Wound up Torsion Bars

[dazza33]

So wound up the torsion bars on Sunday and found a few things.

• Better turning circle
• There are two upper bump stops
• The front end now is as hard as a rock

Have others found this when lifting via torsion bars?

[dolphin]

yes i found out some time ago with another 4 wheel drive vehicle i owned that one of the wound up t/ bars broke due to excess strain on the bar. so be carefull where you drive with highly set t/ bars.

[allanmac]

And you will probably need a wheel alignment as well.

Winding them up too much will put extra strain on the CV's, so be wary.

[schnitzel]

have you still got a minimum of 12mm clearance between the upper control arm and bumpstop if not you will do damage. if the front suspension has gone hard it normally means the bumpstop ids hitting, raising the ride height with the torsion bar should not significantly stiffen the ride.

[dazza33]

How have others raised the front then? Are there springs and shock packs?

[schnitzel]

depends how far you raise them, too far and you have problems or need to trim the bumpstops.
without being offensive a big rookie mistake is to just wind them up as far as you can without actually checking clearances, but then places like this help because we can learn how to sort it out.

[dazza33]

I have trimmed the bumpstops, and i do have clearance there maybe just not enough. I'm heading back out to have another look.

[Pauly Faulkner]

depends how far you raise them, too far and you have problems or need to trim the bumpstops.
without being offensive a big rookie mistake is to just wind them up as far as you can without actually checking clearances, but then places like this help because we can learn how to sort it out.

Not wrong there. This place has helped me sort a few things out and pointed out the errors of my ways

Gap is very important. At the least, you wanna be able to stick your thumb in there(around 15-20mm roughly), the more gap the better but obviously you want lift so a thumb gap at minimum.

[dazza33]

I'm at a happy medium......not quite a thumb but definately 15mm. Lot less lift but suspension has travel now. Spose that's as high as she goes then without a body lift.

[schnitzel]

about as good as you can get then. If the ride is too harsh it means you have reached the end of the spring torque in the bars.

[rich67]

Any chance you could measure the height to the edge of the guards? Either from the ground or the rim.

Have you put GQ coils in the rear?

[Dudleybeek]

handbook says 21mm to 23 mm gap between lower bumpstop rubber and bumpstop

[Pauly Faulkner]

handbook says 21mm to 23 mm gap between lower bumpstop rubber and bumpstop

Yep, that's for factory height recommended setting.
Once you lift it up you just have to make sure there's a good gap on the upper droop stops to atleast allow a bit of down travel so it's not taking weight off the wheel around corners etc

[davecambo]

have you still got a minimum of 12mm clearance between the upper control arm and bumpstop if not you will do damage. if the front suspension has gone hard it normally means the bumpstop ids hitting, raising the ride height with the torsion bar should not significantly stiffen the ride.

is this 18mm front end raised or when on the ground?

[Pauly Faulkner]

is this 18mm front end raised or when on the ground?

When on the ground mate.
The torsionbars travel is well past full droop so when you raise the car with a jack the torsionbars will try and push the wheels down but the droop stop rubbers (I.e upper control arm rubbers) stop it and the torsionbar is still under a lot of strain.