How many of you have had a torsion bar break. I had a 73 Satellite in the late 70’s. Parked on a job site in the morning, and when I got back in the car to drive home, noticed something wrong . Torsion bar broke sitting still.
Broken torsion bar
- Thread starter Mackman
- Start date
4vnut
Well-Known Member
Dad bought a brand new 67 Coronet 440 with a 383 that broke a torsion bar while parked in the drive way. The 5/50 warranty covered it and the left rear quarter glass that somehow broke at a later time. Strong running car at the time.
In the late 60's, I hit a pot hole that spun my car around on the left front wheel. It broke the American Torque Thrust wheel, broke the steering sector, bent the lower control arm, and broke the torsion bar on the left side. Those were the days, my front-end guy put it all back in tip top shape for $280.
$280 was a lot of money back then...
69 my dads 300K vert, sitting in the driveway loud bang & the RF corner dropped.... Which lead to him replacing both torsion bars & all four ball joints so it wouldn't break on the road..
Soon after that it was driven from California to New Jersey, loaded on a ship & picked up in Rota Spain... He didn't want us having car troubles in Europe..
- Local time
- 4:34 AM
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2012
- Messages
- 35,601
- Reaction score
- 125,444
- Location
- Granite Bay CA
I’ve never broken one.
From 1996-99 I made a couple of feature videos with car stunts using A body cars. I did off road driving, crashes and JUMPS. One 74 Dart Sport went almost 85 feet and got over 10 feet in the air. I bent frame rails, k members, control arms but never broke a torsion bar. Another car.. a 75 Dart 4 door got jumped 4 times. That car donated its disc brake spindles to this car:
I have never had trouble with aligning the car.
Still… over 10 jumps with two Darts, countless tough trails with a 73 Duster and no broken torsion bars.
From 1996-99 I made a couple of feature videos with car stunts using A body cars. I did off road driving, crashes and JUMPS. One 74 Dart Sport went almost 85 feet and got over 10 feet in the air. I bent frame rails, k members, control arms but never broke a torsion bar. Another car.. a 75 Dart 4 door got jumped 4 times. That car donated its disc brake spindles to this car:
I have never had trouble with aligning the car.
Still… over 10 jumps with two Darts, countless tough trails with a 73 Duster and no broken torsion bars.
Yep, I think I was making $70 a week at the time.
Greg, we need a link to those videos!!! 
- Local time
- 4:34 AM
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2012
- Messages
- 35,601
- Reaction score
- 125,444
- Location
- Granite Bay CA
I need to upload them to Rumble or YouTube.
Daves69
Well-Known Member
It's one of those things one never forgets if you're right there when it happens.
Had the passenger side let go on my '66 Charger way back. Use to hang out in the fast-food lots BS'n cars some nights. A couple friends and I were leaning against the front end when it sounded like a M-80 went off and the car dropped like a rock. Scared the hell out of us. First thought was the tire blew out. My friend Jerry was closest to it and said it wasn't the tire. He laid on the pavement reached under the car, discovering the bar had broken about 5 inches out from the control arm.
On the 7 or 8 mile ride home, I found left turns were no problem. Right turns need to be really wide.
- Local time
- 11:34 PM
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
- Messages
- 35,230
- Reaction score
- 94,435
- Location
- NZ - just short of the South Pole
That's some serious air Greg.
Just for clarity, are you suggesting that you could have jumped 43 washing machines stacked side-by-side? 
- Local time
- 11:34 PM
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
- Messages
- 35,230
- Reaction score
- 94,435
- Location
- NZ - just short of the South Pole
I have never broken a torsion bar....but I did jump a Hillman Imp several times ....up to 3 metres off the ground. Impressive at the time.
Rear mounted engine makes for relatively level flight.
What's impressive is the fact you still have a spine... It should have been crushed upon landing....I have never broken a torsion bar....but I did jump a Hillman Imp several times ....up to 3 metres off the ground. Impressive at the time.
Rear mounted engine makes for relatively level flight.
- Local time
- 11:34 PM
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
- Messages
- 35,230
- Reaction score
- 94,435
- Location
- NZ - just short of the South Pole
I'll admit to being a bit sore afterwards.
Nothing a few beers wouldn't remedy... "Not that I would know about such things.."
Tony Tee
Well-Known Member
I had one snap. On my 70 charger r/t se. Back in the early 80's easy and cheap fix back then as a had a few parts cars back then. It broke off just aft of the hex on the driver's side.
tonysrt
Well-Known Member
I had one break on a 58 Fury with about 100,000 miles around 1966. I bought one from a junk yard and replaced it. I was in the Service at the time so I couldn't afford new.
MCODECUDA
Well-Known Member
I’ve seen a broken bar but I’ve never seen one broke in a car.
- Local time
- 7:34 AM
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2020
- Messages
- 1,923
- Reaction score
- 5,971
- Location
- State College, Pennsylvania
Never had one break in a Mopar, but back when Kenworth trucks had torsion bar suspensions, I had one break while hauling a load back from the west coast to Iowa. Luckily it was on the driver's side, so with the load tilting to the "high side" of the road, I was able to limp it in.
Similar threads
