27 replies to this topic

[anjin]

Having swapped the torsion bars on two cars over the past three days, I thought I would give a full description of what I found to be the best method to install and adjust the indexing torsion bars.It's a full description which will certainly duplicate parts of other posts etc. So sorry if I make this overly long.

First, tools required. Obviously a jack, and axle stand or similar; socket set for wheel nuts (19mm) height adjustment nut (17mm) and torsion bar endcap (12 mm); hammer, centrepunch and drift; small blade screwdriver; circlip pliers; file; torch or light; tape measure; marker pen; grease. Set aside three to four hours if this is new to you. If you are in a rusty part of town, apply a penetrating lubricant for a week or so before starting.

Second, for those who have not taken this componenet apart, here is a picture of the pieces. Also have a look at the diagrams in the reference section, and get under the car and look.



The torsion bar itself sits in two sections of torsion bar tube. The front torsion bar tube is solidly part of the front suspension, and rotates as the hub abd wheel assembly moves up and down. The rear torsion bar tube fits into the front tube via a rubber ring, and has a lever arm extending about 100 to 150 mm towards the middle of the cat, terminating in a hole through which a 17mm bolt and nut provide an anchorage point as well as adjustment of height through about two inches. This lever arm holds the torsion tube and so the rear of the torsion bar from rotating.
There is a wire ring at the front of the torsion bar sitting in a groove, and a circlip at the rear also sitting in a groove. An end cap with an internal rubber cup fitts on the rear end of the torsion tube and bolts to the body; and a rubber cap fits on the front torsion bar.




The torsion bar has splines at both ends, and there is a section in the splines that matches a keyway in the tubes. The keyway in the front tube is in the three o'clock and nine o'clock position on the right and left hand sides respectively when facing the front of the car; ie they point inwards. The keyways in the rear tubes are both in the six o'clock position. The torsion bars are either right hand or left hand fitting to match the key ways.

Third, here are what I call the monkey steps to replacing and adjusting the torsion bars.

Position the car and apply the handbrake and chock the off side wheels. You need about a metre of space along the side.
Loosen the wheel nuts, jack up the car, lower it onto the axle stand, and remove the wheel.
Remove the two 12mm bolts holding the rear metal endcap and rubber cup.
Remove the metal cap - you will probably have to use the hammer and drift to force it off. The rubber cup should come off still inside the metal cap.
Using the circlip pliers, remove the circlip. If you don't have circlip pliers then use screwdrivers and normal pliers - it will take a lot longer. Don't lose or bend the circlip.

Now for the important bit that normally doesn't get mentioned.
The torsion bar is currently supporting the weight of the hub, brakes and various suspension bits. The easiest way to remove the torsion bar is to remove that weight/twist/torsion. Here is how to do it.

Using the 17mm socket, back off the height adjusting nut until there is a gap between the nut and washer and the lever arm attached to the rear torsion tube. Don't attack the bolt that attaches the suspension itself to the car.
Jack up the hub until the rear torsion tube moves and the adjusting arm just starts moving down along the adjustment bolt. The rear tube makes a definite movement you can see. At this point the torsion bar should be just sitting in the two tubes and have no torsion twist on it.
You may have to back the adjustment bolt off a couple of times to get this effect - on my car today one side was easy - about three turns - the other side went 30 mm down until i got the correct effect.

For information, the distance from the middle of the wheel arch to the centre of the hub should be about 41cm for oem adjustment with the adjustment nut a couple of turns off fully up.

You should be able to tap the torsion bar backwards and forwards very easily. Unless they are rusted in.

Tap the torsion bar from the rear towards the front until the groove with the wire ring appears. Remove the wire ring using the narrow blade scewdriver, and don't loose it.
Mark the rear torsion tube and the torsion bar to form a reference point for the original settings, preferable where the keyway is.
Tap the torsion bar back towards the rear and remove it.

[anjin]

Now it is highly likely you want to lower the front suspension. To do this you have to allow the torsion bar to be inserted into the rear torsion tube in a different place to the factory setting. To do this you have to alter the keyway.
So remove the rear torsion tube by backing off the adjustment nut all the way, rotating the tube, and withdrawing it. Make sure you have the rubber ring in the front bit.
File the keyway, either completely flat or to match the spline teeth

Clean the torsion bar and torsion tubes.
Apply grease or antiseize to the spline areas, and also lubricate the adjusting bolt.

Reinsert the rear torsion tube including the rubber ring, and wind the adjusting nut back up the adjusting bolt until it is only three or so turns from the top. Don't go all the way.
Insert the torsion bar into the torsion tubes from the rear, holding it so that the front keyway is close to the correct position.
Get it to engage into the front torsion tube keyway - I do it by feel, or you can use a torch and sight in from the front.
Tap it until the rear splines are just short of engaging.
Jack up the hub until the centre of the hub is about 41cm from the midpoint of the wheel arch for original position, or 36cm for indexing by one spline. These are the measurements for my car. They should be very close for others. You don't want to go two splines for a street car. Believe me.
Tap the torsion bar into the rear splines. If it doesn't want to go easily, back off the adjustment nut another couple of turns so that the rear tube can move down a bit more until it does slide on. You can eyeball this part.
Tap it in so you can just see the rear groove.

At this stage I reattach the wheel and lower the car to check that the height of the car is what I want. At the 41cm hub to arch fitting height I had a 61cm distance from the arch to the ground which is oem range; while at the 36cm hub to arch fitting height I had 56cm arch to ground height. Thats about a flat hand space between the arch and the wheel with 24mm torsion bars.

