Hi
Has anybody altered the height of their vehicle by adjusting the torsion bar - if so - what kind of a job is it?
Thanks
Steve
adjusting torsion
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adjusting torsion
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beero
- Minor Legend
- Posts: 1207
- Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 10:43 pm
- Location: Chichester
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Re: adjusting torsion
Easy now on mine because everything is clean, free and well greased. It was a nightmare when it was all dirty and rusty though.
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Jefftav
- Minor Addict
- Posts: 720
- Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2003 9:28 am
- Location: Inverness
- MMOC Member: No
Re: adjusting torsion
I think this has been covered a few times so maybe a search of the forum will find a detailed description.
Check the ride height of your Morris on both sides, it's not really advisable to let it run around on the bump stops as this can damage the inner wing. You will need to jack your morris up as high as possible and support it on stands. With a wire brush, plus gas and suitable sockets/spanners make sure you can undo all the relevant bolts/nuts and clean up the splined ends of the torsion bars. This makes things easier later on and if one won't undo at least you haven't already got the suspension all in bits.
Dismantle the lower arms of the front suspension so you can separate the two arms and release them from the front upright. Keep a jack under the rear arm as this holds tension from the torsion bar and once you release it from the upright you can gradually lower the arm on the jack to release the tension. At the centre xmember undo the nut & bolt that holds the adjusting arm and small plate with holes drilled in (remember where this was) and slide it down the splines and rotate it anti clock wise to raise the ride height(think thats right but if not then it is the other way?). Re-assemble everything fitting new bushes, fulcrum pins as req'd and greasing everything this will make it easier if you have to distmantle the suspension again. Then re-check the heights are the same on both sides.
Give yourself a weekend to do this job as it can either go very smoothly and be done in an afternoon or be a pig and take a day each side. Hope this helps and have fun
Check the ride height of your Morris on both sides, it's not really advisable to let it run around on the bump stops as this can damage the inner wing. You will need to jack your morris up as high as possible and support it on stands. With a wire brush, plus gas and suitable sockets/spanners make sure you can undo all the relevant bolts/nuts and clean up the splined ends of the torsion bars. This makes things easier later on and if one won't undo at least you haven't already got the suspension all in bits.
Dismantle the lower arms of the front suspension so you can separate the two arms and release them from the front upright. Keep a jack under the rear arm as this holds tension from the torsion bar and once you release it from the upright you can gradually lower the arm on the jack to release the tension. At the centre xmember undo the nut & bolt that holds the adjusting arm and small plate with holes drilled in (remember where this was) and slide it down the splines and rotate it anti clock wise to raise the ride height(think thats right but if not then it is the other way?). Re-assemble everything fitting new bushes, fulcrum pins as req'd and greasing everything this will make it easier if you have to distmantle the suspension again. Then re-check the heights are the same on both sides.
Give yourself a weekend to do this job as it can either go very smoothly and be done in an afternoon or be a pig and take a day each side. Hope this helps and have fun
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rayofleamington
- Moderator
- Posts: 7679
- Joined: Fri Nov 01, 2002 2:55 pm
- Location: LEAMINGTON SPA
- MMOC Member: No
Re: adjusting torsion
The worst one I've done took me a week including refurb! The best was done in under 2 hours to change the height on both sides in a hotel carpark including chatting to passers by. This was the same car...
The load bearing arms (front and rear) should slide on the splined part of the torsion bar - however if the car was salty and left standing for 20 years in a humid environment, then don't expect it to be easy!
Release the load and rear adjuster plate as described above.
Put a paint mark on the arms / torsion bar so you can get them back on the same spline (that helps a lot to set up afterwards).
[Don't mix up the LH and RH torsion bar - if you take both off at the same time then paint an L and R on them. The torsion bar is loaded the opposite way on each side and you shouldn't reverse that, although it's not that likely to lead to failure, it is not a good thing to do. The same goes with rear axle half shafts, but they do fail more often!]
When everything works correctly - slide the rear arm forwards until you can see the washer between the end of the torsion bar and the centre cross member. Undo the nut on the rear of torsion bar allowing the bar to move forward a few mm, and release the washer (it has a cut out making it known as a C-shaped washer / C washer) from the torsion bar/crossmember. Note that the washer is stepped to sit partly into the crossmember making the bar concentric with the hole - this is important on reassembly.
