Torsion troubles, maybe.......

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xLURKxDOGx

xLURKxDOGx

"An angel fat, at satan's feast"
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I bought a set of Torsion bars from a gentleman that said it was out of this 318 late 60's Dart they have stamped 890 and 891. I have a 1963 Plymouth valiant with the stock /6 bars had 622 and 623 stamped. I figured this would be a great upgrade since i have a 273 waiting to be put in it. I tore it all down, rebushed everything and just put the bars in with the LCA's hanging as low as i could get them. The problem??, when i went to lift it up by hand i could barely move it, unlike the other bars when it seamed fairly easy to push them up, im not a big strong guy but i could barely get them to move 2 inches, anyhow i took the floor jack to lift the LCA up and it wants to go up about 4 to 5 inches and then lift the whole car up, is this sound right? It's my understanding that theres only one way to put them in, L on the drivers and R on the passengers, this is what i read. Is it possible that these bars are to much for the car?


Thanks,
Jake
 
Sometimes you have to remove the upper control arm bumpers and shocks to get a few more inches for them to pop in.
 
There is no chance whatsoever the bars are too much for the car.

Did you back off the torsion bar adjusting bolts? They should be loosened completely to install the lower control arms.
 
72bluNblu said:
There is no chance whatsoever the bars are too much for the car.
Ok, i figured as much, i just put her down one the ground and it looks really low and the tires are cocked in. Is this because its to low and everything is set for the height i had before tear down? I took picture of all the adjustments to get the ball park but i guess not a great enough job.

Did you back off the torsion bar adjusting bolts? They should be loosened completely to install the lower control arms.
Click to expand...
I did, a lot more than i though i did. I took them out completely to get the gunk out.

67Dart273 said:
THIS is the correct answer
Click to expand...

Thanks!!
 
xLURKxDOGx said:
Ok, i figured as much, i just put her down one the ground and it looks really low and the tires are cocked in. Is this because its to low and everything is set for the height i had before tear down? I took picture of all the adjustments to get the ball park but i guess not a great enough job.

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

Sounds like you need to raise the car up with the torsion bar adjusters. Your old adjustments were for your old bars, and while they're probably a better place to start than from nothing at all, you still need to make adjustments for the bars that are on the car now.

Personally, I wouldn't mess with used torsion bars if I didn't have a really good idea of their history. While they may be larger bars with a higher wheel rate, they may also be completely worn out too, which means you'll definitely have to make adjustments to the ride height to get things where they need to be.

These cars were undersprung from the factory. While it is my opinion, and I'm sure I sound like a broken record to folks that have heard me say this before, I wouldn't use anything less than 1" torsion bars on a street driven small block car. There aren't any factory bars that I would use anymore. Even big block A-body bars on a small block car are underkill, and the aftermarket 1" bars out there now are cheaper and wouldn't ride much if any different. If you did nothing else other than add 1" torsion bars and good shocks on all 4 corners you would be amazed at the incredible improvement in the handling of your car, and the "compromise" in ride quality you'd experience is minimal at best. Which is why I took the 1" bars OFF of my car and went with 1.12" bars on my Duster. Those are the other end of the spectrum of course, and I wouldn't recommend those for most folks either.
 
72bluNblu said:
Sounds like you need to raise the car up with the torsion bar adjusters. Your old adjustments were for your old bars, and while they're probably a better place to start than from nothing at all, you still need to make adjustments for the bars that are on the car now.

Personally, I wouldn't mess with used torsion bars if I didn't have a really good idea of their history. While they may be larger bars with a higher wheel rate, they may also be completely worn out too, which means you'll definitely have to make adjustments to the ride height to get things where they need to be.

These cars were undersprung from the factory. While it is my opinion, and I'm sure I sound like a broken record to folks that have heard me say this before, I wouldn't use anything less than 1" torsion bars on a street driven small block car. There aren't any factory bars that I would use anymore. Even big block A-body bars on a small block car are underkill, and the aftermarket 1" bars out there now are cheaper and wouldn't ride much if any different. If you did nothing else other than add 1" torsion bars and good shocks on all 4 corners you would be amazed at the incredible improvement in the handling of your car, and the "compromise" in ride quality you'd experience is minimal at best. Which is why I took the 1" bars OFF of my car and went with 1.12" bars on my Duster. Those are the other end of the spectrum of course, and I wouldn't recommend those for most folks either.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your honest opinion, i appreciate that. I figured i needed to adjust the torsion adjusters. I lowered them a lot out of fear that where i had them before was going to be to much but it turns out i was probably right where i was at.

Jake
 
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