hight?

[Rene M]

is my front ride hight adjustable by using the torsion bar adj?

I think the dealer lowered the front end when they changed my ball joints.

[Ldub]

In a word...YES.:yesgray:

[Rene M]

Do you just tighten them on the adj bolt or is there a procedure to reset them?

[Ldub]

Yes, but the bad news is, as soon as you crank them up, it throws the alignment out of whack.:_wrench:
(whack: an industry insider term used to describe mis-alignment):smilewink

[Rene M]

and thus is why you spend $139 on a life time alignment at firestone.
All of my cars/trucks have one even " yes" my two road race cars..
I go in and get it done for free and every car is in there at least 3-4 times a year with some new mod.

My problem i see is the left adjuster is at the end of its travel and the other has lots of adj left. can i pull the adjusters off and reset them on the splined end of the torsion bar or is one bar just screwed?

[Ldub]

If it's cranked to the limit, that would indicate that they didn't lower it?

I would try to re-index the T-bar before I bought a new one, but if it needs to be replaced, I would get a pair from www.independent4x.com
Matt is good people & sells quality.:thumbup:

[Rene M]

If it's cranked to the limit, that would indicate that they didn't lower it?

I would try to re-index the T-bar before I bought a new one, but if it needs to be replaced, I would get a pair from www.independent4x.com
Matt is good people & sells quality.:thumbup:


See thats the problem... one side is and the other is the complete opposite like some dumb *** had no clue how to put it together. One side is at the beginning of the adjustment the other is at the end... either the torsion bar is weak or it was assembled incorrectly. if you take a tape the the truck you can see the front is down by 2" in comparison to the rear.

[LittleBeast]

if you take a tape the the truck you can see the front is down by 2" in comparison to the rear.

Before I did my lift the difference between the front and back was between 1.5 inches and 2" difference on each side with the front having less room between the fenders (less ground clearance). If I am not mistaken the VX came with a tad bit of lean towards the front. As far as those torsion bolts go, mine would not turn very much at all without some heavy soaking in some pbBlaster, is there a chance that they are at their lowest limit instead of the highest?

[taylorRichie]

My torsion bars took a 3' Breaker bar to budge. (along with pbBlaster).

They can be misleading, and appear that they are maxed but still have some room to go.

If I was doing it again. I would loosen my T-Bars all the way, and re-index them so I could get a little more lift with a little less crank. (re-index = rotate the bar ~90º)

[Rene M]

Before I did my lift the difference between the front and back was between 1.5 inches and 2" difference on each side with the front having less room between the fenders (less ground clearance). If I am not mistaken the VX came with a tad bit of lean towards the front. As far as those torsion bolts go, mine would not turn very much at all without some heavy soaking in some pbBlaster, is there a chance that they are at their lowest limit instead of the highest?

See one is at the end of adjustment and one is set all the way loose. So some dumb *** set them up wrong.
So i need to drop them and re index them.. i was just wondering if there was some procedure for the best way to index them?

[Rene M]

My torsion bars took a 3' Breaker bar to budge. (along with pbBlaster).

They can be misleading, and appear that they are maxed but still have some room to go.

If I was doing it again. I would loosen my T-Bars all the way, and re-index them so I could get a little more lift with a little less crank. (re-index = rotate the bar ~90º)

Good to know .. i have a rather large 3/4 impact so i dont think i will have that much of a problem " heavy diesel mech"

[LittleBeast]

See one is at the end of adjustment and one is set all the way loose. So some dumb *** set them up wrong.
So i need to drop them and re index them.. i was just wondering if there was some procedure for the best way to index them?

Ah I see, well it is clear you know more what you are talking about then me, I probably couldn't even tell you if mine were maxed out one way or the other, all I know is my bolts turned and the front end came down, lol. Yeah I have no experience in reindexing but I know there was a thread about that somewhere around here.

To quote Zues in another thread "Anyway, reindexing the T-bars involves the removal of the crossmember they go into and then rotating the bars (which swings the A-arms down) enough to fit in their mounts again. Then you fine tune the amount of lift by cranking on the adjusting bolts."

But it sounds like you already know more than that already, oh the bolt is 27mm though if that helps, I went out and bought a 27mm socket to go with my 10" socket wrench that is what I used, it was hard to turn but I love challenges ;)

That is all I could find sorry couldn't be more help, good luck can't wait to see how it turns out, let us know.

[tom4bren]

"I think the dealer lowered the front end when they changed my ball joints."

It's happened. CSTYLES took his in for a front end alignment when he lifted & they kindly lowered his front end back to original specs as part of the alignment.

[Rene M]

yep, had to put it back all by my self and align it myself.

[Rene M]

http://adriana.12thfloor.com/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=4544&g2_serialNumber=2

[tom4bren]

NICE

A little more offset & it'd be perfect.

[LittleBeast]

NICE

A little more offset & it'd be perfect.

