diy adjustable strut rods

[turbovan]

I thought my question would be better suited here than posting a new thread.

I have been running these homemade strut rods for about a year, and they seem to work great, but I believe I may have them adjusted wrong. I adjusted for free movement without the torsion bars installed, but I think there might be enough slack in the lower control arm pivot shaft that they are binding after installation of the torsion bars. With my current adjustments I need to loosen EVERYTHING attached to the lower arm in order to remove the torsion bars(maybe this is normal). The biggest red flag is that after a switch to my drag setup(.870 bars and 90/10 shocks) I am noticing significantly less front end lift than I had before with stock strut rods and half the horsepower.

Can anyone provide a measurement of their strut rod length, or more specifically the distance between mounting points?

 

[72bluNblu]

I thought my question would be better suited here than posting a new thread.

I have been running these homemade strut rods for about a year, and they seem to work great, but I believe I may have them adjusted wrong. I adjusted for free movement without the torsion bars installed, but I think there might be enough slack in the lower control arm pivot shaft that they are binding after installation of the torsion bars. With my current adjustments I need to loosen EVERYTHING attached to the lower arm in order to remove the torsion bars(maybe this is normal). The biggest red flag is that after a switch to my drag setup(.870 bars and 90/10 shocks) I am noticing significantly less front end lift than I had before with stock strut rods and half the horsepower.

Can anyone provide a measurement of their strut rod length, or more specifically the distance between mounting points?

Having to loosen everything to remove the torsion bars isn’t uncommon, sometimes they can be difficult to remove even with everything else removed.

I don’t know what LCA bushings you’re running but it’s certainly possible that installing the torsion bars changed the position of the LCA with regard to the strut rods. It wouldn’t likely be much, but, it doesn’t really take all that much.

I went through the adjust process earlier in the thread, but what I do when I adjust the strut rod length is install everything, then remove the torsion bar adjusters, shocks, and sway bar end links. Then I cycle the suspension up and down and adjust the strut rod length until there’s no binding.

 

[turbovan]

I thought I had followed your directions correctly, but your response leads me to believe I made a big mistake. I adjusted everything with the torsion bars removed; sounds like I was only supposed to remove the adjuster. This makes sense. Thank you

Bushings are delrin.

 

[RustyRatRod]

Dont hang me on the cross, but doesnt this just squash one side of the LCA bush against the tube, and possibly speeding up failure? And also how much adjustment can be had with this without compromising the bush?

Im happy to be educated

Yes. You don't use adjustable strut rods to try to affect caster. You use them to put the LCA in the optimal position to free up friction in the suspension travel.

 

[turbovan]

Fyi
Use anti-seize when building these strut rods. I have one that turns just* enough to re-adjust. The other was 100% seized after less than 1 year.

 

[bjkadron]

Fyi
Use anti-seize when building these strut rods. I have one that turns just* enough to re-adjust. The other was 100% seized after less than 1 year.

Makes sense... Aluminum and steel don't play nice together most of the time. Plus these get hit with a lot of road grime.