ok so i "cranked" my bars four full turns today. No increase in height(i think). I measured from the center of the hub to the bottom of the fender and from the top of the tire to the bottom of the fender. I cranked the passenger side exactly four turns. Then I measured both sides, it looked like the pass. side sat higher but couldn't tell for sure. So I put it back to stock and re-measured, same deal. Maybe it was because I didn't have it jacked up.

Another funny thing I noticed was that my driver side seemed like it had about an inch less threads on the bolt, like it had been previously cranked.

Now it has a slight drift to the right too. I don't wanna get it aligned til I've got this lift situation figured out. BTW where can you get a lifetime alignment ?

So call me a dummy, but I'm stumped.

 

it has to be off of the ground for it to do anything. i don't know about the shorter threads though. mine worked fine and the height changed with every turn. after i left it down of course. i lowered mine though

 

so by cranking them four times w/o lifting the truck off the ground did nothing?

 

The driver side bolt is always shorter. Drive it around the block and make sure to work the suspension, then measure it.

 

It doesn't matter if it's jacked up or not. The effect of adjusting the torsion bars on the ride height is exactly the same. FWIW, the Factory Service Manual says to make the ride height adjustment without jacking it up. You need to bounce the suspension and/or roll the tires before and after the adjustment to see the full effect of cranking the torsion bars.

 

Ok cuz it's parked and not moving til I got the rf-ok. I'll trust ya bob, your rep supercedes my doubt. thank you.

 

exactly!!

 

4 turns gave my truck 1.5" of lift, but it's sagged atleast 1/2" since last year

 

It's part of the price you pay for cranking them. The extra height means that the bars must twist beyond design intent whenever the suspension fully bottoms. Eventually, that takes its toll and the bars loose some of their elasticity like any overdeflected spring.

 

Yepper. I'm on my second set of bars now.

 

Also the bolts have (or had) pressure sensative threadlocker.. so since you tightened
and loosened then retightened you might want to consider using new bolts or another
type of threadlocker..(not sure how important this is)

 

Good point. You can tighten the adjusters and the bolts move onto new threadlocker. If you loosen them, the threadlocker has already been wiped clean in that area.

Replacing the bolts is a bit dangerous because you don't have a starting point from which to count turns. This can easily let the adjustment get uneven from side to side. And, as we all know, the bolt position looks very different right-to-left, even on new trucks. So you can't even guess by comparing the two sides.

In situations like this, where disassembly is impractical, it is possible to use green Loctite 290, AKA "Wick'n'Lock" or "Wick-in". It is a special threadlocker that wicks in and penetrates the gaps in assembled threads, making it unnecessary to remove the fasteners.

 

I cranked my torsion bars becasue i noticed they were sagging from the factory stock height. You could clearly see that it was constantly hitting the bump stop. If i were to replace them with 1 or B bars, would it not sag as much considering I have the weakest F bars?

 

New bars will help and stiffer bars should help more. I guess you could use #1 bars if you're heavily into offroading but I think they are far too stiff for a regular cab 4x2 in most conditions. B would probably be a better choice.