Jayc1958

Hey all, I have a 92 Toyota pickup 4x4 3.0 engine that I took in for a front end alignment. I was told there is no more adjust in my torsion bars. Can anyone tell me what this means and what I need to replace in order to correct this? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Jay

MudHippy

If it doesn't mean that the adjustment bolts and/or nuts are stripped, seized, or otherwise damaged. Then it means the torsion bars are fatigued and can't be adjusted to lift the suspension. Or it means whoever told you that doesn't know what they're talking about.

If the adjustment hardware needs replaced, you order new hardware from Toyota. If the torsion bars are fatigued, you get some at a junkyard that aren't. And if you can't find any, you order new torsion bars from Toyota(for stock replacements) or an aftermarket manufacturer(for thicker HD replacements).

Kean

I'm going to assume they mean that your torsion bars have been adjusted to their limit (likely done by someone as a cheap way to lift the front of the truck) and they are unable to tighten them any further. Why not ask them exactly what they meant?

MudHippy

I eliminated that as a possibility. Because:

a) Why would they be attempting, or would there be any need, to adjust them further than that(for added lift, or drop for that matter)?
b) As far as alignment goes, it really doesn't matter if they are or aren't(adjusted to their upper limit, or lower limit for that matter).

Bottom line: Torsion bars have nothing to do with being able to align the wheels. Hence the "don't know what they're talking about" comment.

Jayc1958

Thanks Kean, I intent do do that. I need to educate myself before I talk to them. The guy I bought the truck from or someone before him must have rodded the truck pretty hard. Everything in the under carriage has to be replaced. I believe your assumption about the torsion bars being adjusted to their limit is correct. What is your best guess on what I need to do to fix this?

Jayc1958

I don't know why but I can't reply to your response. I assume the parts kit you are referring to is a torsion bolt kit???

highonpottery

iTrader: (1)

sounds like you need either new t-bars that aren't fatigued, or try and re-index them by grinding off the locating spline so they can be rotated 1-2 splines....which i'm assuming you're not into since you're not doing all this yourself.

"torsion bolt kit" sounds to me like replacement adjustment bolt - since those are fairly common to seize and snap when adjusting. i would definitely get them if you plan to swap out the t-bars, one less thing to worry about.

MudHippy

I'll shoot you some part #'s ASAP. I gotta run right now though. I'll be back in an hour or so. Maybe someone else will step in and take care of it while I'm gone.

Kean

I was simply throwing that out there as another possible reason for their remark about the torsion bars. Without actually asking them what they meant by "no more adjust", who knows. I would start there (IMO).

Frankly, I'm not that familiar with the options for this platform but there is a lot of info on this site on the subject if you need replacements, a better alternative for a lift, etc. (if that's the case). There are plenty of helpful, knowledgeable folks here like MudHippy that will likely get you squared away though.

MudHippy

Oh...I can be a bit of monster with a pretty pissy attitude sometimes(a little too often if I'm honest). I try to be good(and not get banned too frequently, I'm on a good roll as of late in those regards). But I'm Mr. Know-it-all. With all the arrogance that accompanies it. Just don't let the things I say get you all bent out of shape. It's not personal. I hate everybody equally. And there's certainly no need to give me any more credit than I deserve. Which is a little bit more or less...depending who you ask. And I won't argue with whatever end of the spectrum you fall on there. You either love me or hate me. I'm fine with either.

I was going to say the same thing about the torsion bars being cranked to the max, and that's probably what they meant by it. So you weren't necessarily wrong IMO to say it. In fact you're probably right. I'm just trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt here. Not that they deserve it. So let's assume the dumbass actually did know what he was talking about. Which he obviously didn't. Because if he's talking about adjusting torsion bars to align the wheels, he's clueless. And an idiot for even saying it to begin with. But not everybody knows enough to verify that on their own. So here we are. Having a pretty much meaningless conversation about nothing....probably. But whatever. It's besides the point now.

Now we're going to try and help fix whatever the guy says is broke. Or not. We'll see. I'll let somebody else make the final call on that. Because without crawling under the truck and looking for myself, I can't really tell you what's going on for sure. What I'm getting at there is Jayc1958 needs to crawl under there himself and decide if anything needs fixed or not. Or if he's not comfortable making that decision, maybe take it somewhere else armed with a little more knowledge about the subject. Or just err on the side of caution and replace some parts. They're not super expensive, and prone to failure eventually anyways. The nuts and bolts at least. Not so much the torsion bars. But...

Yeah, if you end up thinking you still want to do that, there's a few things you'll want to know. If you've seen what they call a "OEM torsion bolt kit 4x4", I think I know which one you saw. And it's probably all you'll need to fix the nuts and bolts. It doesn't have a couple of related parts. But it's got the 2 most important, and likely damaged ones. You can probably reuse the upper and lower seats. I'll give you the part numbers for all the parts. Then you can decide if you need any of them at all, or which are the ones you really need. It's not too damn likely at all that the torsion bars are too fatigued to still be usable. But in theory they could be. Let's just set that idea aside for later. And forget I mentioned it for now. If they are, you'll find out when you go to install the new hardware. If you still can't get the ride height where you want it(or rather as high as you want it), you can go ahead and replace(or modify) them at a later date. And keep in mind, like I said, you may not need anything at all. And you most certainly don't need anything torsion bar related to get the wheels properly aligned. We could be(and very likely are) chasing wild geese here. For no reason whatsoever. Assuming we aren't...

90101-12159 Bolt
90179-12074 Nut
48173-35010 Lower seat
48173-35020 Upper seat

You'll need 2 of each to do both sides. Or just order the kit and reuse the seats. Since I can't see how the seats would ever need replaced. But it's remotely possible they would. Your call.

Kean

I appreciate the explanation but it’s not necessary. I took no offense (no reason I should) so interpret my comments at face value. ….I’m genuinely indifferent. If anything, I might categorize your response as direct (which is fine in my book).