What's the effect of not installing torsion bar grease boots?

[MRGTX]

When I was replacing my suspension components 5-6 years back, I was in the middle of urgently trying to get the car back on the road partially out of frustration/impatience and partially because I needed to be able to move the car to access the garage. This kind of desperation is usually what leads to my mistakes.

When it came to installing the fresh 1.14" torsion bars, I found that the included stiff urethane grease boots were not even close to fitting! They were way too small. The stock boots could have been stretched a bit to fit but they were decades old (almost certainly the originals) and they were shot. I received some advice from an old timer in my family to not worry about it since some OEM applications don't even use them and besides, the car would practically never see wet roads or excessively sandy conditions anyway so I should grease them up and go.

This is what I did...which I'm just now remembering and regretting. It wasn't really that long ago but I cannot fathom why I made that decision at the time.

So what's the long term effect of this? Do I need to immediately disassemble the front suspension and install boots?

 

[72bluNblu]

Long term the effect would just be dirt and road junk finding its way into the rear torsion bar sockets. The fair amount of grease in the sockets should mean that rust isn't an issue, but that grease of course is a magnet for dirt and grime. So you'd end up with a dirty, abrasive grease paste in the sockets that will probably hinder torsion bar removal/installation, getting worse as time goes by.

Not really an immediate problem, but it would definitely be better to have the boots in place for the long term. It would be more important if you drove in worse conditions. Certainly not all torsion bar applications use them, but they also have different socket arrangements.

 

[Heywodja]

Not sure on the effect, but the front part of the bar is wide open on the lower control arm.

To install those stiff boots, I put them in hot water, then slid them over a deep socket that is larger than the bar end, put a little grease on the torsion bar and slid it on the front then just slid it the ready if the way down the bar to the part that engages the crossmember and it worked like butter

 

[72bluNblu]

Not sure on the effect, but the front part of the bar is wide open on the lower control arm.

To install those stiff boots, I put them in hot water, then slid them over a drop socket that is larger than the bar end, put a little grease on the torsion bar and slid it on the front then just slid it the ready if the way down the bar to the part that engages the crossmember and it worked like butter

That works really well up to certain sizes. I did that with the poly boots on my 1.12's, but after I'd done it a couple times I hogged the boots out a little bit with a step drill, works ok on the poly material and the boots are cheap if it goes wrong. It makes them MUCH easier to install. Below a 1.12" bar it's not necessary, above that it makes it a lot easier.

 

[Dfr360cuda]

So my Dakota never had boots from Detroit. If I ever do front end work, I will put some on. My Dakota runs on PA roads that PennDOT uses road salt and brine.
I redid the front end on both my Cudas. I used the new style boots. They’re a little tricky to get on but well worth it.
So, my advice is cut a boot to fit on until you can put the appropriate boot on. After all they have split boots for your CV joint and your torsion bars are barely moving.

 

[mvh]

Exactly — a split boot secured with band clamps would at least help keep the grease in place and the road salt out.