When the C washer is removed the bar can be persuaded to come back through the hole far enough to extract the fulcrum pin from the front eyebolt. Once that is out, you can take the bar forwards and away from the car.
The front load arm "should" be free to move on the splines. If it isn't then you need to free it up to avoid problems with the eyebolt bushes later on. The fulcrum pin is bolted into a thick washer that sits in the front of the front load arm - it appears to be part of the torsion bar when everything is together but it's not.
On every car I've worked on the fulcrum pin (eyebolt pin) is worn - sometimes to a dangerous extent! to replace it with the front arm removed from the torsion bar is fairly simple as you can access the hidden nut. Otherwise you need to knock the pin and washer out of the front arm (not always easy if rusted solidly in place, but with the arm removed you can drift it out from behind with ease).
If the load arms are completely locked up solid on the splines, then the only way to remove the bar is to pull the lower arm off whilst it is still attached to the eyebolt - obviously you need to remove the big nut from the eyebolt first. Removing can take a lot of effort as the eybolt can be siezed in place and when that's free the torsion bar may not want to bend enough to get the eyebolt out. [Removing a seized eybolt is much easier without the torsion bar as you can put a big bar through it and rotate it until free.]
When the assembly is removed from the car, this is the time to clean up the splines and grease them. If the arms are seized in place, then penetrating oil and time / patience will help. If they won't tap loose after a few days of penetrating oil, start to use a bigger hammer and watch your fingers!
Clean the splines with a wire brush and WD40 and with a bit of patience it is possible to get the arms to slide freely over the splines - even when it needed a big hammer to free them.
On re-assembly you should bolt up the rear of the torsion bar to the cross member to set the position of the torsion bar. Then bolt up the front arms* before pre-loading the suspension (*load arm and the thin pressed metal one) in order to align the arms to the eyebolt bush flanges evenly. Once you have done this, you can pre-load the suspension and then loosen the pressed metal arm to refit the suspension arm (trunnion pin).
If the front load arm can't slide on the splines then it is likely that one of the bush flanges will be overloaded and fall apart quickly in use. Hence the need to have the front arm sliding on the splines and to clamp up the bushes before loading the arm.
Also - if the car has had a hard life, the eyebolt pin may have worn into the eyebolt itself. If the eybolt hole is egg shaped, this will cause early bush failure. It is worth checking the hole as well as the eybolt pin. New eyebolts are normally available but if not then a good second hand one shouldn't be too hard to find from a scrapped Minor.
This may all sound like a lot of work, but once it has been done, any future maintenance will be a dream. If the suspension has been recently well maintained then the dissassembly and checking will be a quick process anyway.
also if it's well maintained, changing the supension height is a quick job!
The eyebolt and fulcrum pin are heavily loaded - worn bushes will make the car a bit less sharp to drive, and a worn pin will wreck new bushes pretty quickly, so it's a false economy to leve things alone. I've seen pins with less than 1/3 of their original cross section as the bushes have failed and the pin was left grinding into the eybolt, which scares the heck out of me!
The load bearing arms (front and rear) should slide on the splined part of the torsion bar - however if the car was salty and left standing for 20 years in a humid environment, then don't expect it to be easy!
Release the load and rear adjuster plate as described above.
Put a paint mark on the arms / torsion bar so you can get them back on the same spline (that helps a lot to set up afterwards).
[Don't mix up the LH and RH torsion bar - if you take both off at the same time then paint an L and R on them. The torsion bar is loaded the opposite way on each side and you shouldn't reverse that, although it's not that likely to lead to failure, it is not a good thing to do. The same goes with rear axle half shafts, but they do fail more often!]
When everything works correctly - slide the rear arm forwards until you can see the washer between the end of the torsion bar and the centre cross member. Undo the nut on the rear of torsion bar allowing the bar to move forward a few mm, and release the washer (it has a cut out making it known as a C-shaped washer / C washer) from the torsion bar/crossmember. Note that the washer is stepped to sit partly into the crossmember making the bar concentric with the hole - this is important on reassembly.
When the C washer is removed the bar can be persuaded to come back through the hole far enough to extract the fulcrum pin from the front eyebolt. Once that is out, you can take the bar forwards and away from the car.
