That was all pretty much a joke. It doesn't flex because the springs are too stiff. It bottoms out because there is hardly any travel. I'm not sure what your goal is, but if you want off road performance I don't think this is the right direction. If you want a cheap drop in replacement then it is.

I know it is possible to change the spring, what I meant was if it is possible for the Ranger to flex even less than it does now.

 

lol! It's hard to believe it could flex less, but it's true.

The main thing, Dave, is to be able to hit obstacles as "hard" as I need to in 2WD and not overly fatigue the t-bars. I think most of the damage to the stock ones occured BEFORE I put the Ranchos on. I was offroading with basically "blown" factory shocks which would have caused the front end to cycle too much on changes. Were I a 4x4, I would not need quite the momentum I often do.

My thought is, regardless of the "flex" issue, is that the stiffer bars would be more likely to stand up to the abuse for a longer time.

 

john heres how I pulled my torsion bars. now this will be WAY easier with air tools and is really really simple.


first get the truck in the air fron tires off, disconnect the shock, the lower ball joint and the sway bar linkage letting the lower arm drop all the way. the UNCRANK the torsion bars releiving as much tension as possible. the pull off the torsion bar skidplate thingies. once you get the skidplates off its really easy to see what you have to do. there is a guide plate for the torsion key between the frame and key so look at it and remeber the way it comes out.

now I pulled my lower arm off cause I needed the get new ball joints in but i doubt that you have to do that. make sure and MARK A SPOT on the both the torsion bar hex heads (both front and rear heads) and their corrosponding spots in the torsion bar key and the spot in the lower control arm. if youre gonna rotate em a sixth of a turn just mark em one corner off.


then reverse instructions for puttin em back on. TWAS WAY EASY!!!

directions may not be TOTALLY complete as i just did this off the top of my head but im pretty sure once you get down there you'll figure it out.

oh and also use a floor jack to reload the lower arms to the needed height to reach the sway bar linkage and fron shock.

one more thing i forgot: i had my spindle all the way off so pay attention to the lower ball joint when reloading the bars so that you can reinsert it in the spindle.

HAHA ALSO might be easier with the spidle off. more working room. and one less thing to worry about when reloading as it is probably way easier to put on bottom ball joint the the top ball joint.

any questions LOL??

 

Ah, that's an interesting alternative which doesn't require loading the bar with the puller or special tool. Thanks for the info!

 

That is probably true. I forgot you were 2wd.

 

and its REALLY easy, just a little time consuming. i did it by myself too.

 

I had to use 2 pullers. Forget harbor freight those are a 2aste of time, the screw has a mushroom cap and isn't usable. I went to aitozone and got the large 3 jaw puller and its also s 2 jaw thats fine to raise 8t and remove the key however be very cautious when lowering it you really want something like a pitman arm puller that has the stabalizer going across as well as a flatter wider seat (that is what i will use if i need to remove them agsin). Make sure you take a pic from the front, with no load on the torsion bar before removing it to put it back exactly the same and you should have counted the revolutions it took to remove the adjustment screw.
NOW putting it back in was another story. The oem puller kept on wanting to flip to the side even though your in the divit on the bar its still moving at an angle and wante to push the puller causing it to pop and scare the **** outta you and well lets say i was lucky and kept my body ad far away as i could. This is why i had yo ge a 2nd puller and essentially walk it up
5 ot 6 turns on the one used to set, then another on arm sim0ly 5o hold the tension while you recenter the puller and a few more turns. Thats how i got mine back in oh stripped the screw on the one when i used it alone. For OEM tools i temember them being more reliable. Looking ahead i know im gonna need to pull them again and i will most likely buy the tb adjuster use it and return it lol. I dont know when this posting was written, don't care either. Just sharing my experience with it for future readers. On a personal note not 2 many things in this life have scared me but these were one of them. So respect them and youll be ok

 

I don't own a tool to do this and will never own a tool to do this. If you release the load on the torsion bars via the items that put the load on the torsion bar as described above (sway bar links, shocks, truck in the air, etc), you can simply push down on the lower control arms and push the keeper right out. As mentioned, this isn't really possible with the spindle/knuckle still attached at the top, but I just separate the top and then use the spindle/knuckle as a weight to hold the lower control arm down. On trucks with weak torsion bars, this may be enough weight to allow you to just remove the keeper.

This method takes the most unsafe aspect of this job right out of the equation and is exactly how you should do it considering how un-reliable the tools and jaw pullers can be.