Torsion Bars

[steven d. ferguson]

This is a great problem to solve. I have tried to
jury rig something with gear pullers, steel plates,
chains, etc and not only didn't work but made me
nervous.

I bet it did. I finished leveling my GMC today after replacing nearly
all of the front end components. Pure and simple, it is a b---h! Got
the rear within 1/8th of each other at the upper limits of the manual
tolerances. The fronts are a different story. I have two torsion bar
unloaders and went back between them about 20 or thirty times. I'm
thankful that they are so bullet proof and also that I have two to work
with. If you recall from past postings my coach sat 1/2" out of level.
One torsion bar was adjusted to the maximum tension position, the low
side of the coach of course, & the other one all the way down. Which,
of course, was the high side. I finally succeeded in getting it within
1/8th all the way around, but what a pain. Good luck to you guys who are
successful in rigging your own unloader tool. It has to be strong as
you will be putting a ton of etaay on it!
Steve Ferguson
San Diego

 

[steven d. ferguson]

Etaay is the same stuff you put on a wrench to tighten down a Harley 74 head.
The procedure is something like this: Tighten head bolds as tight as you can
get them, then go 1/2 turn more. It takes a bit of "Etaay" to do this.
Pronounced EE-TIE. I'm sure you've uttered something that sounds similar to
this when taking off a lugnut with "shorty" wrench 'cause you forgot your
breaker bar.
Good to hear from you,
Steve Ferguson
San Diego

> Okay, I'll bite...what's "etaay?"
>
> Travis
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Steven D. Ferguson
> To:
> Sent: Saturday, October 16, 1999 9:55 PM
> Subject: GMC: Torsion Bars
>
> >
> > This is a great problem to solve. I have tried to
> > jury rig something with gear pullers, steel plates,
> > chains, etc and not only didn't work but made me
> > nervous.
> >
> > I bet it did. I finished leveling my GMC today after replacing nearly
> > all of the front end components. Pure and simple, it is a b---h! Got
> > the rear within 1/8th of each other at the upper limits of the manual
> > tolerances. The fronts are a different story. I have two torsion bar
> > unloaders and went back between them about 20 or thirty times. I'm
> > thankful that they are so bullet proof and also that I have two to work
> > with. If you recall from past postings my coach sat 1/2" out of level.
> > One torsion bar was adjusted to the maximum tension position, the low
> > side of the coach of course, & the other one all the way down. Which,
> > of course, was the high side. I finally succeeded in getting it within
> > 1/8th all the way around, but what a pain. Good luck to you guys who are
> > successful in rigging your own unloader tool. It has to be strong as
> > you will be putting a ton of etaay on it!
> > Steve Ferguson
> > San Diego
> >

 

[steven d. ferguson]

I was wondering- if you built ramps (snip)

Scott,
I plain & simple don't know. The manual has very little info on
torsion bars. I started from scratch by leveling the rear first. I had
to modify the slots in one of the adjusters to get both sides level in
the travel position. I would bet it's a factory screw up as one of the
adjusters is mounted pretty far off level. I see why they did it too.
For the first time in the short while that I've owned the coach the rear
sits level within 1/8 of an inch. I can let all the air out of the
system, air it up to the travel position, drive the coach a bit over
some fairly bumpy roads, park it on the level, measure both sides & it's
within tolerances. So much for the rear. The front did come in but not
without a lot of screwing around. Anything you do to one side effects
the other & so on. It sits pretty good now and I still have some
adjustment left on both sides. One torsion bar lined up pretty poorly
so I would bet that there's some frame sag here or this thing took a hit
at one time, although I can find no evidence of the latter. Both
underside support struts were bent so I replaced them with much stronger
ones made from 3/16 channel.
The steering box is next. If my old one can be adjusted on the bench
according to the manual, I'm going to keep it & take the NAPA rebuild
back. I'll take photos of the guts & adjusting process & maybe one of
the web page guys will post them.
Steve Ferguson
San Diego

 

[steven d. ferguson]

That's the procedure I used. I kept the bottle jacks under the bogies to ensure
perfect leveling of the rear of the frame to my previous settings per the
manual. After each adjustment (with the front of the coach resting on the
ground) I would raise the front wheels a couple of inches with a floor jack off
the ground and bounce the the front end a couple of times. After all of the
cussin and adjustin was done I took a turn or two around the parking lot to sort
of seat everything and then drove it back on the level surface so I could double
check my measurements & torque down the lower control arm bushings, set the
camber & torque down the uppers. It's still slated for a professional alignment
soon because I don't think anything I've done in a parking area will be as good
as what can be accomplished on a professional rack.
HTH clear things up,
Steve Ferguson
San Diego