Torsion bar adjusters sticking way out of control arm?

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carcrazyguy

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Starting to go over a few things on the 70 Duster now that I live where I can mess with more than for 20-30 minutes at a time. I started to crawl under the car and noticed the torsion bar adjusters are sticking out of the lower control arm by probably, 2-3 inches? I did not recall ever seeing that on any Mopar before. So I looked at a few other cars and the adjusters are flush or inside the recessed area of the control arm.

The suspension was just rebuilt with a kit from PST.
 
Probably has the PST t bars with the funky clocking. Call them and tell them you want the new ones that they finally started making right. They should take yours back.
 
Sorry I forgot that I got the torsion bar parts from Mancini.....

Mancini Racing.....
MOPP5249151 - Mopar Performance A-body .920 torsion bar set
MREQE173 - Mopar Torsion Bar Lock and Seal Kit
MRE35612 - Torsion Bar Adjuster (x2)
 
Doesn't seem right, is the engine in the car? Might have to take them out and see how they're clocked.
 
Yes the motor and transmission are in. The car was assembled by a shop that had built several/many Mopars. It has also been to a front end alignment shop that is very well known among local Mopar guys and hot rodders. Then it went back to the machine shop that specializes in Mopars. I put about 10 miles on the car total over 3 different trips. The front brakes felt like they are sticking so I decided to start crawling around the car a bit. Found the torsion bar bolts looked unusual and the front brake hoses (stainless braided) look like they have been rubbing on the steering knuckle/linkage. I am surprised none of the a shops noticed or mentioned it?
 
carcrazyguy said:
Starting to go over a few things on the 70 Duster now that I live where I can mess with more than for 20-30 minutes at a time. I started to crawl under the car and noticed the torsion bar adjusters are sticking out of the lower control arm by probably, 2-3 inches? I did not recall ever seeing that on any Mopar before. So I looked at a few other cars and the adjusters are flush or inside the recessed area of the control arm.

The suspension was just rebuilt with a kit from PST.
Click to expand...

The factory adjuster screws are only a little over 3" long. And end is a ball that has no threads. At most they could stick out is about an inch past the end of the lower control arm until they just fall out.

Mine are adjusted way out. I have MP 1.14" T-bars though and the car is very low. I've seen some car that are even lower with even bigger T-bars that sat right on the adjuster nuts without the adjuster screw even needed.

I doesn't hurt anything where they are adjusted. I guess you could worry about them catching a rock or something by sticking out past the lower control arm, but they are not lower than the K-member.
 
What your are describing does sound possibly like a clocking issue. Did you have any structural work done on the car ( meaning at the anchor portion like the T Caps) ? Do you have any pictures that you can provide? Are you running the car at a lowered stance or stock ride height as that can have an affect on the position of the adjuster bolts. More info would be great.

Thanks
James
 
Car was stripped to a shell then painted on a rotisserie. The only structure work was a small patch panel under the rear seat and US Car Tool subframes were welded on. We are going to pull the torsion bars back out tonight. Figured after talking with a few people via PM and talking with my brother (who has worked on these a LOT more than I have), they need to be re-clocked. Car is set to just about stock ride height.

I will snap a few pics tonight to update the issue.
 

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Yes you can re clock them.When the bars were installed they could have been clocked with the adjuster cross and bolt removed giving it a shorter distance to acheve the desired ride height.When installing the cross and bolt it will take less turns.When I did my Duster using the same T-Bars as you,had the same issue.I took the bolts out and shortened them,then rounded the top to match what I cut off. That was 10+ years ago. It was lowered about 2'' from stock.Either way works.
Love that Green color.
 
Already ran into a road block. The passengers side adjustment bolt came almost all the way out but will not come out of the block. It won't go back in and it won't come out.
 
Is the weight off of the wheels? Time for PB Blaster or similar and patience; see if you can slowly work it back and forth a bit at a time.
 
Finally got both sides out. Now trying to find someone local that has a torsion bar removal tool so we don't knick the bars. Thought once the bolts were loose/out we could slide the bars back to check/clock them. But it appears they might have been installed withOUT lube and they don't want to move at all.
 

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Anyone happen to know somewhere I can order a T-bar removal tool and have it shipped overnight? Classic Industries is out of stock. Jegs and Summit don't show them so???? Any ideas?
 
Mancini has them.
I think you are tearing it apart for no reason, when you re-clock them you will have no ride height.
MP .920" bars will make the front sit aot higher than most aftermarket 1.00" + bars MP bars have the factory 30 degree offset.
Most aftermarket 1.00 + bars only have 0 -15 degrees offset.
 