The front load arm "should" be free to move on the splines. If it isn't then you need to free it up to avoid problems with the eyebolt bushes later on. The fulcrum pin is bolted into a thick washer that sits in the front of the front load arm - it appears to be part of the torsion bar when everything is together but it's not.
On every car I've worked on the fulcrum pin (eyebolt pin) is worn - sometimes to a dangerous extent! to replace it with the front arm removed from the torsion bar is fairly simple as you can access the hidden nut. Otherwise you need to knock the pin and washer out of the front arm (not always easy if rusted solidly in place, but with the arm removed you can drift it out from behind with ease).
If the load arms are completely locked up solid on the splines, then the only way to remove the bar is to pull the lower arm off whilst it is still attached to the eyebolt - obviously you need to remove the big nut from the eyebolt first. Removing can take a lot of effort as the eybolt can be siezed in place and when that's free the torsion bar may not want to bend enough to get the eyebolt out. [Removing a seized eybolt is much easier without the torsion bar as you can put a big bar through it and rotate it until free.]
When the assembly is removed from the car, this is the time to clean up the splines and grease them. If the arms are seized in place, then penetrating oil and time / patience will help. If they won't tap loose after a few days of penetrating oil, start to use a bigger hammer and watch your fingers!
Clean the splines with a wire brush and WD40 and with a bit of patience it is possible to get the arms to slide freely over the splines - even when it needed a big hammer to free them.
On re-assembly you should bolt up the rear of the torsion bar to the cross member to set the position of the torsion bar. Then bolt up the front arms* before pre-loading the suspension (*load arm and the thin pressed metal one) in order to align the arms to the eyebolt bush flanges evenly. Once you have done this, you can pre-load the suspension and then loosen the pressed metal arm to refit the suspension arm (trunnion pin).
If the front load arm can't slide on the splines then it is likely that one of the bush flanges will be overloaded and fall apart quickly in use. Hence the need to have the front arm sliding on the splines and to clamp up the bushes before loading the arm.
Also - if the car has had a hard life, the eyebolt pin may have worn into the eyebolt itself. If the eybolt hole is egg shaped, this will cause early bush failure. It is worth checking the hole as well as the eybolt pin. New eyebolts are normally available but if not then a good second hand one shouldn't be too hard to find from a scrapped Minor.
This may all sound like a lot of work, but once it has been done, any future maintenance will be a dream. If the suspension has been recently well maintained then the dissassembly and checking will be a quick process anyway.
also if it's well maintained, changing the supension height is a quick job!
The eyebolt and fulcrum pin are heavily loaded - worn bushes will make the car a bit less sharp to drive, and a worn pin will wreck new bushes pretty quickly, so it's a false economy to leve things alone. I've seen pins with less than 1/3 of their original cross section as the bushes have failed and the pin was left grinding into the eybolt, which scares the heck out of me!
Ray. MMOC#47368. Forum moderator.
Jan 06: The Minor SII Africa adventure: http://www.minor-detour.com
Oct 06: back from Dresden with my Trabant 601 Kombi
Jan 07: back from a month thru North Africa (via Timbuktu) in a S3 Landy
June 07 - back from Zwickau Trabi Treffen
Aug 07 & Aug 08 - back from the Lands End to Orkney in 71 pickup
Sept 2010 - finally gave up breaking down in a SII Landy...
where to break down next?
2013... managed to seize my 1275 just by driving it round the block
Jan 06: The Minor SII Africa adventure: http://www.minor-detour.com
Oct 06: back from Dresden with my Trabant 601 Kombi
Jan 07: back from a month thru North Africa (via Timbuktu) in a S3 Landy
June 07 - back from Zwickau Trabi Treffen
Aug 07 & Aug 08 - back from the Lands End to Orkney in 71 pickup
Sept 2010 - finally gave up breaking down in a SII Landy...
where to break down next?
2013... managed to seize my 1275 just by driving it round the block
Re: adjusting torsion
To adjust the height - you only need to remove the front half of the lower arm - take the T bar force with a jack and pull the kingpin forward and away from the rear arm - then lower the jack to release the forces in the T bar. Hammer the arm back until it 'just' releases from the splines - move it up or down as required - then hammer it back up the splines - jack it up again until the kingpin fits back on, then refit the front half of the arm. You don't actually need to even take the wheel off.... I used to do this at the kerbside at the start of rallies if news of rough roads ahead! With practice (and non rusty splines) it's only 20 mins per side.
