So many threads on here regarding lifting a 4runner with the torsion bars, but not entirely sure about lowering. The previous owner of my runner cranked the torsion bars until the control arms are riding on the bump stops = very rough ride, so I'd like to lower it about an inch. My 4runner has one nut on the top, which I'm unsure of: does this need to be loosened? One article I've read says it needs to be loosened a few turns. Looking at the FSM drawing it seems that I should only have to turn the bottom bolt head CCW while holding the top nut stationary; am I correct? I've tried doing this but it's very tight and I don't want to break the bolt. If I know this I'm on the right track, I'll just find a spare replacement adjusting bolt and try and move the old one with the impact...

 

The top nut is just a lock nut to keep the lower adjustment nut from moving. Loosen the top nut a turn or 2 to remove the tension and then hold the bottom nut and turn the bolt head to make the adjustment

 

Lock nut, nut, wedge, arm, frame, wedge, bolthead..

Yep you're seeing that right, you need to break the two nuts apart before you can turn the adjustment bolt.

Under no circumstance should you have your hand on that wrench holding the nut while you're turning the adjustment bolt. Put a box wrench on it and let it wedge against the frame and get all body parts clear.. Use lots of lube, assume it's going to break and have the replacement on hand, last time I looked from.what I recall two of them might cost you about $20.

 

Thanks guys; I'll order a replacement and give it a shot.

 

As I recall when I adjusted mine I jacked the front end up a bit to
take the weight off the bars.

 

Many years back when I installed my lift kit, I first had to remove the PO’s crap work.. So, my torsion bolts were so old and corroded, cranked, that I ended up breaking one and plasma torch the other. The impact wouldn’t even touch either. About 6 feet of cheaters was necessary, and still didn’t budge the one.. It was a serious pita. Obviously, I replaced both as well. Definitely get new ones and cake them with anti seize at install. Lube them every so often too.

 

When ever you need to mess with the torsion bars jack up the vehicle and take all of the vehicle weight off the bars and then the adjustment bolts will have only the pre-load on them. Put PB-Blaster on the thread that is protruding out of the nut at the top of the bolts threads. Then you can put a wrench on the nut and spin the bolt that is much easier to rotate as it is facing downward underneath the vehicle. I don't have any lock nuts on either my 91 or my sons 90 4Runnner. If you get them loosened all the way I would lubricate the threads with never seize so that future adjustments will not ruin the treads. The nut and bolt are fairly fine pitch threads so the pre-load produced by the anchor arm moves a slight amount with each revolution of the bolt. With the OEM bars tweaked as you have stated by the PO they will get overly stressed and fatigue when they are brought close to bottoming out when the suspension is cycled. Whoever did that to the bars was a real num-nutted idiot. If you have a large socket and a 1/2" breaker bar or long handled swivel head ratchet handle you will be able to spin the bolt in full revolutions as long as you have the wheels hanging down on the top-out-stops in the sub-frame. Try about 5 full turns and see were the rim to fender distance is and how it changes and you will quickly come to realize that the adjustment is quite easy. Just remember to roll the vehicle back and forth once after you set it back down to get the wheels and A-arms to relax at the new ride height setting. As the lower A arm becomes more horizontal with bringing the suspension back to an OEM ride height you will see that as you set the wheel down in contact with the floor as the weight settles in the arm continues to rotate and tries to increase the track width but the tire will be already gripping the floor and so you will see some camber being induced into the suspension. This will stay like that until you roll the vehicle back an forward so that the wheels and tires can settle into what should be a proper alignment specification for the camber at that newly defined ride height. Again rim to fender edge makes for an easy measurement.

 

Thanks again; yeah, I think the previous owner need his head checked; I've never seen torsion bars cranked that tight. I'll be looking into aftermarkets for when I rework the front end. The BJ spacers are coming out and a knuckle lift going in.

 

When I put in my spacers I backed off the torsion bar anchor bolts 20-25 turns or more to get the ride height back to near stock. I run the ground clearance at the cross member at right around 12" which is about a 1" lift over stock with 31" tires on stock wheels. The bummer is that at full droop the tie rod ends tend to bind at the steering knuckle on the spindles. It sounds like the PO never backed off the bars after putting in the spacers. BlazeLand has a lot of good information on how these spacers are typically installed incorrectly. I have found that the spacer ends up making the upper A-arm a lot more horizontal when you have correctly backed off the pre-load and brought the ride height back near to stock. So I had to kick out the lower arms at the cam adjusters to get my camber back and gained about a 1/2 inch/side of track width at the font end which also required a re-setting of the toe-set as well on the tie rods. The change I realized is that with the upper A-arm being more perpendicular to the spindle the spring rate on the front suspension seems to be a bit lower initially and the compliance is more able to suck up small irregularities making for a comfortable ride. The single shock tends to be overwhelmed in the rougher terrain as a side note while running the OEM torsion bars.

As for bars ARB/OME has the next stiffer bar and then there is Dobinson's, Sway-away and IronMan Racing or something like that which is affiliated with Ivan Stewart's Racing Equipment Co. When the winch goes on the OEM bars will be done for and I will need to stiffen up the spring rate with a thicker torsion bar spring and am thinking the ARB's might be a good compromise.