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Torsion Bar Adjustment- Before and After

Z

Zach H

Full Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2004
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26
I adjusted my torsion bars this afternoon. Now my truck sits level and it looks awesome! Here is a pic of one tire and wheel well before and after. IT took all of about 30 min to do, then took it to get re-aligned. I ran errands all afternoon and have not noticed a difference in ride quality either. Definately a happy camper!

Zach
 

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(y) looks good Zach, who did the wheel alignment for you ? Was it hard to get both sides adjusted to the same height?
How about a pic of the whole truck from the side?
 
In what direction do you turn the bolts? From laying on your back looking up at the truck. How many complete turns did you make?

Charlie
 
Mida's did the wheel alignment ($59.99). They were the only ones near me that could do it while I waited today. The guy at Midas actually came and asked what problems I was having with the alignment, because he said that it was off by so little (toe was only slightly off) that he didn't see how I would notice it driving. Still had them align it though (DONT SKIP OUT ON THIS UNLESS YOU WANT NEW TIRES!)

No, it wasnt hard to get both sides adjusted to the same height. At first I just turned each bolt the same # of turns, but the truck was a little lopsided (by about 0.5") so I just adjusted the other side a little. I made 6 entire turns of the bolt on one side and 5 on the other. Laying on your back, looking up at the bolts, turn them from left to right (clockwise). The bolts will go "in" when you turn them.

Will take pic from side and post tomorrow!

Zach
 
I asked the dealer to crank the torsion bars for me and the service writer said no way...that this would void warranty for all sorts of stuff. He told me that angles would be thrown off and the drive shaft would slam into the transmission and shorten the life if not kill it. Is this true? Or is he just given me BS.

FreshPowder
 
powder,

my dealer is sticky with warrenty stuff... but they said that they are willing to crank the bars, however changing the keys would void the warrenty....

only porblem is... one isde is almost out of thread, so I may only get 3 turns out of it.... so thus far have not touched mine.


Grey
 
if you run out of threads the bolt will not turn anymore >:D

don't know if this would be a problem down the road, with being out of threads, as this is the first IFS truck I have owned.... anyone know if torsion bars "wear out" so to speak? is there a need to crank the bolt more as time goes on to retain height?

and how much lift would 3 threads give me?
 
I aksed my dealer to do it too, but the guy I talked to said "No". I asked why, and he said that it would not be w/in factory specs if they did. So, I asked him what the factory specs were on the torsion bars on the AV, and he didnt know. Turns out, he didnt even know that you could adjust the torsion bars and didnt know anything about the AV.

My 2 cents: There is a sticker, from the factory, next to the torsion bars that says somethign about getting a re-alignment after adjusting them. They are also easily adjusted and require no special tools. Had Chevy meant for these not to be adjusted, then they would hvae required a special tool to adjust them and they would also have not made it as easy to access/change. I could be wrong, but its just my pennies worth....
 
Grey was joking around about the bolt not turning after you run out of threads . I thought it was funny , I guess I should have just said so. LOL
 
HEres a pic of the truck before and after. Top pic is after, bottom pic is before torsion bar adjustment. Kind of hard to tell, but the before pic the truck had alot of stff in the back , but you can see that there was not near the clearance in the front as there was in the rear. You can see in the top pic that the truck now sits level.
 

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Zach H or anyone who has experiance with this....

how much lift might I get from 3 full turns, seeing as how thats all the driver side bolt has left :E:

Grey
 
Grey AV, This is just a guess, but id say that youd probably get at least 0.5", maybe a tad bit more. I saw a large height increase on my AV because my torsion bars were cranked WAY down. I still have a few turns left on mine, but was happy w/ the way the truck sat w/the number of turns I did.

Good luck!

Zach
 
GreyAvalanche said:
Zach H or anyone who has experiance with this....

how much lift might I get from 3 full turns, seeing as how thats all the driver side bolt has left :E:

Grey
Click to expand...

Grey...
Had mine done today (also 3 remaining)
got 1.5 inches exactly...not level but WAY WAY tougher looking!!!
 
I did mine as well too. I got a little more than 1 inch from the mod. It makes a big difference in the looks. I did 3 turns on the torsion bars as well.
 
It is not so much how many turns you have left, but how far before you push the key up against the frame above it. You could always put longer bolts in but the frame is only going to let you go so far.
BTW Grey; is that spray finger getting itchy yet?
 
Joe... not lately... but I was thinking of spraypainting my cladding yellow.. what do you think >:D

(100% joking by the way)

Joe... I am not sure how the key would hit the frame.... unless you loosened the bolt.... tightning the bolt I belive moves the key away from the frame....
 
I adjusted the torsion bars on my week-old AV this weekend....took less than 10 mintues on each side. I even used a level afterwards to confirm that everything was even (drivers and passengers side bolts not screwed in the same amount). The front lifted at least 1.5 inches and is level, both front to back and left to right! It'll fit 33's no problem. My alignment was already off when I purchased it, but this corrected it ;D
 
arizigloo said:
I adjusted the torsion bars on my week-old AV this weekend....took less than 10 mintues on each side. I even used a level afterwards to confirm that everything was even (drivers and passengers side bolts not screwed in the same amount). The front lifted at least 1.5 inches and is level, both front to back and left to right! It'll fit 33's no problem. My alignment was already off when I purchased it, but this corrected it ;D
Click to expand...
Can you explain how you measured the levelness?(not sure if that's a word)
Where on the truck did you place the level to get back to front and side to side?
 
I used a three foot level. I placed the level under the front bumper to make sure both sides were raised evenly, followed by a tape measure at bumper corners (it may easily be a hair off, but close enough for me). I also used the level on the side of the body, direcltly under the body, to see if the front was level with the back (once again, maybe a hair off).
 
I am wondering/concered with doing this adjustment though. I did this on my Xterra I had and when we were done leveling it out, the front end had about a 1/4inch of downward suspession travel. This created a major problem with the ride and off road ability of the truck. Does the AV have this same issue or is there enough travel to raise it a full 2-3inch or has anyone ever thought about this???
???
 
WHOO HOO! Did my torsion bar adjustment today! Only had about an inch of thread on the driver's side bolt so I cranked it up all the way and then, since the truck was level when I started, I just cranked the passenger side bolt up the same amount of turns. VOILA! front end raised an inch and a half and the truck is level from front to back and side to side. The whole thing took about 10 minutes and my truck looks a whole lot better level rather than raked. Of course I've got an appointment to do the alignment on Monday (I can see how toed in my fronts are right now). Thanks for all your help guys!! (y)
 
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