Well, here's the deal. Yesterday I installed shackles and cranked my torsion bars up. Since it was done at the shop I told the tech to crank the front 1.5 inches. They cranked it about 2 inches. Now: I don't want to overstress the center link more than I need to.

Do you think there's a huge difference stress wise between 1.5 and 2 inches of torsion bar crank?

You must be almost on the bumpstops.

Does it ride like crap now, meaning bouncy.

How close is the UCA to the bumpstop? Can you slide a finger between them?

The ride is fine, not bouncy. I'm going to check out the distance between UCA and bumpstops now.

Yeah...it's pretty close to the bump stops. Can't put a finger in there either. I eyeballed it and it looks like a quarter of an inch in there, maybe less. No good, eh?

Yep, let them down a good 1/2". Then get an aligment because changing ride height will affect the toe-in setting.

Well, I probably won't be able to get to it for about a week or so. I'm at work all the time.
Shouldn't be too bad if I ride like that for a week, no? What side-effects can I expect if I leave it like that (just out of curiousity)?

If you leave it cranked up too far you mean? The ride can be a little harsh and if you didn't get an alignment when you adjusted everything, the outside edges of the tires will wear from being toed in.

Isn't 'touching' the bumpstops causing damage?
Well, whatever. I'm taking it back Friday morning and those bastards are gonna get it from me... .

I was thinking of redoing it myself and not deal with them at all, but I'm not willing to pay for another allignment just because they did not listen to me.

When adjusting the torsion bars, what does 1.5 inches from the ground to the truck equal to in the space between the bump stop and the upper control arm? In other words, if I now only have an inch or a little bit more between the UCA and the stop, does that indicate how far I can crank and how much I can obtain?

The space to the bumpstop is not the amount of lift...there's an angle involved...imagine a set of shears....imagine they are open all the way....and look at the distance about an inch from the joint holding the two halves together, and an inch apart...and the distance between the two halves at a point at the tips...

Now close the shears a 1/2" closer together at the joint end, and see how far the tips get closer together...

The 1/2" at the bottom was half the starting distance, and the amount the tips moved was also half the starting distance...but, the total travel of the tips was alot more than the 1/2"....perhaps several inches.

If you knew the length of the shears and so forth you could figure it out....but the concept is the same anyway.

Does that help?

Thats the best(and only) explanation I've ever heard of how cranking the torsion bars works. Now, I understand exactly what happends when you do it and how only 1/2" can change ride height.

Thanks

Your Welcome.



That's what I'm here for.

Yes, thank you very much, very helpful.

Get a room, you two.

Is getting a realignment really necessary for just a half-inch adjustment? I've done that several times during my first few months after the lift. It's been over a year with the same tires and the tire guy gives me nothing but good news regarding my tire wear.

If you cranked it over 2 inches I would understand, but 1/2 inch requires an alignment too?

To the post starter, your t-bars might settle down anyways, depending on whether or not your t-bars are new.

Speaking of getting a room...

Xterradon - Just noticed you are from NJ!



You should mosey over to the NJAX (New Jersey Area Xterra's...) forum and say Hi....and join NJAX, and do some wheelin!

Well, Clapto, they were way too close to the bumpstops. Driving over any hump and I would get almost no suspension travel. I dropped it down 1/2 inch a few days ago.

Now sitting home waiting for my allignment to be done.

Are there two bumpstops on each side of the front of the truck? There is a rectangular one and then a smaller round one, right? I just added the Calmini shackles and re-indexed and cranked my t-bars up to level it out. I ended up crankning them about 1.5", but now the small round rubber stop and the control arm are touching. Can someone post a picture of which bumpstop I should be concerned about touching the UCA?

The small rubber stop touching to control arm is the one in question here. If they are touching you have no downward travel in your suspension and it's not good at all. Besides, the ride must suck too especially when you drop down a bump at speed, which would require your suspension to go down; in that case you'll experience a nice jolt.

Thus far, the ride hasn't been bad, but it's only been driven a few miles. I'm planning on leaving it as is for a few days since I've already re-aligned it and hope it will settle some. If I need to, I will crank the t-bars down. Thanks for your help.

My stock 2002 X (no lift) is clearly lower on the passenger side than on the driver's side. Nissan and my local tire store both quote around $100 to adjust it, so if I can do it myself, I want to. But after searching and reading lots of posts on torsion bar adjustment, and checking my service manual, I'm still not clear on how to do this step-by-step.

