Fraser to Brisbane without a torsion bar

[Bazz]

Hi Guys,

As the title says I travelled all the way home hitting speeds of 110km with a busted right hand side torsion bar. The front right hand side of my ute was on its bumpstop. It was very bumpy and the car tried to wander all over the road.

This is how it happened.......

I was heading up a track on fraser coming back from lake mckenzie and I came across a D40 that was bogged. I attached my snatch strap to a d Shackle onto my right hand front recovery point, which is attached to my chassis. I looked up and old mate had thrown the snatch strap over his TOWBALL haha typical d40 drivers (just kidding). I showed him how to attach it to his towbar using the hitch pin.

Anyway I pulled old mate out and went on my merry way, during the next big bump I went over I heard a massive crack!!! I pulled over and found my front right hand side was almost sitting on the wheel and shit myself.

I managed to get it back to the campsite had a look and found that the teeth on the torsion bar bracket had stripped and wouldn't hold any tension.

My ute is 8 months old has been offroad once or twice (literally), I have a winch steel bullbar and EFS 2 " Lift (have replaced the torsion bars).

Anyone had any experience with this?

It didnt seem like a big bump could this have anything to do with the recovery or is it more the fact that the EFS torsion bars are to strong for the brackets?

Will be replacing the brackets monday....... are there any aftermarket ones?

 

[fourocker]

I've heard of this before and I may be wrong but it seems to happen with aftermarket torsion bars, maybe the aftermarket bars have shallower spline ribs and are able to rotate in the adjusters a little allowing them to move and wear.
My 2003 still has the original t bars with 196,000 km on them, a steel bull bar and a reasonable amount of off road and sand dune work, how many others have stock torsion bars without issue or have others had stockers fail too, I'd be keen to know what the issue would be as well.

 

[charlie strayarc]

This has happened before and i would like to know if it has ever happened to a stock vehicle.

My theory is incorrect instalation of after market torsion bars. I beleive (and could be wrong) that the brackets that do this are not seated correctly ie. the bracket groove not properly seated in the cross member upon install. I point this out in my thread on replacing/winding up torsion bars. All the more reason to do your own work on your vehicle and trust no one.

Either way because this has happened before I carry a left and right spare.
You need only carry one as a spare if you grind out and clean up the stop area of one and it becomes either left or right if you turn it round.(You have to be able to do this without damaging splines).

 

[sparra04]

happened to me shortly after changing t bars
the cause for mine was I didn't have the adjuster seated properly in the chassis
maybe yours was only just seating and the jolt from the recovery unseated it ?
I always use an equaliser strap across both recovery points to even out the load

 

[happy john]

Zordo pushed this point as sparra said very strongly to me most failures occur due to that reason most don't even get past the first test drive perhaps yours was not correctly installed must of been a horrible drive back home.

 

[Bazz]

haha yeah it certainly was a terrible drive home, not the first time though drove a jk wrangler even further with death wobble....... now that was some scary shit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnLzIkdRZR8

When you guys say it wasn't installed properly are you refering to the way the teeth were lined up in the spline or rather that the torsion bar adjuster was in the incorrect position?

When i had a look underneath I did notice that there was a 3-4mm groove on the adjuster that chassis sits in to hold it in place to stop it from moving back and forth. Is that what wasn't lined up correctly and it just slips out?

Yeah I should've sparra I have all the recovery gear under the sun, he wasn't bogged deep though was a very easy recovery.

Thanks for all the input guys much appreciated!!!!

 

[OneMofo]

When i installed my Tough Dog 2" kit i didnt bed the bracket properly on the drivers side front, my front end dropped with an all might bang on its maiden voyage. i had done exactly what you have, im surprised yours didnt do it sooner.
i went to a wrecker and bought a new bracket for $45 and no problems since, if your kit is new and you had it installed i would take it back to the installers and ask them to fix it. i dont believe its the recovery.

 

[ZORDO]

Mate there is no doubt about it.
Incorrect installation of the torsion bars.
If you installed yourself then a lesson learned.
If fitted by someone else then take it back to them
Cheers

 

[Bazz]

no worries thanks guys, had a mechanic install it.

Might do it myself this time around while its on his hoist.

Cheers appreciate all the help

 

[tyler-k]

This happened to my 2012 as well after having a tough dog kit installed. Mine was also the drivers side that stripped the adjuster. At the time I was under the impression that it was mainly to do with having the bars wound up too high. After having the kit installed i had the front wound up higher by the tyre place before they did the alignment, I had very little travel in the front. I smashed a pot hole at the bottom of a big hill doing 80k's with my work trailer on when mine went. Since then I have about 20mm clearance to the stops and haven't had a problem in over 20000k's.

Now I think perhaps the bar wasn't seated properly or a combo of both, either way opposite lock who fitted the kit fixed it up for me for nothing I just supplied the new adjuster.

-Tyler