Front torsion bar end cap replacement

Chris Lovell · 10-31-2004, 02:44 PM

At an autocross today, I heard a sharp bang/knock from the front left suspension. After noticing a pronounced sag in the left front, I discovered the tosion bar end cap has fallen off the tosion bar. The teeth on the tosion bar look okay and the teeth in the cap are slightly manged on the font edge but otherwise appear okay.
Can anyone give me advise on what to do for reinstall? Should I just back off the adjustment screw, tap the cap back on, and reinstall the adjustment screw through the hole in the subframe?
Any advice is welcome.
Thanks.

Chris Lovell · 10-31-2004, 03:56 PM

Right. I'm not sure how it popped off either.
The adjuster bolt is still attached threader about half way through. It just came loose under some pretty serious autocross turning. I'll have to check the aluminum cross member for damage. I think it looked okay in the brief inspection I made at the track. Here's a pic of the cap:

The cap appears to be tapered slightly to press on to the torsion bar. Do you normally just tap this on, rethread the bolt, and that's it?

Chris Lovell · 10-31-2004, 04:45 PM

Noah,
Can you think of anything else which could have this result? Like how about the torsion bar broke? Doesn't seem likely but maybe there is some unusual answer.

Chris Lovell · 11-01-2004, 08:33 AM

Would the correct way to reinstall the torsion bar cap be to pull the t-bar, press on the cap, and re-insert?

Chris Lovell · 11-22-2004, 07:46 AM

This weekend, I finally got around to pulling the T-bar and assessing the situation. I found the T-bar to be in good shape. So, I made sure the splines on the T-bar and adjuster cap were clear and straight (by tapping the T-bar through the adjuster cap on both ends of the T-bar). Then, reinstalled making sure the T-bar was deep into the adjuster cap.

The reason this happened in the first place was because the adjuster bolt had widened the access hole through the aluminum support arm. Instead of replacing the arm (limited budget here), I shaped a nut to fit onto the adjuster bolt which would fit into the oversized access hole in the support arm. The result is a snug fit in which the adjuster cap is pretty tight against the access arm and not much room for sliding off the T-bar.

The biggest PITA of this project was the reassembly of the brackets holding the front sway arm. There has to be a trick to relieving the pressure on the sway bar in order to reinstall the brackets. But without a better technique, I just levered it into a position where I could thread the bolts. Sore today, that's for sure.