TORSION BAR ADJUSTMENT - Page 3

I thought about the nittos but the red H 3 with the 325 65 18 in the pro comp exttremme is bad as# loooking i think check it out on www.cardomain

the Procomps are bad ass but I think the Nittos are a little more streetable. I still have to daily drive my H3 so I'm trying to compromise a little.

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ORIGINAL: Dennis

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ORIGINAL: shortbus

here, i drew arrows that stand out against the mud


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Good excuse to go out and have a smoke...
Mucho grassyass..I think I seen what you're talking about..On the H3, the adjustment bolt (about a 7/8) is on the outboard side from the torsion bar..I guess..I see nothing inside of the frame towards the center of the underneath..

So, if I'm not mistaken..Jack up the front end so both tires are off the ground. Put a mark on the bolt to count 2.5 turns CW (each), this will give the front end a little lift to level it up with rear end..

IS it just me or does my underneath look different from this picture? I wanted to adjust my torsion bar but underneath my 2006 H3 doesn't look the same as the pic above. Can someone help me out and tell me where the hell do I make the adjustments? I linked some pictures:

Shortbus drives a H2. That's why his under carraige looks slightly different.

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ORIGINAL: Linus Gump

Shortbus drives a H2. That's why his under carraige looks slightly different.

And since it is Shorty's, that's why it's soooo dirty and the orange stuff is rust

So Dennis, is this the bolt that i adjust? I believe you can see it in the 3rd pic. Thanks.

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ORIGINAL: Linus Gump

Shortbus drives a H2. That's why his under carraige looks slightly different.

aahhh I see...Thanks Linus!

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ORIGINAL: inked

So Dennis, is this the bolt that i adjust? I believe you can see it in the 3rd pic. Thanks.

Yes..the one that seems to go through the crossmember, outboard of the rear end of the torsion bar...Yup, that's the one.

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ORIGINAL: Dennis

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ORIGINAL: inked

So Dennis, is this the bolt that i adjust? I believe you can see it in the 3rd pic. Thanks.

Yes..the one that seems to go through the crossmember, outboard of the rear end of the torsion bar...Yup, that's the one.

You guys rock - I will be doing it early tomorrow morning!! Will send some before and after pics!

Hey Hummerforums:

Okay I did the tbar adjustment and you guys may not be able to tell in these pics but I can definitely tell just looking at it driving it!!

Check it out the before picture:




The after picture, raised almost 3 inches to level it with the rear which is 9.5 inches from the tire to the top of the whell well:



Worked freakin perfect for me!! thanks again hummerforums.com! Now onto 35's and accessories and please come on over and post your pics at www.**** - "WE WANT TO SEE YOUR HUMMERS!!!"

Hey guys, one thing I noticed is if you now look at my H3 from the front it seems as if the tires turn up to an angle and it's really noticible - is this something I should be concerned about and can this be fixed if I take it into the dealership?



From the bottom of the tire the front are aligned with the rear tires but the top of the tire turns in about an inch.

Well, if you didnt do some crazy off-roading and break something it is probably a simple case of having your wheels realigned.

Your wheels can be unaligned in several ways, the two front wheels can be not in a straight line with each other, the two side wheels can be not in a straight line with each other and the wheels can be at a wrong angle in relation to the road.

The angle of the tire and wheel in relation the road is called camber. If the top of your tire leans in you have negative camber. The dealer can easily adjust camber by adding shims on the upper control arms.

This is a typical consequence of stiffening your torsion bars...The Dealer as HUMerific said, will be able to straighten things out..it's no big problem, only a result of the extra spring you now added...but geter done soon, becuase the tires if you care will wear badly.

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ORIGINAL: inked

Hey guys, one thing I noticed is if you now look at my H3 from the front it seems as if the tires turn up to an angle and it's really noticible - is this something I should be concerned about and can this be fixed if I take it into the dealership?



From the bottom of the tire the front are aligned with the rear tires but the top of the tire turns in about an inch.

Out of curiosity, how many turns did you put into your torsion bars?

