Okay, I got my superfly new torsion bars to help support the weight of my winch and incoming bumper. My Chilton's manual doesn't have an exact plan for doing this on my truck, but it does show it for a 2WD version. The anchor arm for each is the same, but the front is held in place differently. I have a '91 Toyota P/U, 4WD, manual tranny. The front of my torsion bars are held by a two legged flange. I got the rear of the bars undone with no trouble, but the front is causing problems. Should I be able to get the bars out without taking off that forward flange? I am also not able to get the anchor arms off of the rear of the bars while the fronts are still connected. I am having real trouble hear, guys. I need help figuring out how to get the front of my T-bars out of those flanges. The bolts on them are almost unaccessible without completely taking the control arms apart, so I am hoping I do not have to unbolt them, at least the passenger's side. I was able to get the driver's flange unbolted, but with the anchor arm still on, I still cant remove it because of the tight quarters caused by my exhaust. I really don't want to take my exhaust apart either.

Man, frustration can sure make you write a lot. In short, I need to know how the heck to get the front of my torsion bars out of those flanges. and

 

Hi Scott, on page III of my mods pages are links to two articles on the bars.

One is mainly for adjusting them, the other is for putting new ones on.
That should help clear up the matter.

You don't have to remove the control arms for this.

 

get some kind of an adjustable wrench and a towel. wrap the towel around the t-bar then clamp the wrench over the towel... tight! then work it back and forth and try to get it loose. one of those craftsman's strap-wrenches would work great too. I remember reading an article once where the guy had to remove his anchor arm to get one of his torsion bars out... by using a vice or something. so that's always a possibility. just remember that the bolts on the anchor arm have to be retightened to a specific torque (i don't know what). good luck.

 

Okay, I got them switched out. My impatience caused me to needlessly overcomplicate things:pat: Patience is the key here. At the urging of another member I will do up a tech article about it, but I don't have a digital camera so it will have to wait until I get the photos develop...some time in the next year or two.

For those that have done this, the cradle for the rear anchor arms have a little tab that extends toward the arms. I had to bend this out in order to seat the bars, then bend them back into place. Did any of you have to do this? Without doing this I just did not have enough clearance to get the anchor arms up into the cradle.

Anyway, the difference is definitley noticeable. Sits a little higher in the front, a lot tighter on the road, and much more stable when braking. Stupid me, I did not measure the wheel-fender clearance before I started, so I don't know what that should be. I did measure the anchor bolts, and counted the number of turns it took to undo them. I used the same number to tighten them back up and the exposed bolt is at the same measurement.

For now I am going to leave the front end a little high and see how much the winch/bumper combo levels it out.

Any other suggestions for me?

 

Another question, should the clearance between tire and fender be the same all the way around, or is the rear going to be different than the front?

 

depending on how you have the t-bars cranked, the front might be a little bit higher than the rear. by just putting the t-bars on, you've done nothing to change the height in the rear... just the front.