Also, people mention cranking them up on one side and down on the other, but the manual says "Adjustment of anchor arm adjusting nut is in tightening direction only. Do not adjust by loosening anchor arm adjusting nut." So how do you adjust up vs. down?

Would one of you with experience doing this be kind enough to do a "Cranking Torsion Bars for Dummies" post, or just direct me to it if it's already been done and my search missed it? It would be greatly appreciated.

For what it's worth, I contribute those kinds of posts myself when I do something, for example my speaker installation thread.

BlueSky42, you have a PM.

for what it's worth, when I had my 40$ alignment done at pepboys, they evened out the torsion bars so they were both at the same height.

Thanks for the responses - Bobby B.'s PM explained the whole process and I'm going to try it this afternoon. If that doesn't work out ( ) I'll check with PepBoys to see if they'd do it for that price.

Bluesky, let us know how your adjustment goes. I'd be interested to know if your results are similar to mine. I recently did a PML and had it aligned, asking the tech to make sure I cranked the T-bars evenly. But, when I got it home I noticed that the passenger side was about 1 1/2" lower. After re-cranking for awhile, I finally brought the passeger side up an inch. I then checked my bumpstops and saw that the gap was pretty much even on both sides (about 1/2 inch+), but that I was still nearly 3/4" lower than the driver side (measuring from ground to top center of wheel well). Anyone have an explanation? (yes, tires are evenly inflated).
Thanks for any insight.

I cranked up the passenger side today. Took more turns than I thought it would but it's evened up.

Measuring from the ground to the lip of the wheel well, my passenger side was just about 1" lower than the driver's side (33" vs. 34"), and you could see the difference looking at the truck from the front. It took about 5 full turns of the passenger side adjustment bolt to even it up. Checked the bumpstops and all's well, still have at least an inch of space. I'm going to get my alignment checked to be sure it's ok since my Toyo's are only about 2 months old.

Hats off to Bobby B. for his instructions, which made a job I was nervous about seem very easy. 5 trucks and a heartfelt thanks to him, and a big DOH! for me...my uneven front end had bothered me for a couple of years now but I never realized it could be adjusted. :rolleyes:

Glad all's well that ends well.

Terratup, this may sound overly simple, but are you checking your measurements on level ground? That could make a difference.

When you crank the torsion bars, the differences in the gap at the bumpstop vs. any differences in height are not equal, meaning that if you gain a 1/4 inch in ride height, you don't decrease the gap at the bumpstop by that amount.

Perhaps the best way if heard the relationship explained was on this site -- and I wish I remembered who it was to give them credit -- but visualize one of those gardening/branch trimming tools that have 3-foot handles but the pivot point of the tool is down next to the blades, which are only like an inch or two long. With the handles all of the way open, like when you're cutting a branch, the gap at the ends of the handles is several feet apart while the blades are an inch apart. If you close the handles half way, you've moved them like a foot while the distance between the blades also decreased but in a much much smaller proportion than the other side. It's kind of like that when you crank the torsion bars, when you crank them up, the gap at the bumpstop decreases in tiny increments. Ultimately, though, you are lifting the truck at the expense of down travel and too little clearance can cause problems.

So long story short, by evening out your measurement, the gap at your bumpstop might not diminish all that much or, if you're measuring using the eyeball method, it might not appear substantially different.

Hope the long post made some sense, my brain's a little fried at work right now.

Whomever posted that earlier analogy from the way back, thanks again.

My driveway might be a bit uneven, so I'll re-measure on a surface I know is flat. If it's still lower on the P-side, I'll be really confused. Am I wrong (or dense) to think that if the distance between the bumpstops is even on both sides that the distance to the wheel wells should be even too. To put the shearer/branch cutter analogy to work again, let's say you have two separate shearers with handles opened all the way (with the open handles facing each other, blades facing away). The distance between the blades at the tips should be the same, right? Then, if you close the handles, let's say 3 inches, and re-measure at the tips again, the distance between the tips should be the same too, correct?
Let me know if I'm being an idiot to think this.

It was TJ, on the first page of this thread.

Yes, the resident suspension genious.

Doh!!! Retarded, party of one.

Hey, I did say my brain was fried...

Though, in my own defense , I was remembering that explanation from a long time ago, so thanks again TJ.