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ORIGINAL: Linus Gump
Out of curiosity, how many turns did you put into your torsion bars?

To get it as even as I could I had to turn it 4 1/2 times!! It's still 1/2 inch lower than the rear, but looks even enough, at least that 'rear in the air' look is gone...

Yep alignment worked perfectly, it looks normal now, the ride is a little bumpy but I'm used to it, my Jeep used to bounce all over the road, so this is nothing.



Thanks guys!

I would be concerned about how much stress you are putting on the torsion bars with that much preload during compression, unless you limit up travel by a similar amount. Too much stress could cause a bar to break after a while.

Hey Inked. 4-1/2 turns might be pushin it alittle. Most peeps including me are doin 2 to 3 turns.. 2-1/2 for me. All the homework I did before I adjusted mine brought me to 2-1/2 turns. Its still not quite level but that wasnt what I was looking for. Just wanted a extra inch for the 35's. One thing you might get is extra stress and premature wear on some front end parts,, but again Im still waitin on a post about wear and tear on T-Bar lifts. So far havent seen anything and some peeps are doin more than you. By the way your 3 looks good..

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ORIGINAL: StarsnBars

Hey Inked. 4-1/2 turns might be pushin it alittle. Most peeps including me are doin 2 to 3 turns.. 2-1/2 for me. All the homework I did before I adjusted mine brought me to 2-1/2 turns. Its still not quite level but that wasnt what I was looking for. Just wanted a extra inch for the 35's. One thing you might get is extra stress and premature wear on some front end parts,, but again Im still waitin on a post about wear and tear on T-Bar lifts. So far havent seen anything and some peeps are doin more than you. By the way your 3 looks good..

Okay guys, because I really don't want anything to happen I called a good friend of mine who did my alignment and has been doing this kind of stuff for a living for the past 20 years of his life and he said he has never heard of torsion bars breaking because of making adjustments to it - the negative of making tbar adjustments was only the bumpy ride. I even asked him about wear and tear and he said he hasn't heard nothing so far. He checked out my adjustments when he did my alignment and said it should be fine.

However I think I may just lower it an inch. It does look super cool with the front being almost leveled with the rear and even though I trust my friend I really would rather spend my extra $$$ on adding parts to my H3 rather than having to get parts because of s#it breaking.

Thanks guys for all the info.

If any of you out there who has cranked your tbars to add some lift and have experienced problems please POST IT!!!
The best advice is from people who actually had it happen to them...Thanks in advanced!!

Your friend is right inked. T-bars are basicly bullet proof. You wont have any problems with them, but possibly some front end parts wearin out alittle faster. Im not tryin to change your mind or be a worry wort about over doin the t_bars. Your adjustment isnt that bad. 6 or more turns is askin for early wear. I called my service guy before I did mine, and asked him why GM had the front end so low and if it would hurt anything down the road adjusting it up alittle. He didnt have a answer to the stinkbug look and saw no problems raising it some,, but not to go overboard (to many turns). I did mine 6 months ago and everthing looks good under the front. Its nice having a full size garage with a lift to play with. We late model stock car race here in the midwest and I have access to alot of goodies so I put my 3 up about once a month to check things out. Hope this helps,,, See ya

I have never seen any negative effects from a t-bar lift. My brother had a Nissan Frontier Crew cab, he had a 4" susp. lift and 33" Swampers, well after we mounted the tires we found that the fronts did not fit. I cranked the t-bars about 10 times each...I had no more room to crank. This leveled the front and cleared the 33's. He drove the truck this way for another 65,000 miles and beat the hell out of it and NEVER had one part in the front end fail. I'm not sayin it can't happen but I don't think turning the t-bars 5-6-7 times is gonna put someone at risk to have a serious breakage issue.

Very cool, the only reason I was a bit worried is my kids love to ride in it and their safety is priority.
Mike thanks again bro for all the help. I think I'm going to leave it be and move on to the 35's!!

Aloha!

