StoogeMoe

After taking the nine hour course, I graduated. As part of my suspension upgrade, the final step was to install new torsion bars and achieve a lower ride height. After reading all the scary threads about this being the job from hell, I don't think it was that bad, but still give it a solid 8 on the suck scale. I think the pain fades soon after the job is completed. If you ask someone while they're doing it, it probably gets a 10, and if you ask them two months later, it probably gets a 5. I guess the first time is the worst because you don't know what to expect, but that's probably true of everything. It definitely helps having a friend, especially while raising the whole thing back into the car. It's also nice that the stuff isn't really that heavy. You can muscle the pieces around fairly easily and I'm not a big jock stud. The bolts aren't that hard to loosen either. Something I ran into that I didn't see in any of the other threads was that my old torsion bars must have got water in them and they rusted solid to the end caps. It took a bit of penetrating oil and some strong whacking to get the cap off.

I can see why you don't want to use trial and error to index them properly. That's too much jacking up and down and fiddling. I used the spreadsheet which sort of worked. I didn't quite get the lowering I wanted. It was off by about 1/2 inch. I think my error was that I didn't disconnect the shocks first, so the unloaded measurement was a bit short. Oh well, that's what I get for not taking my time preparing for the course. Luckily the ride height eccentric was enough to compensate.

Now that it's all complete, it definitely dialed out the understeer. The ride is a bit more stiff, but not that dramatic. I'll post pictures shortly of the before and after shots.

rmconner80

Did you follow the Clarks procedure where you make a little gauge out of cardboard and calculate the unloaded difference using fancy pants geometry?

I plan on doing adjustable ride height setup from Paragon for the front. As long as I get close on the rear ride height, I can then even out the front much more easily!!

Also, just curious: what spring rate did you use (front + back)?

Potomac-Greg

What you're describing is virtually identical to the process of childbirth. Horrendous process, but the result is pleasing, so you forget the pain.

75ohm

So I should ask my wife to reindex the torsion bars on my ride? LOL... she surely hasn't forgotten childbirth! ROFL

kdjones2000

The two important things to do at the beginning are to:
1) Disconnect the shocks to allow the unloaded bar to fully extend
2) Loosen that lower rear bolt on the torsion bar caps (Like Clark's Garage mentions, but it missing from other instructions). This too will prevent the unloaded bar from fully extending, at least when using the stock torsion bars

The spreadsheet really helps, even though there are several approximations in the formulas.

Cheers,

Keith

StoogeMoe

Here's the images as promised.

This is the before picture. A completely stock 83.



And here's the after picture.



Don't know why it was up in the air like a 4x4, but that's the way I got it. I wasn't going for anything wild as this is mainly a daily driver with occasional track use. I think it came out just fine for a street stance. I went with the Paragon spec 944 suspension kit with 250 lb springs up front and a 28mm torsion bar out back. From the conditions of the roads around here, that's about as far as I would take it. I did one component at a time to see what each would do and I would say the sway bars gave the biggest difference by far. The springs help with diving under braking. At least that understeer is gone.

I actually took about three methods, including Clark's Garage, as instructions. I verified all the calculations myself and found Clark's second part to be unnecessary. It's a non-factor to the outcome considering the slop in all the measurements that you take. The spreadsheet should be fine. I just blew it without removing the shocks first.