Turning torsion bar to lower rear?

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Confusedcuda

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Crazy little question, If you turn the pass. front torsion bar in, will this raise the pass. front and lower the driver rear ? Is that how this works? Just wondering and checking, Thanks.
 
Crazy little question, If you turn the pass. front torsion bar in, will this raise the pass. front and lower the driver rear ? Is that how this works? Just wondering and checking, Thanks.
It will do nothing to the rear. It will, however change the front end alignment!
 
Depends on how much you raise the passenger side. If you raise it A LOT, you might see some lowering on the driver's rear. After all if you raise the front enough you'll change the CG and put more weight on the rear of the car, especially the driver's side, which will compress the spring more.

If you only raise it a little bit the change in the rear height probably won't be noticeable, but, if you scale the car you could see a change in the corner weights. That would be more noticeable than the lowering would be.

The opposite is definitely true, folks running SS springs typically need to have different adjuster settings in the front to get the front level because of the unequal rear spring loading.

If you want to lower the driver's rear side that's not how I would go about it though.
 
72blu covered it, but in a nutshell only big changes to the front May affect the rear slightly. What are you trying to accomplish?
 
Was just wanting to raise the front maybe about a 1/4 inch or so. Seems like my driver rear maybe a little higher then the pass.
 
Raising the front a quarter I see no problem and may not even need to realign the front end. But I don't think you'll get any real change in the way the car sits in the rear.
 
Raising the front a quarter I see no problem and may not even need to realign the front end. But I don't think you'll get any real change in the way the car sits in the rear.

Yeah I don't think a 1/4" rise on the front will do much of anything for the rear ride height. Probably not enough to be worth changing the alignment either, but that is still something you should check because if you're on the borderline of a range now it could be enough to push you slightly out of spec. The toe-in is the most sensitive, even a small change in toe can result in tire wear long term. For a 1/4" the camber/caster won't change enough to be an issue or even likely be noticeable.
 
test it out... put a block of wood and jack under the pass side front lower a arm.

before you jack it up measure symmetrical points on all 4 corners. Like maybe outer most bumper bolts or some tape on the outside of the bumper. then raise the pass front a 1/2" then measure the change on the other corners. you might be surprised!
 
Jack the rear wheels off the ground using the center of the rear housing. Then level the front at the ride height desired. There is a factory measurement for the ride height using the lower ball joint and the lower control arm pin. But everyone likes to put the car where they like it to ride. .
 
test it out... put a block of wood and jack under the pass side front lower a arm.

before you jack it up measure symmetrical points on all 4 corners. Like maybe outer most bumper bolts or some tape on the outside of the bumper. then raise the pass front a 1/2" then measure the change on the other corners. you might be surprised!
Put the jack under the frame rail, this will simulate the height change with torsion bar.
 
Jack the rear wheels off the ground using the center of the rear housing.
IMHO

(and I'm sure there are 1000s who have done so with no visible ill effects)

Don't lift the rear of the car from the center of an 8 3/4, the housing is not as strong as the cast iron 7 1/4 and Dana 60
 
The way I look at it is that look at it like a teeter-totter with the rear wheels being the fulcrum. If you jack the front 1" at the control arm the rear bumper will go down maybe 1/8" ( I haven't done the math).
Changing the front relative ride height isn't changing the load on any of the springs just the relative height of the wheel to the springs.


Alan
 

The way I look at it is that look at it like a teeter-totter with the rear wheels being the fulcrum. If you jack the front 1" at the control arm the rear bumper will go down maybe 1/8" ( I haven't done the math).
Changing the front relative ride height isn't changing the load on any of the springs just the relative height of the wheel to the springs.


Alan

It is actually changing the load on the springs. Raising the front end of the car shifts the center of gravity toward the rear. That changes the weight balance from front to rear, and adds load on the rear springs while removing it from the front.

Small changes in ride height at one end may not make significant changes in ride height at the other end, but it will change the corner loads if you're checking those with 4 corner scales.

This is why drag racers spend so much effort getting the front end to lift easily on acceleration, because the weight transfer to the rear improves traction. That's literally because the load on the rear springs is increasing.
 
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