied with the height.
Click to expand...
IF they are actual Mopar Bars then most have not only L & R on the bars but many times they have the bar diameter. HOWEVER, as with all L & R differentiated parts, odd numbers are always LEFT and even numbers are Right in the position indicated.
 
AR67GTX said:
I see a jack under the a-arm. Was that how the front of the car was being supported or were there jack stands under the frame allowing the front suspension to hang free? Remove the upper a-arm bump stops to let the suspension droop fully and the new bolt and the adjuster block will slide right in. I lube it with anti-sieze compound. Tighten them up approximately equal amounts on both sides, drop the weight on to the tires, bounce it a few times and roll it a couple feet back and forth and measure side to side. Jack back up, adjust accordingly until you get it where you want and sitting level from side to side. The torsion bar doesn’t need to come back out.
Click to expand...
I used Permatex copper anti-seize on the adjusters when I rebuilt my front suspension a few years ago and everything has been good.
 
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