Torsion bar adjuster bolt length question

-
my68barracuda

my68barracuda

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2009
Messages
2,616
Reaction score
2,606
Location
Indianapolis IN
Hello,
Had the complete front end out of the 68 Barracuda, K frame out and all.
Have it all back together now and in adjusting the front ride height the length of the adjusting bolt that protrudes from the bottom of the LCA is visually different from side to side, at least 1/2 an inch.
With the car up on stands I screwed in each adjustor till it was finger tight, Then added ten turns on each side and noticed the difference in adjustor bolt length.
I an guessing that I did not have one of the LCA's completely down when I slid the torsion bar in?
Is that the likely cause?
Is this something that I need to go back and fix? Or does it really make no difference?
Thanks
 
had the same problem in my 67 Barracuda when i changed the torsion bars (mopar performance) and LCA to QA1 . looked at it several times and can't figure out why this happened. doesn't seem to affect anything tho! let me know if you figure it out!
 
These cars are not perfect. Remember also that the way that height is adjusted on these cars means that if the car is weighted unevenly the adjusters will end up in different places to put the car at the same height. So if your car isn't perfectly balanced, and very few of them are, then you'll end up with different adjuster settings. So having different adjuster settings is probably more common than having them be exactly the same.

A 1/2" is kind of a large amount though. Do you have SS springs on the car? If you do, you're probably compensating for the difference in the SS springs to level the front of the car.
 
For your 68 race car soon to be street car?
10 yrs ago I converted my 68 to 73 spool mount K with matching LCA"s.
Guess what? One adjusting bolt hangs down 1/2" lower than the other.
Reason: the adjusting bolt on one side is exactly 1/2" longer than the other side. 3" vs. 3-1/2". Check your lengths.
They went to coarse thread in 73, yours should be the fine thread.
It always bugged me and I look for a 3" coarse bolt at swap meets. Looks bad and I hate carrying the excess weight.
 
72bluNblu said:
These cars are not perfect. Remember also that the way that height is adjusted on these cars means that if the car is weighted unevenly the adjusters will end up in different places to put the car at the same height. So if your car isn't perfectly balanced, and very few of them are, then you'll end up with different adjuster settings. So having different adjuster settings is probably more common than having them be exactly the same.

A 1/2" is kind of a large amount though. Do you have SS springs on the car? If you do, you're probably compensating for the difference in the SS springs to level the front of the car.
Click to expand...


if the car is weighted unevenly the adjusters will end up in different places to put the car at the same height.

the un equal height of the adjuster bolts occurs with the adjusters being turned in an equal number of turns to finger tight. The unequal adjustor bolt height is still present after the ride height is set.
I'll pull them back out and count the number of turns from when the threads engage to finger tight.

I have ESPO 1 inch + springs in the rear. Interesting I did not have this un evenness in the adjuster bolts, prior to now. I removed the complete front suspension and K frame. I seam welded the K and installed one of PST's K Frame brace kits and I welded in a USCT front frame rail connector. The torsion bars and all suspension components were re installed. It is after the second install that I noticed the un even adjustor bolt length.
 
KosmicKuda said:
For your 68 race car soon to be street car?
10 yrs ago I converted my 68 to 73 spool mount K with matching LCA"s.
Guess what? One adjusting bolt hangs down 1/2" lower than the other.
Reason: the adjusting bolt on one side is exactly 1/2" longer than the other side. 3" vs. 3-1/2". Check your lengths.
They went to coarse thread in 73, yours should be the fine thread.
It always bugged me and I look for a 3" coarse bolt at swap meets. Looks bad and I hate carrying the excess weight.
Click to expand...

Check your lengths.
I will do that and yes they are fine thread and yes, making the car in to one that I can drive to the strip.
 
3" vs. 3-1/2"

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!
I had picked up a used set of adjuster bolts from a FABO member as one the adjuster bolts on my car has the looks of someone going after it with an ill fitting wrench and had plans to swap it out. I had not noticed the length difference on the set I purchased and certainly did not know they were different lengths when I put the front end back together. But there is about 1/2 difference in lengths. I had no idea. Much Thanks to KosmicCuda !
 
These came out of my '73 Challenger, got the car from my cousin who had it since 1976. Said he never did any front suspension work...

20140222_151311.jpg
 
FYI
I have found, in all the decades of doing suspension work, rebuilding of LCA's, that early 60's, "B" body cars used a longer torsion bar adjuster bolt, when put together on the suspension assembly line.
No big deal, just the length of the bolt that they started out with, using, back in the day.
Any length bolt that you got, works just as well on any A, B, E, body car.
 
Dfr360cuda said:
FYI...... Upper control arm cam bolts come in different lengths too.
Click to expand...
You need to clarify and elaborate on that statement.
For the A, B, E, body line of cars, FACTORY bolts are all the same thorough the 62-76 years.
I am not familiar with earlier A, and B body cars, so i cannot make a reply accurately for those cars.
"C" Body cars use bolts that are longer, so yes, different from the A, B, E, body line of cars.
And then the aftermarket bolts from various manufacturers, use bolts that they made in whatever length that they wanted to, from the specified factory length.
 
hemi71x said:
You need to clarify and elaborate on that statement.
For the A, B, E, body line of cars, FACTORY bolts are all the same thorough the 62-76 years.
I am not familiar with earlier A, and B body cars, so i cannot make a reply accurately for those cars.
"C" Body cars use bolts that are longer, so yes, different from the A, B, E, body line of cars.
And then the aftermarket bolts from various manufacturers, use bolts that they made in whatever length that they wanted to, from the specified factory length.
Click to expand...

I bought used ones from someone on here. I searched, couldn't find who. After OMM's mishap I was not gonna use Chinese junk. I finally started my drum to disc conversion about 2 weeks ago. I noticed when putting on the new UCA's the bolts looked different. I put them side by side and yes, they were about 1/4 or 3/8 different. It could be they're from different body styles but at this point they're in the car and they're not coming back out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top