Think back to the 80's when GM first came out with the torsion bar front suspension on four wheel drives. Everyone thought it was so cool because all you had to do was crank on 'em to get the lift you wanted. A few broken springs, and damaged equipment later, the aftermarket caught up and built kits that lower the entire assembly to get the lift. The kits were, and are, still very expensive compared to any other lift on the market. The aftermarket suppliers sell tons of them. If turning the torsion bars is a great way to go, why do people spend a small fortune on these highly engineered expensive kits?
Don't get me wrong. I have mine twisted 2.5 turns as well as most everyone else who has lifted to front, but there has got to be an engineering reason why the front sits where it does, and why the designer went with the springs they did. I know some of the original height is so when the rear is loaded, it will sit level. I would also be willing to bet that the springs chosen may have to do with parts already on the shelf, but I don't know for sure on that.
Springs, reguardless of their design, coil, semi eliptical leaf, torsion, beam, or any other style, have operating limitations, and if those limitations are exceeded enough and or far enough, the spring will loose it's temper and sag and/or break.
Re-indexed keys, although more expensive then twisting the bars, is more economical in the long run, and will be better for the front end. It keeps the factory preload and just changes the ride height. In a perfect scenario the bump stops should be moved with this type of lift as well, but I believe that if the lift is kept mild, the added load on the springs during full compression should be minimal.

ok, here is an article taken right out of a manual written by a torsion bar manufacturer. This will explain the whole thing and will also show that adjusting the bars will NOT theoretically cause breakage.




There still is a lot of misconception about the nature of torsion bars. Hopefully this will help clarify the nature and design of the torsion bar independent suspension setup. To begin with, the torsion bar, like the Leif and coil, is simply a spring. A piece of material which when distorted tries to return to its original position. Like the Leif and coil, the torsion bar can loose its memory [sag], or break. The torsion bar, like the conventional Leif or coil spring is at one end fastened to the frame so as not to move during operation. The other end of the torsion bar is fastened to a pivot [the control arm]. Now as force [weight]

is applied to the pivot end [control arm] it tries to move and take the torsion bar with it, the opposite end being fastened to the frame, can not move so the bar twists and then tries to return to its memory position. This being the point at which the pivot end [control arm] originated. With no applied force [weight], the torsion bar will keep its pivot end [control arm] at the position or angle in which it was originally set. As a constant applied force [set weight] acts upon the torsion bar the torsion bar is resisted from returning all the way back to it's memory or set position. The amount by which the torsion bar can not return to its memory [set] position becomes pre load. Pre load is solely controlled by the amount of force [weight] applied to the torsion bar.

To adjust the ride height of the vehicle by winding the adjuster bolt at the fixed [frame] end of the torsion bar does not add any more force [weight] to the pivot [control arm] end of the torsion bar, therefore the pre load is unaffected, hence ride quality and torsion bar life theoretically remain unchanged. Winding the torsion bar adjuster bolt is the same as installing blocks between the axle and Leif springs or a set of coil spacers; it simply moves the spring to a different position.

The reason the truck may ride a little stiffer is because of the new angle of the pivot [control arm]. As this angle [control arm to ground] becomes greater, the pivot [control arm] exerts less force on the torsion bar effectively reducing the pre load.

Other reasons for a harsh ride after winding the adjuster bolts is YOU WENT TOO FAR. This is when there is not enough room or no room between the control arm and upper bump stops, leaving no room for downwards travel of the control arm. When to replace your torsion bars with larger ones is if you have added substantial weight [winch, large bush bar, heavy bumper, heavier engine, etc.] or if you are looking for a firmer ride. The affected longevity of related components such as c.v. joints, ball joints, spindles, etc. will be the same weather the heavier torsion bars are used or the originals are adjusted, since these components are affected by the selected angle of the control arm. After a height adjustment is made either way, it is a good idea to have an alignment, but you will most times find that everything is still in spec.


this should clear up alot of confusion.

Just buy a leveling kit they are cheap.

I just purchased new torsion keys from Sandy River Enterprises on ebay. They told me that the torsion keys for a chevy colorado are the correct ones.