No comment..... :grino:

[tom4bren]

Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk:)

[BigSwede]

There is no need to re-index unless you have maxed out your adjustment. Re-indexing accomplishes nothing except to gain more room for the adjustment arm to swing (the short arm that connects the adjustment bolt to the rear end of the torsion bar).

If you need to re-index here is a procedure I wrote up a few years back:

***

Isuzu Torsion Bar Re-indexing

If you have run out of adjustability when trying to crank your torsion bars to raise the ride height, it may be time to re-index the torsion bars. This operation simply regains room for the torsion bar adjustment arm to swing while cranking the adjustment bolt.

1. Jack up one side of your vehicle until the front wheel is off the ground, and place a jackstand under the frame. Don’t support the vehicle by any part of the front suspension, your goal is to unload the suspension as much as possible. Refer to your owner’s manual for safe jacking procedures. I recommend safety glasses as well, mostly to protect your eyes from the grit that will inevitably fall off the vehicle while you are working under it.

2. Using a half-inch socket wrench or breaker bar and a 27-mm socket, get under side of the vehicle, midway between the tires. Locate the torsion bar adjustment bolt (these are my terms, not necessarily the same terms Isuzu uses). It is easy to see, just inside the frame rail, on a crossmember roughly in line with the B pillar (the B pillar is between the two side doors).

3. Remove the bolt, counting the number of turns until tension is entirely relieved on the bolt. The newer the vehicle, the easier this bolt will be to turn. Due to inevitable corrosion, older vehicles may require the use of a long breaker bar and/or penetrating oil. After the tension is off, continue removing the bolt until it comes out, along with two large half-moon shaped nuts.

4. (Note: this step might not be necessary on all vehicles. If the torsion bar doesn't have any tension holding it down to the crossmember, you can probably skip Step #4) Get a 17-mm socket and loosen (but do not remove) the nuts on the lower control arm bracket at the other (front) end of the torsion bar. This will allow the bar to pivot slightly and take the remaining lateral tension off the bar. Without doing this, the tension will make it difficult to lift the rearward end of the bar from the crossmember. The bracket nuts are very tight, so a breaker bar is helpful to break them loose.

4A. Alternative to #4: use a jack to force the torsion bar up off of the crossmember. I don't recommend this idea, working in close proximity to large springs under tension makes me nervous.

5. Make a mental note of the angle of the adjustment arm on the torsion bar. Lift the rearward end of the torsion bar enough to pull the adjustment arm off of the splined end of the torsion bar. The arm isn’t held on to the bar by anything but friction at this point.

6. Rotate the adjustment arm so the end away from the torsion bar is higher than before, and re-insert it onto the torsion bar. It should only be necessary to rotate the arm one or two splines on the torsion bar. Also, it's not a bad idea to re-grease the splines before re-installing the adjustment arm.

7. Line up the adjustment arm so it will fit into the U-shape channel of the crossmember, and set the torsion bar/adjustment arm assembly down on the crossmember.

8. Tighten the nuts on the front torsion bar bracket on the lower control arm.

9. Grease the curved surfaces of the half-moon adjustment arm nuts. Reinstall the adjustment arm bolt and half-moon nuts. Once you feel some tension on the bolt, start counting the turns. Crank about the same number as it took to get the bolt off, this should get you in the ballpark of the ride height you started with. If your goal was to take the ride height higher than before, you should be able to do so now. Either way, some fine adjustment will almost certainly be necessary to even out the height side to side and front/rear.

10. Repeat Steps 1 through 10 for the other side.

11. Go for a drive around the block to settle-in the torsion bars and adjustments.

12. Check your ride height again, front to rear and side to side. I just do this by eye, because you can drive yourself nuts trying to measure the height precisely. Exact ride height will vary due to a variety of factors, including vehicle load (even how much gas is in your tank), slope of the ground you are measuring on, basic slop in the suspension, temperature of the shocks, etc.

[BigSwede]

As far as those torsion bolts go, mine would not turn very much at all without some heavy soaking in some pbBlaster, is there a chance that they are at their lowest limit instead of the highest?
No, there is no "lower limit" to the adjustment...if you lefty-loosey the adjustment bolt (as to lower the ride height) enough the bolt will just come on out entirely.

It isn't uncommon for a longish breaker bar to be needed for adjusting the ride height bolts unless they have been turned recently.

[Rene M]

Sweet , thanks...that is what i was looking for.

[SomeBeach]

See, lots 'o info! :)

Thanks for the info....very helpful. I'm gonna jack it up then try to figure how big of a 15'' tire I can put on.

[ZEUS]

No problem, you also mentioned an interest in lifting, aside from the expense. Just so you know (in case you don't already), a lift can be achieved for less than $200. Most of us use the Old Man Emu coil springs in the rear and a few turns on the torsion bar bolts to gain 2.5". The coil springs are the only parts you need to buy! Check out the "lift wiki" thread for more info and optional parts...