Torsion bar and upper control arm questions

[justinlw]

You could cut the droop stop off and crank your keys more, but look at your cv joint angle now. It'll only get worse, and coming from someone who blew one about 2 miles into a narrow muddy trail with nowhere to turn around.... You want to make sure those guys are happy.

I think I just realized that you swapped ends of the torsion bars? That will probably get rid of the sag briefly, but as the metal is prestressed in the other direction it won't take long to find it's way down and effectively weaken the metal.

Not trying to act like I know everything, it's your truck so obviously your mods are up to you. If you want to help with sag on older torsion bars, you can order a set of elastomer springs from Timbren for a 2500 model truck. These are 2.375" long, so they'll contact the LCA with a leveling kit and help carry the load.

 

[cbepro]

i was looking at Timbren at $200 im not to keen on them. I was looking at extended bump stops last night. I will prob get some poly ones but first i will have to measure. I read too that the lower bump stop, jounce thing, is supposed to be "kissing" the lower control arm so i think an extended bump stop is definitely in work.

This truck bounces all over the place, feel like im a bobble head inside. I know it could be every bushing related to the suspension but i still think it is the torsion bar bushings or control arm hitting the bump stops. It's bouncy even going slow and just driving down the road. It was like this before i did the keys.

I didn't swap ends of the torsion bars, i just grabbed the bar and rotated them counter clockwise 2 sides (i believe) when everything was loose. I still believe that the turn lead to more lift, because i have no room to decrank, and im pretty sure i shouldn't be sitting this high with no adjuster bolt installed.

When i unloaded the bars then reinstalled everything again i must have rotated the driver side bar into the stock position because im sitting lower on the drivers than passengers.

I absolutely do not want to crank more than i have to lol.

im learning as i go as well but i do not regret any of this though, it's good learning experience.

Pic to break up all the reading.

 

[Donnie Yukonie]

I think your actual problem is that your suspension is maxed out , the angle on those CV axles are way to high , Just looking at your pics I don't see a drop down for a lift are you just running keys alone? . With angles like that you will be replacing ALOT of suspension parts often . My advice is to buy a whole lift kit that would drop all the components down a bit to reduce wear and bring all those parts to close to stock geometry .

 

[justinlw]

You mention poly extended stops, but keep in mind what a STOP is. There is minimal flex, it stops the suspension from traveling down and will effectively reduce travel. A Timbren Elastomer Spring, or the stock jounce stop, will compress and allow travel while taking some of the load. They are in place to mimic a coil spring's progressive rate, as torsion bars lack those properties.

A real lift is the ideal solution, but you can also safely run keys with minor increased wear AT A MODERATE HEIGHT. By moderate, I mean no more than 2.50" of lift. My 96 Z71 K1500 ran like this for years, and it had almost 300k on it when I sold it. You need to address the problem on the right side, you shouldn't be cranked to the droop stop with the key sitting on the adjuster block. You will get a lot of sway and bounce with no down travel on one side, as the rear suspension (springs and sway bar) fight to level the load).

 

[cbepro]

Everything settled in the suspension and i am comfortable with the height and angles. It is still cranked but the angles are not as ridiculous as before.

I am looking into progressive rate bump stops but they are either too long or too short. So i had a thought about bolting a poly bump stop to the lower control arm and run both the errrgolastometer stop and a poly bump stop that would be constantly in contact with each other. yeah.

 

[01Konvict]

How did the Cognito upper arms help out compared to the stock ones? I am looking into replacing my stock upper arms.

 

[cbepro]

Can't really tell any difference with the Cognito arms compared to stock. I have not got around to getting an alignment but i suspect the Cognito's would help in that aspect only. But For $470 for a bolt-in/beefier ball joint i dunno, there has got to be cheaper options to get alignment right after lifting with torsion keys....?

 

[01Konvict]

I am having issues with my upper control arm bushings on one side only. They seem to last about a year before crapping out. So I was looking into getting better arms or bushings to fix the issue from future occurrences. The ball joints hold up fine but those damn bushings on one side are getting killed. Not sure if the fact that the compression bump stop is busted off on that side has anything to do with it. Think I will order the longer stops. Where did you get the upper arms from and are the bushings polyurethane?

 

[cbepro]

in your case i would not bother with Cognito control arms. Definitely fix that bushing issue before spending the dough.

Is your missing compression bushing also known as the bushing that supposed to touch the lower control arm? The Jounce stop/spring?

Alligator Performance had the cheapest price and pretty awesome customer service compared to Cognito themselves (not bashing Cognito, just saying AP went the extra mile).

Yes, they are poly bushings. I'm sure other places just sell replacement poly bushings for the stock control arm?

 

[01Konvict]

I don't mind spending the cash for the better arms. I can't figure out why those bushings keep crapping out on the passenger side only??? I've done some basic searching and haven't found upper arm polyurethane bushings but still have to search more. Not sure if its worth a stock arm with polyurethane bushings or get better arms.

Yup the jounce stop/spring is broken in half on my passenger side but neither side was touching the lower arm once cranked. I think I will try the box tubing idea and see how that helps with new stops on both sides.