torsion bars

[Gus Loza]

im gona rebuild my front end to my 69 dart and i was thinking of buying new torsion bars to get better handling. i keep hearing its a little hard to remove the old ones, so what do i need to do to unload the tension on the suspension before i take thing apart. i was used to by buick grand national for so many years which i sold to own a mopar so these suspensions are new to me. Let me know any tips u guys have for my project i have ahead of me. thanks

 

[mopardude318]

Rebuilding the entire front suspension on these 40 year old cars is a great idea! I'd suggest you use anywhere from 1.0"-1.09" torsion bars. You will love how they will improve the handling of your car!

Torsion bar removal:

-Remove the upper bump stop.
-Jack the car up under the K-member, so suspension and wheels are hanging free.
-Release load from the torsion bar by releasing the anchor adjusting bolt. (the bolt in the middle of the lower control arm by turning it counter-clockwise)
-Remove the lock ring from the anchor at the rear end of each torsion bar.
-A tool will now be required to grip the torsion bar so it can act as a striking point while the torsion bar is driven from its anchors. Be careful no to score or groove the torsion bar, which prolly won't matter if you plan on replacing them.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

-Mopardude

 

[1968FormulaS340]

Yes by all means rebuilding the suspension is always a good idea.

Along with that SUBFRAME CONNECTERS! These alone will really tighten up the body and should be done on any a-body.

Sway bars if your car does not have them.

 

[daredevil]

ive never thought about these from a performance standpoint. do worn out ones transfer weight like /6 bars. do thicker bars transfer weight slower.? how much effect do they have.

 

[BillGrissom]

I removed the torsion bars on two A-bodies and one C-body. I never needed a tool. Unload the screw, remove the rear wire clip, loosen the nut on the front Lower Control Arm (LCA) bolt, then pry between the LCA and the K-frame with a crowbar. The LCA should slide back & push the torsion bar thru the rear anchor. Tap the LCA forward with a rubber mallet to pull it loose from the front anchor, repeat as needed. Then push the torsion bar thru the rear anchor.

A few points:

Don't mix up left and right. They usually have an L & R. Mopar also uses odd & even PN to distinguish sides (forgot which). I accidentally swapped them on my 69 Dart, which was nice because the reverse sag let me set the height properly. However, some say they will break in time if swapped. I hope they broke on the SOB who stole my car a few years later.

If you feel you must grab the torsion bar with a tool, don't use anything that will gouge it since could cause a stress point that will fail. You could buy a tool like shown in the repair manual. Some have made their own from pipes and clamps. I never needed such a tool.

The grease is not for lubrication. My understanding is that it is only to stop corrosion. None of the parts should slide in operation. I understand the early cars did not have the rear rubber boot or grease and the rear anchors soon rusted (up north) so bad that the torsion bars spun around. Rusted bars could be very hard to remove. If you don't care about NOS, Energy Suspension offers a polyurethane boot fairly cheap ($9 ea I recall). I got red to accenuate the upgrade. The poly should last longer than regular rubber.

Energy Suspension offers a polyurethane bushing for the LCA. Rather than twist like rubber ones, the poly slides and needs a special lubricant. It seems quirky to me and others since the only thing securing the LCA in the axial direction is the tiny wire clip at the rear of the torsion bar. Perhaps friction is enough to secure them. I wouldn't want any grease on the torsion bar hex surfaces or anchors, just around the ends to repel water. I didn't use them because I was also afraid they would give squeaks and thought the sliding might make them wear faster than rubber ones degrade. Not an issue for racers.

 

[mvh]

ive never thought about these from a performance standpoint. do worn out ones transfer weight like /6 bars. do thicker bars transfer weight slower.? how much effect do they have.

If you're drag racing you want the skinny /6 t-bars for weight transfer. For cornering you want a fatter bar than stock. So it works in opposite directions -- you can't have it both ways.

For a car driven frequently on the street, and only occasionally on the track, I would go one or two steps bigger than stock, for day-to-day handling and stability. One step stiffer (than factory HD) for a SB V8 would be the BB bar, .890.

An aftermarket front sway bar (not the wimpy stock one) combined with .890 t-bars will tame the body roll on cornering without making the front end enormously stiff over bumps, or totally eliminating weight transfer on launch.

It seems to be faddish to go with huge 1-inch-plus t-bars, but for a frequent driver on real-world roads, that would seem to be overkill. For the rough paving I encounter on back roads in California, it would shake your teeth out, and the tires would be airborne half the time. I find more compliance combined with plenty of roll control to be a more practical approach.

I suppose really stiff t-bars would be necessary if you lowered the car 1 or 2 inches on the adjusters, to avoid bottoming the suspension.

 

[MadScientistMat]

ive never thought about these from a performance standpoint. do worn out ones transfer weight like /6 bars. do thicker bars transfer weight slower.? how much effect do they have.

Others have covered the behavior with thicker bars - I'll get the worn out bars. Torsion bar sag is different from the way coil springs behave, as a sagging torsion bar simply has the front hex rotate. Nothing else changes - the spring rate and weight transfer are the same, and you just have to change the adjuster at the front to put the ride height where you want it. The only true wear on a torsion bar is rust and microscopic cracks - which can, if they get out of control, make one snap in half. But overall, they're less affected by age than coil springs are.