did you grease the torsion bar hexes & sockets before assembly?
I never use any tools directly on a t-bar. All I've ever done (and I've done it probably 50x) is loosen the adjusting bolt on LCA, and loosen and/or remove the lower control arm pivot nut on K-member. Then I just put a 3 or 4ft pry bar between back of k-member and LCA and pry it backwards. It's never failed me yet.
