Torsion bar adjustment procedure.

[landdriver]

HI, been around the forums and i may have faltered in the Tb adjustment procedure. What is the difference/effect between adjusting the TB's wheels up and wheels on the ground? thanks

2003 LC 100 with AHC

 

[MongooseGA]

Preload.

 

[landdriver]

Preload.

Got it! thank you. My procedure was wrong. Had the wheels off the ground. Will redo and see if the damping improves.

 

[MongooseGA]

You want the wheels off the ground. Turning that bolt is a real pain when you're fighting the bar.
My mistake. I didn't catch that you're running AHC originally. I did adjust my TBs with AHC while the wheels were on the ground.

 

[planomateo]

HI, been around the forums and i may have faltered in the Tb adjustment procedure. What is the difference/effect between adjusting the TB's wheels up and wheels on the ground? thanks

2003 LC 100 with AHC

Crazy, in the States, you couldn't get AHC until 2006 on a Land Cruiser.

 

[Manhattan]

I did it like this:
1. Spent over an hour on Mud reading about how to turn two 30mm bolts
2. PB Blasted the bolts two days and one day before the planned bolt turning
3. Measure
4. Jack one side - turn bolt
5. Jack other side - turn bolt
6. Drive around the block
7. Measure
8. Repeat steps 3-7
9. Found the exact "lift" amount I was after... realized I'd still spent more time reading about turning the two bolts than actually turning the two bolts.

Pro tips:
- Use a long breaker bar - the bolts will likely put up a fight even unweighted. My 100 was only 4-years old with 39,000 miles when I cranked the TBs... still took some grunt to turn'em
- Mark the 30mm socket with a Sharpie (they're not just for weather maps) - to track how many times it turns

 

[matador454]

With AHC I believe you want to do it wheels on the ground. That’s how I did it when I adjusted my pressures and was what was recommended to me. It wasn’t all that hard, but I had a large wrench with a lot of leverage.

Without AHC I believe general consensus is just that it’s easier wheels off the ground

 

[2001LC]

Hitting threads with a penetrating oil makes job easier. With AHC, I'll raise to high, taking some weight off the T-bar. With non AHC. I get out the 3/4" breaker bar, or just lift the front end to take weight off T-bar.

 

[Patassa]

I removed the bolts completely, put a nice coating of white lithium grease on them, then started from scratch and counted full revolutions to match them up. However, this still resulted in my driver's side sitting a full inch lower than passenger side. I had to get about 6 full revolutions difference to get it to sit at an even height.

I'm assuming this is from battery and driver being on the same side and the torsion bar has yielded perhaps due to the increased load vs passenger side. I reached this conclusion also in part because this was at the end of my project to replace control arms, shocks, bushings, etc on both sides, so it wasn't wear anywhere else in the suspension system.

 

[mmm635]

I removed the bolts completely, put a nice coating of white lithium grease on them, then started from scratch and counted full revolutions to match them up. However, this still resulted in my driver's side sitting a full inch lower than passenger side. I had to get about 6 full revolutions difference to get it to sit at an even height.

I'm assuming this is from battery and driver being on the same side and the torsion bar has yielded perhaps due to the increased load vs passenger side. I reached this conclusion also in part because this was at the end of my project to replace control arms, shocks, bushings, etc on both sides, so it wasn't wear anywhere else in the suspension system.

My OME torsion bars were similar - I had to crank the driver's side quite a bit more.

Anytime I adjust my torsion bars, I get a 22mm and a 24mm wrench and loosen the lower control arm bolts. This will allow the bushings in the lca to rotate freely until final ride height is reached. Then, I lock them down in final height position. They are designed to work within a certain range - without doing this it will bind the lca bushings and causes weird handling because they are never in a constant state of "rest."

Since you are starting from scratch, you ought to eliminate the preload in the bushings.

 

[Patassa]

My OME torsion bars were similar - I had to crank the driver's side quite a bit more.

Anytime I adjust my torsion bars, I get a 22mm and a 24mm wrench and loosen the lower control arm bolts. This will allow the bushings in the lca to rotate freely until final ride height is reached. Then, I lock them down in final height position. They are designed to work within a certain range - without doing this it will bind the lca bushings and causes weird handling because they are never in a constant state of "rest."

Since you are starting from scratch, you ought to eliminate the preload in the bushings.

Good idea, I'll do that this weekend.

 

[bentonrover]

Interesting being it's a 1000 times easier with that side jacked up. When on ground feels like its binding pretty good. 05 LX AHC

 

[landdriver]

thank you all for the input. Did the right procedure and doing the test drive this weekend.

 

[Jczajka]

My OME torsion bars were similar - I had to crank the driver's side quite a bit more.

Anytime I adjust my torsion bars, I get a 22mm and a 24mm wrench and loosen the lower control arm bolts. This will allow the bushings in the lca to rotate freely until final ride height is reached. Then, I lock them down in final height position. They are designed to work within a certain range - without doing this it will bind the lca bushings and causes weird handling because they are never in a constant state of "rest."

Since you are starting from scratch, you ought to eliminate the preload in the bushings.

How do you get the LCA bolt by TB to tighten up? I can tighten the nut, but the head of the bolt wants to spin under my TB mount.

 

[mmm635]

How do you get the LCA bolt by TB to tighten up? I can tighten the nut, but the head of the bolt wants to spin under my TB mount.

You need to use a 24mm wrench that is pretty thin and it slips in on the top side in the gap. Harbor Freight sells a set pretty cheap.

 

[menancyandsam]

Any pics on what LCA bolt you are talking about. I'm wondering if when I turned my TB to get to AHC pressure to spec it may have caused the LCA bushing to bind. Which may be causing my ABS to engage when I go downhill around a sharp turn at speed.

 

[2001LC]

A very loose LCA "may" kick in ABS, but I've not heard of it. I can not see how tight LCA would.

Number 1 cause is not properly servicing the wheel bearings every 30K miles. If they get too loose, the hub moves/wobbles. Then ABS wheel speed sensor get confused. This need to be checked out ASAP.

 

[saucebox]

A very loose LCA "may" kick in ABS, but I've not heard of it. I can not see how tight LCA would.

Number 1 cause is not properly servicing the wheel bearings ever 30K miles. If they get too loose, the hub moves/wobbles. Then ABS wheel speed sensor get confused. This need to be checked out ASAP.

Any pics on what LCA bolt you are talking about. I'm wondering if when I turned my TB to get to AHC pressure to spec it may have caused the LCA bushing to bind. Which may be causing my ABS to engage when I go downhill around a sharp turn at speed.

Putting those checks/fixes off gets hella expensive. Allegedly.

 

[mmm635]

Any pics on what LCA bolt you are talking about. I'm wondering if when I turned my TB to get to AHC pressure to spec it may have caused the LCA bushing to bind. Which may be causing my ABS to engage when I go downhill around a sharp turn at speed.

 

[Maxthrust27]

Just finished installing a heavy 2.5 OME lift. I have yet to install the front or rear bumper.

I set the torsion bars at 55cm from the middle of hub to fender.
Drove around the block and they settled to 53cm
Reset the torsion bars back up to 55cm and drove around again. They resettled back to 53cm.

Is this normal or did I screw up the install?