One reason we decided to tear it down is, it appears that there was not any lube on the adjuster bolts or on the torsion bars. One of the adjuster bolts had already bent somehow. The car has probably 30 miles on it. So I started looking around at a few things. Brake lines rubbing steering linkage and knuckle, exhaust bung plug was loose (finger tight with no anti seize) and rattling around inside the threads, one suspension bolt was just finger tight.......time to start looking things over.
 
Not a rousing recommendation for the " front end alignment shop that is very well known among local Mopar guys and hot rodders." Yup you better check everything they put their paws on.
 
The alignment shop only did an alignment. (Just wish they would have pointed out a few things that even my untrained eye picked up on) All the parts and pieces were installed by a shop that is no longer doing rebuilds. At this point it really does not matter who did or did not do what. I will just start going over things and get it all ironed out! At the time I had the car built I lived 350 miles away. Now I live within minutes of where I store the cars. So a little work here and there and we will get it all figured out.
 
Looks like it's almost all the way adjusted out.

Moving the T-bar hex over in the correct direction will move the screw in. Looks like they assembled one hex off. It shouldn't happen, but check that it's not the opposite and screwed all the way in too far.

If the car is aligned with this set up and this ride height, you can run it the way it is. Your headers will hit anything on the road before that adjuster bolt does.

There will be no difference in the way the car drives or aligns if the screw is out a bunch, in the middle, or all the way in, OR even removed. As long as it's the ride height YOU desire and it will align to the specs YOU desire.

I just went in the garage and took a 70 B-body LCA I had lying around and screwed it all the way out so the adjuster arm was sitting on the adjuster nut. With this, there was 1.5" sticking out of the bottom of the LCA. At that point the adjuster screw was serving no purpose.

BTW, the factory stock adjuster screw is 3.5" long. Mine was bent a little also (no affects).

Here is the picture I just took. You can see the adjuster arm just rested directly on the adjuster nut instead of the balltip of the adjuster nut...
 

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Thanks for all the replies and help. We got it all back together tonight. I ended up using a set of stock adjuster bolts (and blocks). Turns out they are about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch shorter than the adjuster bolts that came from Mancini. We cleaned up the stock bolts and blocks, lubed them up and it all went back together nicely! The bolts still stick out of the control arm a little more than I like but sounds like that is the way it is with the .920 bars.
 
I would not worry about the length the stock adjusters are out a lot on my .920 bars.
Most likely they will settle after a few miles and need twisted in more.
 
carcrazyguy said:
Thanks for all the replies and help. We got it all back together tonight. I ended up using a set of stock adjuster bolts (and blocks). Turns out they are about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch shorter than the adjuster bolts that came from Mancini. We cleaned up the stock bolts and blocks, lubed them up and it all went back together nicely! The bolts still stick out of the control arm a little more than I like but sounds like that is the way it is with the .920 bars.
Click to expand...

Glad it worked out.

My old adjuster on that pictured LCA came out with a ratchet after I lubed them with Justice Brothers JB-80 penetrant lube. Then I used my recently purchased thread clean-up set to get the dirt out and straighten out the threads. Those are not meant to cut threads, just clean them without wearing/cutting the threads. Works awesome for a 48 piece $65 complete set.

Now with more JB-80 on the threads, the adjuster turns with my fingers!
 
autoxcuda said:
Glad it worked out.

My old adjuster on that pictured LCA came out with a ratchet after I lubed them with Justice Brothers JB-80 penetrant lube. Then I used my recently purchased thread clean-up set to get the dirt out and straighten out the threads. Those are not meant to cut threads, just clean them without wearing/cutting the threads. Works awesome for a 48 piece $65 complete set.

Now with more JB-80 on the threads, the adjuster turns with my fingers!
Click to expand...
HELLO, I know this is a dead thread, But.. When I was a kid, the Thread Cleaning Chasing Taps and Thread Files were Common. Can You provide me a place to get the cleaning taps?
Also, 1 quick Question, can OLD t-bars settle as much as 1 or 2 inches just while sitting for a while?
 
Ironracer said:
HELLO, I know this is a dead thread, But.. When I was a kid, the Thread Cleaning Chasing Taps and Thread Files were Common. Can You provide me a place to get the cleaning taps?
Also, 1 quick Question, can OLD t-bars settle as much as 1 or 2 inches just while sitting for a while?
Click to expand...

Amazon product ASIN B01HYU0RYM
I don’t know how long the that is but I know A-bodies with Hemi with .87 t-bars that haven’t settled in 10+ years
 
Think n these are original 50 yrs old. I'll go measure em.. With less weight than stock. But had been a drag car ..... then again I there was a lot of things on this car that were "allegedly"
 
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