Lowering with torsion bars - how low can you go

Lowering the front end of my car by loosening the bolts (obviously with the front end off the ground)

How loose can the bolts be with the car in the air? So how much is to much

I know different bars can be lowered further and it depends on the spring rate of the bar

Currently have 1.03 bars

Just cut the bars and be done with it.

You can back those bolts out till they fall out on the ground, it'll be fine mechanically.

Spring rate has little to do with how far you adjust them. That's more of an adjuster kinda thing.

cudajames said:

Lowering the front end of my car by loosening the bolts (obviously with the front end off the ground)

How loose can the bolts be with the car in the air? So how much is to much

I know different bars can be lowered further and it depends on the spring rate of the bar

Currently have 1.03 bars

Click to expand...

The adjusting bolts have to make contact with the adjuster levers when the suspension is at full extension. If they don’t, and you go to full extension on the street, the bolts can shift and come off the adjusters when they’re unweighted and that won’t be good when the suspension is reloaded.

Next issue is that you need to have enough suspension travel for the spring rate. With 1.03” bars you need to have about 1” between the bumpstop on the LCA and the frame at ride height otherwise you’ll constantly be bottoming the suspension. How low that actually is depends on how tall your bumpstops are.

jos51700 said:

You can back those bolts out till they fall out on the ground, it'll be fine mechanically.

Click to expand...

No, it won’t because if the adjusting bolts aren’t in contact with the levers the LCA is not fixed to the torsion bar socket. So the LCA will rotate freely on the socket and the torsion bar won’t be loaded.

That isn’t exactly a cut in stone thing. I’d go one full turn and check the ride height. Once the car is in the ground after turning the T bar adjusting bolt, bounce the front end several times. Then measure the wheel lip height going through the center of the wheel. Have a second hand for measuring the drivers side with you in the car alone.

Do not lower it to much. You can damage your shocks.

The bolts are still in full contact with the adjusters - and still tight unload

cudajames said:

The bolts are still in full contact with the adjusters - and still tight unload

Click to expand...

That’s fine then. How much of the adjusting bolt is actually threaded through depends on how you clocked the LCA’s on the torsion bar hexes. It varies from car to car, so it’s not like I can tell you that a 1/2” of threads below the adjusting block will result in a certain ride height. You just have to set the adjusters the same left to right and then put the car on the ground. You’ll need to roll the tires on the ground for it to fully settle, “bouncing” the suspension will not fully settle it. Then see if you need to raise or lower it. It takes some trial and error.