Yesterday evening I was driving my 82 911 near the house and the left front suspension collapsed. When I got it home and jacked up the car, I found that the torsion bar preload adjuster on the rear of the left front A-arm had worked it’s way off the splines of the torsion bar.

What retains the adjuster on the bar? Just the preload from the adjustment bolt? Has anyone else ever heard of this? I guess I’m OK if the splines haven’t been bugged up. I’ll try to re-install it this weekend.

Regards,

Jerry Kroeger
82 911SC targa

 

You're right Jerry. The cap is only held on the bar end by the preload of the adjusting screw against the cross member. The adjusting screw actually passes thru the x-memb., so you could say the x-memb. is holding it in place via the adjustment screw. Although the screw just passes thru the slot, not actually in contact with the x-memb. material, I believe. Shouldn't be touching if you've got the end cap pushed far enough onto the bar splines.

 

Kevin is right that the adjuster bolt passes through a hole in the mount. The bolt makes it impossible for the cap to slide off.

So something was amiss with your setup. Perhaps your adjuster bolt had been replaced with a shorter one?

Or perhaps the adjuster bolt was backed out too far so that the cap was resting directly on the mount to create the tension. The adjuster bolt would then be free to unscrew itself with vibration and you would be none the wiser until the bolt fell off, with the cap soon to follow.

This second possibility would be my guess. If you or the PO had the caps off, I would say this was almost surely what happened.


And if the cap slid off I assume it is gone, laying on the street somewhere? so you may never know the answer.

 

I've seen an aluminum X member that had the oval slot broken away, presumably by the adjuster having been struck by a rock or other object, the bolt was bent and the cap had nearly slid off.