Torsion Bar Adjustment

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spressomon

spressomon

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I wanted to raise the front of my LC about an inch as it seems to be sagging abit. This would be a temporary fix until I can afford to get HD t-bars, shocks, diff drop kit, springs etc. The t-bar tension/preload adjuster bolts are currently not equal on each side. The DS bolt is almost fully tightened (only about 1/4" left to tighten befor the bolt 'bottoms out'). And the PS has about 1" threads before bottoming out. Is this probably due to the t-bars not being indexed by the PO? I would assume the fix would be to take the DS apart to re-index to provide more adjustment range?
 
Can you confirm that it was level i.e. correct before? Man, if I was going to reindex a bar, I would pay the money for some new bars i.e. it is some work or.........................................buy a new indexing bolt with longer threads. Not the best to do this but it will work in a pinch. I would assume that you would have to order the bolt but I am sure it can be done. I would check to make absolutely sure that your 100 is level and just does not look level. My bolts were dead on from the factory after 7 years i.e. same amount of threads.
 
Originally I was just going to raise the front a bit by adjusting the bolts. However, just as you have said, I don't really want to take all the time to index the stock bars...so I maybe getting the ARB's sooner than I thought :) Good idea on the bolt...assuming I could find one with the proper thread size/count/length.
 
I believe those are special, high-tensile bolts for the t-bars. I bought a set of replacement bolts for a 4runner a few years back...ran like $80 for a pr of bolts w/ the washers/nuts. I wouldn't recommend sticking any bolt w/ proper length/threads. If it snaps, your suspension will collapse!
 
Jim_Chow said:
I believe those are special, high-tensile bolts for the t-bars. I bought a set of replacement bolts for a 4runner a few years back...ran like $80 for a pr of bolts w/ the washers/nuts. I wouldn't recommend sticking any bolt w/ proper length/threads. If it snaps, your suspension will collapse!
Click to expand...

Excellent advice. :cool:

Just take your one bar out lacking adjustment, put it back in one spline over then re-tighten and adjustto your liking. :)
 
I would imagine that a bolt company, not a hardware store or the like, would have an alternative to the bolt. On our 100's, there are no washers or nuts so it is just the threads holding the bar.

Shotts: I like your style.."take your one bar out lacking adjustment, put it back in one spline over then re-tighten and adjustto your liking". That is a lot of work for a little adjustment ( :
 
Ah, IIRC the stock t bars have an index on the spline, and therefore cannot be re-indexed. It will only go in one way. The new T bars will go in any position.
What is the fender to rim height now?
Dean
 
I think I read a thread recently where someone just filed down a few of the splines on a t-bar that wasn't installing quite right and was very happy with the result. I think the indexing spline could be similarly dealt with. I would be inclined to just reindex the old bars.

My ? would be what was the PO doing under there in the first place? Was he a closet MUDer who stripped the OME T-bars off before he sold it to you and then improperly reinstalled the stock T-bars?
 
The OEM bars have spline made of soft plastic/urethane adhesive. You could scrape it easily with small screwdriver.
 
I saw nothing like that on my T bars from the 98 i.e. a indexing spline.

Odd???
 
NMuzj100 said:
I think I read a thread recently where someone just filed down a few of the splines on a t-bar that wasn't installing quite right and was very happy with the result. I think the indexing spline could be similarly dealt with. I would be inclined to just reindex the old bars.

My ? would be what was the PO doing under there in the first place? Was he a closet MUDer who stripped the OME T-bars off before he sold it to you and then improperly reinstalled the stock T-bars?
Click to expand...

Yea...I can't imagine how the two t-bars on my LC got this way...one of the many misteries of buying a used vehicle.
 
spressomon said:
Yea...I can't imagine how the two t-bars on my LC got this way...one of the many misteries of buying a used vehicle.
Click to expand...

My 2001 came that way new. One adjuster was almost used up and the other had lots of adjust left.
When we installed the new bars we had to remove the new bar on one side and go a spline or two over in order to get the same lift on that side. :confused:

Once it was done though, it was done! :)
 
Maybe it's along the same lines as why the 80 has uneven coil lengths. :confused:
 
Might be due to statistical variattions in the spring rate on each t-bar, which will be different. My guess is every once in a while, there's an odd ball bar?
 
