Torsion bar issue
 

Hi guys I have a 2001 ranger edge 4x4 with 185K miles on it. The front of my truck is sagged way down and looks like hell. I have tried cranking my t-bars a few different times with wd-40 a few days in advance each time. The bolts do not want to hardly budge. I squeezed 2 full cranks out of each side and came up with a measurement of only a half inch higher! My last truck was an explorer and the t bars in there went up 2 inches in like 3 turns... Any insight appreciated! Thanks!

Did you jack the from of the truck up so the wheels weren't touching the ground??

Your bars may be almost wore out.



GB :)

Yeah I did, and I'm thinking they might be wore out too... But there is plenty of room left to crank on the adjustment bolt I would think it would still come up more than ~1/4" for one full turn...

id say they are worn out..
have the bars been cranked for most of the 185k?

It also depends on what bars are in the truck. I put the heaviest bars I could get under mine and with the weight of the stuff on my front end, they're sagging already.

Jack it up and then crank them some more and report back.


GB :)

No idea to be honest I got the truck with 180k on it. If I were to guess though I would say no though because there is a lot of screw left to go up with but i'm definately no mechanic lol. Would the fact they are the stiffer b bars have anything to do with it?

Will do. Hopefully I'll have some tomorrow or this weekend for sure.

FYI. One bolt will bottom out before the other. When that happens leave the bottomed out bolt alone and level the other side to that one by measuring. I forget which is which but I "think" the drivers side bottoms out first.


GB :)

Alright thanks a lot for the tip!

check out a junkyard for some cheap new bars..
look for #1 bars.. they are the stiffest.. then "B" is mids and "F" bars are the softest.

Just a quick questions. How do I tell which t bars i got. Is there a number on the bars or somewhere I can check? Thanks a bunch!

look on your door jam and look under SPR

You might also want to try some PB blaster istead of the WD. Seems to soak in better.

heat the bolt til its red and crank it

What bars do you have? Sounds like they might be worn out.

will fx4 tbars work on the older rangers?

yeah they will. i believe they have #1 bars. probably easy just to order brand new #1 bars the code for them are in a few different threads on here.

Not all do actually. Both my roommate's '07 FX4 (basic trim) and my '09 FX4 (fully loaded) have the B bars, where a buddy of mine's '10 4wd sport model has the #1 bars.. odd, but fair enough I guess. I've driven both and honestly I couldn't tell the difference. My grandpa's '07 2wd 3.0L sport has the F bars and I noticed that it was a touch softer..

And yes, the drivers side will bottom out before the passenger side - which is kinda ridiculous IMO as thats the side with more weight on it usually due to the driver, which means it *technically* should wear out faster. However, thats probably not the case as my passenger side t-bars settled in more than the drivers side and I had to overcrank the passenger side to get mine to level out. Odd. I also only got an inch or so by cranking mine to max (even with aftermarket bolts), but I have a set of HD airshocks awaiting install to sort that problem out. LR

#1 bars F67Z-5B326-FB, F67Z-5B326FA.