27 replies to this topic

[rpr]

That's where the jack comes in. You slide the bar in so the rear splines are aligned, and you use the jack to raise or lower the control arm to rotate the bar into the right position, then bang it in when it's lined up. It helps if you loosen the adjuster nuts to the very bottom, but not completely off. I've tried the whole 'remove the tube' thing and never got it to work that well.

[shadowboy]

see what i did is the same thing as what you did with the lower control arm, but different. i slide the torsion bar all the way forward (so that it disengages the front splines). enough to where i can twist the torque tube to get it over the height adjusting nut.

turning the torque tube offers fuller range of motion (if you don't remove the shock), and the front index markers are easier to see than the rears (more light, less crap in the way).

[strudel]

Shawn and rpr, Straighten me out on this issue so I am clear on each others methodology.

Shawn. You state not to remove the keyway on the torque tube. So I assume you filed out the keyway on the front of the swing arm insertion point just making sure you had it marked correctly on the bar and insertion point for future alignment.

rpr, On your second picture(rear of T-bar) the paint marks indicate one spline change in insertion point. Does that mean you filed out the keyway on the torque tube? On the front picture it is a bit hard to tell but is that the standard keyway or is it filed out as well.

Just trying to way the difference in methodology when I have to do it, if necessary for my project. JS

[shadowboy]

strudel: the front torsion arm has a keyway in it already. there is a small bump on the lever arm (approximately opposide the control arm) that is where the keyway is.

i slid the torque tube onto the torsion bar, and slid the assembly into the crossmember with the torque tube splines engaged. i did this because it is more difficult to see where the keyway is on the torque tube. it is typically in around the 6:00 position when the front end is at the 3/9 o'clock position. if you slide the torque tube over its difficult to see where the keyway is on the torsion bar because the chassis is in the way. so i put it in place first, then slide it forward. once you look up front, if you have the front index marked, it should be easy to see how far off you are. then just turn the whole torque tube and torsion bar notch by notch until it slides into the front splines easily (you will know when you have it). slide the torsion bar forward, and put the torque tube in place. once you go as far as you can with the torque tube, you will run into the situation where you can't move it any further because the height adjusting bolt is in the way. get the torque tube as close as you can, then lightly tap the torsion bar forward with a deep well socket, using a rubber mallet. use light taps, you only wanna tap the bar forward enough to clear the front splines. (part of the rear splines should stay engaged). all you need to do is clear the front splines so that you can turn the torque tube to clear the height adjusting bolt. slide the torque tube the rest of the way on, then turn it until the front keyways match. then install the retaining clip there and slide it the rest of the way back. then install the snap ring, end cap, and dust boot and you should be good to go.

i say use this method and remove the torque tube for this reason:

when i first tried putting my torsion bars through the torque tube they didn't go through nicely. i ended up just sliding the torque tube back and forth when i wanted to get the torsion bar in place.

by taking the torque tube out, you can slide the torsion bar along it several times to allow it to wear down just enough for it to slide easily in & out of the torque tube.

you may or may not run into that problem, so just taking the torque tubes out will make that a less pita ordeal.

[strudel]

First of all I must apologize as i think I may have gotten off track on the thread.

Shawn, I reread your posts and realize the topic is only about R and R a T-bar rather than resplining and that is where I am in error with my previous post.

rpr wrote: I didn't re-index the front, I just mark it with paint so it's easier to find the index key. It might look off from the picture, but it was definitely on the index on the front.

I did find something curious, my CRX had the index keyed into the tube, but on my Civic there is no index keyway, just a dot punched into the ends of the tubes. If you want to lower it a spline, all you have to do is take the bar out, rotate it one spline and put it back in. No grinding of the bar. In the first picture, I think that is a 24mm bar.

This is possibly where I went off track with the thought process plus the fact that the Mullinator article was mentioned and he ground out the keyway in the torque tube to lower the car.

I had to go ou to the garage and physically put the bars in the crossmember and the torque tube to make sense of everything. As far as installing a different or new T-bar I understood the correct way all along!!

It's the resplining business that is the tricky part of the equation if one wants to go that route with all the pitfalls. JS

[rpr]

The resplining only needs to be done on the part of the bar that is towards the back of the car. The first time I did it I spent a good ten minutes under the car trying to visualize which spline to remove. My Civic tubes don't require the bars to be resplined because there is no keyway, just and index mark on the outside of the tube, which makes it very easy to lower it, intentionally or not.

[civtrx]

awesome stuff!

[Maine_Honda_Racer]

When I did my HF bars, I found that I could not FIND the rear keyway, there was a spot on the bar, but either it was so worn that it had been simply worn off, or I was just simply inable to find it. I don't know exactly what was going on, and at the time it was more than rather disturbing. However the suspension has had no complaints since, so I suppose that I did an ok job on them in the end.

[rpr]

Yeah, Krispy's car had no index marks or keyways either, so it was basically trial and error. I helped him bang the t-bars out, I let him do the indexing...

[balladeSports]

One important note
always grease the bar before putting it back in (That didn't sound so good)
this makes it alot easier down the road.

[Nicolas]

Now that I've done it ten times or so, I can re- and re- them by myself in under 45 minutes. I've never taken the strut off to do it, and I don't take the wheels off either. I don't use the clips on either end, no need really. The best tool to remove them is an old tbar with the splines ground off the thinner end. It makes the perfect punch:



Here is the indexing for the rear:



As you can tell, I have it rotated 1 spline to lower it more.

Here is the index for the front:



As you can see, I paint the index on the end of the bar and the tubes to make it easy to line up.

This is the mushroom effect of banging on the end of the bar:

Hello, you can put the new direction for the photos?
Thanks

[anjin]

Shawn's advice is good. If you don't use his 'tap in through' method, you end up doing it by removing the strut, and jacking the hub and control arm up to the top of the travel of the strut to allow the torque tube to slide in past the suspension and adjustment nut bits. You do a bit of guessing as to which set of splines to engage. Tom's method removes the guessing part.

Unless you have 31's and they won't move beyond the splines, when you then have to jack up the control arm etc. Took me three goes to get that right.

I'd reinforce a couple of suggestion appearing above
-mark the ends of the torsion bar with a slot,. It's a lot easier to position the tb with a slot.
-also nick the torque tube end with the spline (or exspline) position so you can reference it easily to the tb
-for the initial removal, loosen of the adjusting nut, and jack up the hub until the torque tube is able to move. That's the minimum load sweet spot. If everything is clean and greased you can just about push the tb out without needing a hammer when its like this. (You should be so lucky! )
-remove the rear keyway while everything is out, even if you are doing a stock exchange. If you want to reindex later its already done.
-20 minutes a side is excellent. You won't be close to that your first time. Budget a day!

[strudel]

Since this date the Gallery format changed. I edited the post for you and you can see the complete Gallery in this link. JS

Now that I've done it ten times or so, I can re- and re- them by myself in under 45 minutes. I've never taken the strut off to do it, and I don't take the wheels off either. I don't use the clips on either end, no need really. The best tool to remove them is an old tbar with the splines ground off the thinner end. It makes the perfect punch:



Here is the indexing for the rear:



As you can tell, I have it rotated 1 spline to lower it more.

Here is the index for the front:



As you can see, I paint the index on the end of the bar and the tubes to make it easy to line up.

This is the mushroom effect of banging on the end of the bar: