Lifting the front ride height

[1970FuryConv]

Hmmm, I could have sworn I got that advice FROM THIS FORUM! I can remember someone saying don't crank on them when the car is sitting on the ground because they could break and the car would fall on you. Can anyone else remember hearing that warning? If not maybe I just dreamed it. It's happened before....

I've never seen that warning on FCBO. However, it may have been written somewhere and nobody said anything.

I have heard, if a torsion bar gets badly nicked, a crack and breakage can happen, but that has nothing to do with adjusting leverage on the torsion bar with the car on the ground. I think the idea of a torsion bar breaking in two because ride height is adjusted with the weight of the car on the torsion bar is bologna.

On torsion bar adjusters stripping out so that the car falls to the ground, someone should notice that the torsion bar adjuster is in that bad a condition. Probably the lower control arm is junk too. Before making torsion bar adjustments, I do normally clean up the adjuster with a steel brush and clean the bolt on wire wheel. Applying a protective layer of Anti-seize or Grease is something I also do.

 

[jake]

Thi

This is what happens when you adjuster bolt snaps. Get the weight off the suspension!!!

 

[TxDon]

Reference your factory service manuel, in general mopars with torsion bar suspension adjust like this. (see video)

This is NOT how you measure ride height. Look at the FSM, you do it by taking two measurements from the floor for each side while the car is unsupported and calculating the difference between them. The results need to the same for both sides. You-Tube videos are not always your friend.

 

[BAD69FURY]

This is NOT how you measure ride height. Look at the FSM, you do it by taking two measurements from the floor for each side while the car is unsupported and calculating the difference between them. The results need to the same for both sides. You-Tube videos are not always your friend.

your right, I like to measure from the floor to the fender lip edge on both sides. The video may not be the best to illustrate. That’s why I stated to reference your factory service manual and the video is a casual general reference.

 

[BAD69FURY]

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Knowing what I have learned about how time and corrosion can change the safety factor regarding practices of "what was OK when the cars were new", I would only adjust the torsion bars as per the manual on a drive-on lift, so if the adjusters do snap there is no danger to me. The weight remains on the suspension, jounce the car 2 or 3 times after adjusting, as per FSM. If I were to jack the car up a bit to lessen the weight on the bars, I would use a pair of jack stands.

Never get under a car to do anything without blocking it from rolling and a jack stand, even if you're not jacking it up. Although it's extremely rare, even a torsion bar can let go at any time. It just needs to happen once to kill you.

I'm not skinny enough to get under the car without raising it on a hydraulic floor jack anyhow, so the rule of jack stands still applies for me, which would again preclude the car falling if something snapped.

Regarding how to adjust torsion bars, I don't know if lessening the weight on the front wheels does anything other than making it easier to adjust - just have jack stands in place REGARDLESS. After any adjustment, one still should put the weight back on the wheels and jounce the suspension to settle the adjustment in place.

Safety first always.

 

[Toolmanmike]

Knowing what I have learned about how time and corrosion can change the safety factor regarding practices of "what was OK when the cars were new", I would only adjust the torsion bars as per the manual on a drive-on lift, so if the adjusters do snap there is no danger to me. The weight remains on the suspension, jounce the car 2 or 3 times after adjusting, as per FSM. If I were to jack the car up a bit to lessen the weight on the bars, I would use a pair of jack stands.

Never get under a car to do anything without blocking it from rolling and a jack stand, even if you're not jacking it up. Although it's extremely rare, even a torsion bar can let go at any time. It just needs to happen once to kill you.

I'm not skinny enough to get under the car without raising it on a hydraulic floor jack anyhow, so the rule of jack stands still applies for me, which would again preclude the car falling if something snapped.

Regarding how to adjust torsion bars, I don't know if lessening the weight on the front wheels does anything other than making it easier to adjust - just have jack stands in place REGARDLESS. After any adjustment, one still should put the weight back on the wheels and jounce the suspension to settle the adjustment in place.

Safety first always.

By taking the weight off you are just adjusting the tension of the bars and not raising the weight of the car. Always take the weight off the bars and use jack stands to safely support the vehicle before sliding underneath.

 

[ALRUI]

I've never heard that.

You do take the weight off the car so it's easier to crank the adjustment, but nothing is going to break if you don't.

Beside it would be tough to get under to attempt turning the bolts with the car at ride height anyway.....

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Some are skinny ehough... not me any more!

 

[Big_John]

Beside it would be tough to get under to attempt turning the bolts with the car at ride height anyway.....

Some are skinny ehough... not me any more!

I can do it pretty easy on my lift LOL.

But seriously, my arms are long enough I can reach the adjusters with a breaker bar and never really get very far under the car.

Like I've said though... It's a moot point for me because I always jack the car at least enough to get the weight off... And I ALWAYS use jack stands. A guy got killed next door to the garage I kept my race car in when his truck fell on him. I wasn't there when it happened, but that truck was right outside my back window for a couple months. Had another friend that had a '65 Satellite fall on him. He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

That stuff sticks with you... So it's always jack stands and if a wheel comes off, it goes under the car.

So, if there's failures of the adjusters, well... Yea, it makes sense to at least support the car so it can't fall and that's pretty easy to do.

 

[commando1]

Seriously, off the ground, on the ground, I adjust, I measure, I drive, I remeasure, I adjust a little more, I drive. And then check one last time.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

As long as we play safely, that's what counts.