NMuzj100 said:
I think I read a thread recently where someone just filed down a few of the splines on a t-bar that wasn't installing quite right and was very happy with the result. I think the indexing spline could be similarly dealt with. I would be inclined to just reindex the old bars.

My ? would be what was the PO doing under there in the first place? Was he a closet MUDer who stripped the OME T-bars off before he sold it to you and then improperly reinstalled the stock T-bars?
Click to expand...

NMuzj, that was probably me you were thinking about. I had problems with one of my new OME bars not wanting to slide into the holder/mount. It definitely was the T-bar because I tested it on the other end and no problems.
But what I’m trying to say is, those mother fockers are hard! Good luck scraping off plastic (Augie mentioned) (which I did not see on my ‘98) or filing some splines. I guess you could take a grinder to it (no loss at this point) and probably take it down. I only needed to “free it up” so a grinder was not an option for me.
Dean
 
Dean - I was referring to your experience with the OME bars and needing to file a bit to get them in. Everyone is so quick to throw out those stock T-bars when all he wants is an inch without any bumper weight. I would work on the OEM bars a little first, especially if I had the :banana:s to do it the way spressomon does. The man just built his own sliders from scratch, because he could and he lacked the expendable "kanchinga" to buy them from a dealer. :cheers:

hoser said:
Maybe it's along the same lines as why the 80 has uneven coil lengths. :confused:
Click to expand...

The suspension is definitely asymmetric. In the FSM (Thanks CDan - I'll never go back to a Haynes) [SA-64] it advises different "anchor arm bolt" depth specifications for the right and left hand sides. The spec also has an acceptable range of around 2/3 of an inch (17mm) so it should not suprise that we see so much difference from truck to truck. Looks like there can be quite a bit of torsion bar variation (Jim's "statistical variation" in spring rate) that has to be compensated for by anchor arm adjustment.

Measuring proper vehicle height is covered in the front wheel alignment procedure [SA-5] and involves measuring the difference between the height of the "spindle center" (basically the wheel center) and the lower suspension arm as measured from the center of the the front bolt. For stock the spec'ed difference should be 2.795 inches.

Now I need to go get under my truck and see why my driver's side sits 1/2 inch lower than my passenger side up front.
 
Last edited:
I know what you meant; I was basically saying filing those spines is going to be hard to do with a file. At first I was thinking it was hardened, but I just went out to my old t-bars with a file and it wasn’t that hard. (Probably worn out files I was using at the hobby shop) while I was looking at my t-bars I noticed that there was a white line on one of the splines, probably some sort of indexing? (Maybe this is the plastic Augie was talking about?) But anyway I remembered that the groove was on the mounts not on the t-bar. Upon further inspection and looking at the paint on my factory t-bar, it was apparently built up enough to not allow it to slide anywhere else but in the groove in the mounts.
So now I think all one needs to do is remove the t-bars clean them up and remove any foreign material (like the white paint on mine) and it should slide on in other positions.
Side note; you will want to mark this good so you know how many splines you are moving it. And remember one spline = to about ~1/2 inch at the adjuster (it's allot).
I couldn’t figure how a groove would not allow the t-bar to slide on in other positions.
Probably because I did not spend much time trying to figure this out as I had the OME’s begging to be installed.
Spressomon, Sorry for the inaccurateness on my part. :o I was going by memory, and like I said above I did not give it any time to figure out why it would not go on any other way. :rolleyes:
After further inspection, I believe it will go on no problem. Just make sure you lift the tires off the ground first! :cheers:
Dean
 
hoser said:
Maybe it's along the same lines as why the 80 has uneven coil lengths. :confused:
Click to expand...

Here’s a thought; what if the PO had them off, and the lift and right are on the wrong sides? With the paint/groove thing, one could only put it on the mount in one position. So someone would think it was ok not realizing it has a left & right, thus giving the lack of adjustment.


I wonder if the t-bars are weaker flexing in the wrong direction ?
Would this ruin the t-bars if this was done?
Dean
 
This LC came from the east coast...and due to the amount of corrosion on both ends of the t-bar anchor I am going to wait and just put the ARB t-bars, shocks and rear springs all at once. Hopefully this summer!
 
I wouldn’t think corrosion will be bad enough to make removal too hard. You only need to slip off the forward anchor and remove the adjuster’s bolt on the rear. Basically slip it out of the front and clean it up with a wire brush and re- index & install, should be no problem.
 
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