torsion bar "lowered" help

[rain_man]

anyone have any pics/step bye step info one lowering with torsion bars
im working on my 61 c10
i have a set of jeep springs and 3 inch blocks for rear
just want to get as low as possible without droping a ton of money
thanks

[72bigred]

With your jeep springs I dropped 4' in the rear, short box fleet/wood bed. Of course with your blocks you will go 7.. With Torsion bars you will not get low enough just adjusting them down to drop your rear 7'.

I put 2 1/2 drop spindles up front and used the torsion adj for another inch and it sits at the stance I want.. Not looking to go lower myself. I would say at max you might get 5' up front with drop spindles and the torsion and still have a spring rate.

To test it out jack up your front end with the wheels hanging and back off the bolt at the back of your torsion bar at the cross member (mid truck) There are two as you probably know. You will see how far you can bring it down by looking at the threads that are left up top. You must keep them somewhat tight due to needing the twist on the torsion to give you a decent spring rate. With the wheels hanging causing no tension on the suspension you should be able to release them safely.

I would suggest if you plan on going lower the cheapest way is to swop out the whole front crossmember from a later 60's if you want 6 lug or go into the 70's to get 5 lug. Then you will have spring front suspension and of course you can lower with springs,spindles etc. Do a search on crossmember swop there is tons of info on it. I might be wrong but I do not think you will be able to slam your truck with the torsion susp. If someone has they might chime in.. Some have said things like using a longer bolt in the torsion bar to help get it lower but you will be scraping the bolts on every speed bump you go over and I wouldnt want to lose the tension on my suspension while driving

Reid

[62gmc910]

first measure the distance that the from the torsion bar bolt to the brackets & Like the previous poster said hang the wheels and back the bolts out drop it and see where it sits. If it doesn't drop enough lift it and put in longer bolts to see if you can get the desired results. If you do you might be able to pull the "wrenches" off of the end of the bars and turn them up one flat.??? It would be cool to slam it with torsion bars

[rain_man]

hey thanks for the help.
anyone got pics off even a slight drop with just torsion in the front?
waba get an idea of what i can get without doing the work
thanks

[**grumpy**]

Heres pics of my 60 with dropped torsion.

I lubed everything up with penetrating oil and then loosened both sides til the top of the bolt was even with the upper block....
Did that make any sense???

It dropped it right onto the snubbers.

I cut my snubbers all the way out. Some may disagree, but I did it, and it rode well, unless you hit a bad bump or pothole, then it was harsh, but no worse than many other lowered trucks/cars.

***Oh, BTW, the worst part was the torsion bolts hanging really low. I know theres a way to pull them and rotate, but I didnt do it and delt with dragging them alot.
You can see them in the pic I posted hanging close to ground.

But, ya gotta pay to play

[62 Bowtie]

Yeah thats the drawback for me anyway the bolts hang low and could hit. I also have the 2&1/2 dropped spindles. Hey Grumpy you say theres a way I could just flip them Inever heard that anybody else do this?

[rain_man]

hey grumpy truck looks good what setup do you have in the rear?

[**grumpy**]

The rear of my 60 had jeep TJ springs. It lowered it 4" or so, and rode real nice. Only drawback was you lost some load capacity, but the only loads I ever carry are like what you see in the pics...my kids and friends, plus all my wifes vintage coolers and luggage...haha


As for the front, Im not exactly sure, but i did see it covered on this board, where guys pulled the torsion bars out and rotated them, sorta indexing them I guess.
Reminds me of what vw guys do to lower bugs.
Search all the torsion threads on this and the suspension boards here. Thats where I saw it.

[72bigred]

Yes I remember that post. It stated to pull the torsion out and rotate it "this far" I assume you would rotate it so that it would initially have less spring rate so you would then have to tighten your bolt up further in order to achive some type of spring rate. Since you rotated it whatever distance in the tightest setting you would be lower than factory height. Yet I also read that someone tried this and it did not work for them..but did they rotate far enough.. I would make sence that it would work.. I although have not tried..

Reid

[rain_man]

any more pics?
what is a good rear tire size to run with the jeep springs and 3 inch blocks?

[LostMy65]

Originally Posted by 72bigred

Yes I remember that post. It stated to pull the torsion out and rotate it "this far" I assume you would rotate it so that it would initially have less spring rate so you would then have to tighten your bolt up further in order to achive some type of spring rate. Since you rotated it whatever distance in the tightest setting you would be lower than factory height. Yet I also read that someone tried this and it did not work for them..but did they rotate far enough.. I would make sence that it would work.. I although have not tried..

Reid

Here it is:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...48#post2717748

Originally Posted by Imperial Kustom

Those bump stops are really easy to cut with a sawzall. They also pull out. But now that your torsion bar adjusters are hanging way down, a good and safe idea is to remove them from the control arms and turn them one spline. That puts them back to the stock adjustment and still keeps the truck low. Otherwise they drag on speed bumps, driveways, gas station entrances, etc. Then you could end up finding out the hard way, like I did, that those bolt heads don't last very long and break. Mine broke doing 60 mph and dug into the pavement about an inch and a half. Shot me off the road and gave me a pretty interesting ride!

Originally Posted by Imperial Kustom

Depending on how rusty they are in the arms, the can be a pain. A pipe and big hammer will do the trick (after removing the adjuster bolt and unbolting the torsion crossmember. easy.). There are only six splines, so rotate inward one spline and the torsion bar geometry returns almost stock and the truck stays low!

[61_FL_Apache]

Here is mine. When I got this from the PO, it was bottomed out. I actually raised it a little bit. I have about 1 inch gap where the bump stops were. I have a thin piece of rubber there now for a bumper.

[fleetsidelarry]

Rain_Man, I've never personally pulled a torsion bar so can't say for sure but I know others on here have. I'm thinking that since BOTH ends of the bar are hex head and there are no "splines", to "index" just one position would give 60° of rotation. which is a HUGE drop out at the end of the a-arm. like dragging on the ground drop

but, maybe you can gain back several inches when you tighten them back. that'd sure be the way to go IF you can get the bars out, which I understand can be a problem

[Andyboy]

Here's mine just lowered it last week. I'm running 215/70/15 tires I'm still going to lower the front another inch. In the pic it's lowered 2inches. The rear is jeep coils and it dropped about 4 inches.

[mano]

This was my 62 with the bars all the way down with the bump stops cut off. I put a old A body spring in the rear. Had to be a little careful adjusters hung down pretty low.

[Ratrod60apache]

Here's my '60 with torsion adjustment

[LostMy65]

Originally Posted by Ratrod60apache

Here's my '60 with torsion adjustment

I really like the flames
Posted via Mobile Device

[demian5]

Can anyone post a picture of the position of the adjusters under the truck after being lowered to a nice ride height???

[Angrywood]

First off....some badass looking dropped trucks in these pics. I’m in. The process of dropping my torsion bars to lower the front. Unfortunately one of the nuts broke in half and the truck came down and crushed my ribs. I was talking to my mechanic for my “new” cars and he mentioned that changing the torsion bars will throw the alignment out of whack. Anyone experience this?