So when I was building the car I put the rear torsion assembly together on a work bench as you can see in the pics.

The car when first put back on its wheels was stock height. Its now been sitting since the fall and the rear wheels now sit above the fender wells. It has dropped at least 3 inches.

How much should torsion bars settle after indexing? both side are even of course.

Anyone have any experience with this happening?

Tempted to just buy coilovers and get rid of the torsion bars

 

The torsion bars themselves dont settle - just the shocks, any rubber bushings, and any bind in the suspension after it is set down. Typically you need to roll the car after it is set down to relieve any bind, and the shocks will settle after a few minutes.

What diameter t-bars did you install and how much did you change the index angle or reference distance?

 

Get rid of them!

 

no keep them

 

What I want to know is where did you find all the beat up nuts and bolts to go with all the shiny bits.

 

Why keep them? With his set-up, I'm sure he'd be more happy with the coilovers. Plus I've actually talked to him about this

Keep on Trollin'!

 

Stock torsion bars went back in. Forgot to mark them when I took them out. Got busy doing them way back when. The project took 2.5 years

 

Done got missed on my re-plate bin. Doh

 

I re-indexed the torsion bars yesterday. Previous ride height settings shown in pictures above, the car settled about 4 inches. Top of fender well reached the top of the rim after a few weeks. It settled very slowly and ended up far to low hence the work yesterday.

Now I am sitting about 2 inches above stock height. Top of fender well to the tire is 4 inches.

Has anyone done their torsion bars and started off with about 4 inches from fender well to the top of the tire and had it settle to an appropriate ride height?

Remember I screwed up and forgot mark them the first time I took it apart. I know about all of the write ups about how to measure but the problem is I am playing a guessing game on where to start from. Trial and error.

Any thoughts out there??????
I hope you can follow me so far
Oh and I can't spend money on Bilstein coilovers this year the budget is tapped out
That's why I am FUC*((&(&%&*%ING with the stupid torsion bars

 

Don't need no stinkin' torsion bars go coil over.

 

Well it "should" be possible to get back to stock ride height...but put me down in the coil over camp, sorry!

 

Believe me I want to go coil over but can't spend the money this summer.
Have not had the car on the road for 3 years since I bought it. Needs a wheel alignment to pass inspection and I don't want to have to pay for 2 alignments either if I have to index a 3rd time to get the suspension set properly.

Jason

 

They won't settle. Unless you can get some very clear measurements, it's trial and error. I'm sure you saw the fine adjustors on the swing arms. Those give you about 1/2" either way and can be used for final adjusting and/or cornerweight balancing.

You'll get good at putting that subframe in and out. Been there, done that. Took me 3 tries to get them right. I found it fastest to pull the swing arms off/on then drop the tube slightly to tweek the bars. Hard to install with the trailing arms on.

 

Ugh!

 

Yeah...right around that second or third attempt, the price of coilovers seems a lot less expensive than it did before..