Front torsion bar

I wasn't paying attention and hit a speed bump on Wednesday night a little harder than a I should have, about 10-15 mph. The front right suspension on my 70 911E collapsed and I pulled over within a few yards. I was sure I had broken the torsion bar.

I jacked up the car and removed the wheel and could see the torsion bar end cap, the one with the height adjusting bolt, had come off of the torsion bar. It was held in place by the adjusting bolt at 90 degrees to its proper position. So, I stood on the wheel spacer to push the suspension down as much as possible, pushed the end cap back on with a little help from the wheel wrench and drove home slowly, listing to starboard a couple of inches.

Tonight I pulled it all apart, took out the torsion bar, cleaned everything and put it all back together and adjusted the height. It seems fine but it's a little scary wondering if this might happen again if I hit a bump at 80mph.

Is there meant to be something to hold the endcap in place? I can't find anything in my books or the diagrams on this site.

[This message has been edited by Allan Broadribb (edited 06-15-2000).]

Allan,

I was under the impression that all '69 and later cars 'nomally' had the adjuster bolt prortruding down below a 'cutout slot' in the subframe/crossmember ... so that the cap could not back out if the ride height was set correctly. If the torsion bars were reset by someone inept enough that the adjuster had to be 'cranked' all the way up on the threads just to get an acceptable ride height, then I suppose it COULD back out ... I suppose you ought to examine (or rethink, since you were just looking at it) your torsion bar settings, and see if the adjuster is at a 'mid' position. if it is at the 'mid' position, is it not prevented from backing out by the 'slot' in the crossmember?

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

Warren, thanks for taking the time to reply. The adjuster bolt was somewhere near the mid position and protruded through the hole in the cross member. The end cap came off and the adjuster stayed in the hole, so in fact the end cap had swung back 90 degrees pivoting on the adjuster bolt.

I had it all apart last night, put it back together and adjusted the height same as the other side. It looks exactly the same as the suspension on the left side. My Haynes book (1971) has little information on assembling the torsion bar and adjusting the height, but it seemed pretty straight forward. Do you know the height specs for the front suspension?

At some point the original self adjusting shock suspension was replaced with torsion bars. I don't know when but one of the shocks has 83SC written on it and I have S calipers.

Allan, The '69-'71 spec book calls for the rear center of the torsion bars to be 108 mm +/- 5 mm below the center of the front axle.

I guess you should consider yourself lucky that someone had already converted the hydropneumatic struts to torsion bars and struts, as the last time I saw one of the kits about 10 years ago it was $3K for parts!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

I too have a 70 911E that the original owner converted to torsion bars and Konis. I have all the service records for my car and the cost of this conversion was $997 (including $134 labor) in 1975! You could also get a valve and timing adjustment at the dealer for $37 then.

I'm newly registered by the way, but I've been reading this board for close to 2 years now. Greetings to all and you have given me more useful info than you know.