Hi all bought a buggy that was in the process of having the suspension upgraded so some old bits thrown out (torsion bars) but came with wright front end(9"arms). I am trying to get it going on a budget so have put some new torsion bars back in using the original arms(6"), problem is it too soft and sits too low. Its like it needs helper springs to get it to a reasonable height. Dont want to spend thousands just yet. anyone got some ideas on the best budget path?
Dakka, we ran sway-a-way torsion bars with 1.5" over arms (7.5) and 2 OME shocks on each side and it was pretty stiff. Would probably work OK with 3" arms.
Try a wanted ad to see if anyones got a set of bars they dont want?
With the existing bars are they all thick leaved kombi?
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Green Sally up. Green Sally down. Lift and squat, gonna tear the ground.
The bars are brand new from Mickmotors, they are thick 6 Leaves ones.
Do you know the position of the Torsion bar locating pins on the Beam relative to horizontal? The bar I have have them I would say are perfectly vertical, this leaves the arms with a couple of degrees down (less than 5) tilt with no weight on them (think this is only due to the backward tilt of the BEam mounting. With the static weight of the car it would be ~ 10-15 degrees uptilt. I think even If I get heavier bars then best case I can hope for is between 0 & 5 degees down which still looks like not enough.
IT looks like the original setup was not that good, the shocks that were on the front fouled on the arms, both are pretty dented, i would need to angle the mounting towers back to ensure they clear.
The problem with going to the 3" over arms is that there is no square mounting in the ends, I would have to go thru rods, full coil over shocks + plus mounting hoops. I plan to do this eventually, but dont want to spend a fourtune up front before my 1st drive. This plan looks to be unravelling though....
No cost solution, except time, If beams are welded to frame, or each other, or to shock mounts or to anything else that dosent allow them to rotate. Cut either side of the centre anchor or anchors (if beams widened) and rotate them to the position you want than weld them back in. It is also not too hard to release the anchor square so that it rotates in the beam, You may need to replace the piece of beam you cut out with a piece of pipe, Slot the pipe so the anchor bolt can move forwards & backwards, weld a bracket to the front of the beam to hold an adjusting bolt that pushes on the apring anchor bolt which you have to replace with a longer bolt with a chamfer on the end to match the leaf seat. than you set the preload/height you want, lock the anchor bolt. I believe you can just buy the above set up in a ready to weld in & set state. But where's the fun in that?
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Remember....... Tim the toolman Taylor says " If you didn't build it yourself, It isn't yours".
Didnt get anytime to put the front end back in for the photo's will try next weekend. Procrastination, fronts are 9" between pivots but sorry they are not for sale, want to change up to these as they come with alloy hubs, disks, and callipers.
936, looking at the beam, I think I will take your advice and gring all the mounts/fixings off and rotate to the desired position and weld back up. I Dont have the setup to cut the tubes and keep everything aligned. A bit of work, but never been scared by that. This should be the simplest method to get it close to right, can save the $$ to go coilovers and make use of all my upgrade parts later.
FYI this car is the blue 1650 cobra off the classifieds in offroadracing.com.au
this is the car this is not torsion bars with the arms fouled on the shocks, with the new torsion bars in it did not really sit any higher than this.