If it checks out the right height, complete the reinstall. Otherwise go through the set-up again.

Reinstallation steps are
Tap the torsion bar through from the rear until the groove just appears. Don't tap too far - it will pop out the front.
Install the front wire clip.
Tap the torsion bar back until the rear groove appears. You may have to help the wire ring under the front of the front torsion tube.
Install the rear circlip.
Apply grease to the inside of the rear rubber cup, and reinstall it. That grease will help protect the end, and make getting it off next time so much easier.
Fit the front rubber cup, also with grease.
Wind up the adjusting nut. Its easiest to do this now with no weight on it.
Attach the wheel, lower the car, etc.

Repeat other side.

Then you can have fun adjusting the ride height downwards. Its best to do this with the driver in place. Provided you don't want to go back up, you can do this without jacking the car.

So there you have the newish bits in torsion bar indexing. A way of finding the zero torsion point, and a measurement point for indexing the bars one spline.

[3gencivic]

the reintalling and ajusting the hieght was great to find finally. i have mine out and didnt know how to get back in. now i do thanks.

[LukeXE]

hello

maybe a little bit offtopic, but where I can buy I gen torsion bars ? I can`t find them on ebay :| I would like to have 23mm ones.

Edited by LukeXE, 30 December 2007 - 07:17 AM.

[anjin]

http://www.upgrademo.../suspension.htm

CRX/Civic 84-87 Upgrade Motoring Race Front Torsion Bars 29mm @ 432 lbs. Sold in Pairs. $375.00
CRX/Civic 84-87 Upgrade Motoring Competition Front Torsion Bars 27.5mm @ 350 lbs. Sold in Pairs. $250.00
CRX/Civic 84-87 Upgrade Motoring Sport Front Torsion Bars 24.0mm @ 204 lbs. Sold in Pairs. $250.00

A recent thread had another supplier looking at making some up.

I have the 204 lb set, and I have had a EW5 and B18C motor in the cars. It was really nice with the EW motor - great balance and the understeer was basically gone. I haven't pushed the B18 yet - onlly installed the torsion bars today. I fully expect the power difference - 178 withlsd compared to 100 hp - to make big differences in how the car drives.

The 204 lbs is plenty for the street in my opinion. But it depends on two things -
- what the rear springs are. I have 350lb rear springs which gives a good balance by reducing understeer.
- the shocks make a big difference to how the springs work. One car has the Tokico Blue 5 point adjustable, and they can bounce the car down the road. The other one has Koni red and yellows, which are set up for a soft up stroke and a strong down stroke; and give a give a softer ride. So the track set up car has got the tokico's with the stiff springs, and the road set up car has the koni's with gen1 teg and king super low springs.

It's a package deal - change one and the car drives differently. If you can, try out a couple of different combinations to see what suits your needs.

[AndrewSi]

^^^ hey anjin, did you get your torsion bars from upgrademotoring? how did you like them as far as quality? Any problems?
Thinking about ordering from them soon.

Ohh nice write up by the way...

[LukeXE]

250$ for this stuff ?? O_o pretty expensive !

If someone will have used ones, please contact with me

[myheadhertz]

Thanks for posting the info anjin!

Installing the Upgrade Motoring 24mm bars is on my list of "things to do" in January.

[SHOGUNOVDDRK]

anjin you rawk

now i have a little more confidence to do a torsion bar swap *embarrassed*

anyway i vote that this should be added to the FAQ/WIKI and or stickied aswell (as it will help us n00bs out in the future)

[Dohc_87hatch]

yup sticky +1 great write up but i think pictures would make this thing awsome!!

Edited by Dohc_87hatch, 30 December 2007 - 10:28 PM.

[3gencivic]

hey i just got my t bars installed tonight with my friend. with this info it helped. i will post in my post on my car pics of the out come. i did to much drop i think. i DONT have the engine in the ebay so i think that is my issue. but i droped the car 5.5 inches from where the stock hub to wheelwell was. i was at 19inch stock an i droped to 13.5 inchs im so low that my car jack in the front of the car WITHOUT engine got stuck. but with out it under the car the front tire is got 1inch of clearance..
looks good. i hope to have enough fo rthe turbo an oil pan.

[rpr]

anjin you rawk

now i have a little more confidence to do a torsion bar swap *embarrassed*

anyway i vote that this should be added to the FAQ/WIKI and or stickied aswell (as it will help us n00bs out in the future)

I've said it a million times, ANYONE can add articles to the WIKI....

[anjin]

but i think pictures would make this thing awsome!!

I've got pictures but the gallery server is down. They will be aqdded into the post when I can get them in the gallery

[anjin]

^^^ hey anjin, did you get your torsion bars from upgrademotoring? how did you like them as far as quality? Any problems?

Yes - from Upgrade motoring via iftakumihadacrx. (I got the monkeztek springs and illuminas at the same time) No problems whatsoever - nice quality, fitted no problem, I've used them for a year and found them great on the car.

$250 might seem expensive, but there is a fair amount of precision machining and the steel is not standard quality. Have a look at what they charge for 4wd torsion bar upgrades - at least in Australia the $250 is good value by comparison.

[anjin]

i did to much drop i think. i DONT have the engine in the ebay so i think that is my issue. but i droped the car 5.5 inches from where the stock hub to wheelwell was.

I would say you are one spline too far. I did one spline and that dropped about 5cm or 2 inches. Once that engine is in you are going to have to have very stiff springs and a very smooth race track. I'd bump it back up one and use the adjusting nut to get further drop. You can get about another 2 inches using that inbuilt adjustment.