Installing Big Torsion Bars

I need a little bit of advice. The last time I put the torsion bars in, I had a lift at my disposal.

I slipped one out the other day and now I want to know if there is a better method to "index" them. I've already got shortened bumpstops so I'd like to keep the cars stance pretty low.

Can anyone outline a process for getting the hex lined up while not being able to lift the car up and down with the lift?

I'll have to raise and lower the control arm with a jackstand.

You'll need the nose supported with jack stands, then starting with suspension at full droop, jack under control arm until hex lines up.

Car on a jackstand with the jack under the control arm?

If this doesn't provide enough travel you can always pop the ball joint.

There aren't many possibilities are there? It's a hex and there is no way I could jack it up past about two sides of the hex.

Should I keep the screw fully tensioned or loose while doing this?

Keep the screw loose.

That's normal for you, isn't it?

One hex is 60 degrees to the next one.
You have to be pretty inventive to choose the wrong hex

I use a spanner wrench to adjust the hex in the lower control arm. If the indexing on the bar is correct you usually only need to twist the hex a little bit to get things to line up. I just built a simple spanner wrench that fits into the hex so I can easily twist it into alignment.

I will say that some of the torsion bar vendors don't seem to understand indexing. I've see a few bars that cannot be installed because the hex ends aren't where they need to be. If the ends aren't indexed correctly (function of car weight, ride height and bar stiffness) then you'll never get it installed.

These are MP 1.22" bars if it matters.

MP clocked their bars until you got to the larger sizes and then they didn't clock them. That may or may not work for your car.

Firm Feel is the only place that I know of who does it correctly. They clock each size a little differently in order to keep the adjustment screw in the middle of the range. As the bars get bigger the clocking needs to be reduced.

Quote:

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Can anyone outline a process for getting the hex lined up while not being able to lift the car up and down with the lift?

I'll have to raise and lower the control arm with a jackstand.

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If you can't lift the car, you have to lift the control arm.

Set the car on jackstand, use a jack to raise the arm until the hexes align, slide it home. With the 1.22 MP bars, you will have to raise the lower arm up almost to its ride height postion before they align. Leave the adjusting bolt loose while installing. Tighten up to desire ride height after that.