Torsion bar problem

[lgranch]

This is pic of the front pocket on the left torsion bar. I can break off the bolts but then you can not replace them without taking the A arm off right???

[lgranch]

here is another view. While I was working on this I spoke words that my son has never heard from me in his 22 years "scrap it".

[Mr. Pickles]

omfg! Looks like something off the wreck of the Titanic! Is this the usual salt damage people have to deal with back east? Sorry, I can't add anything more productive than :o . Where are you at again?

 

Ran out in the driveway, but mine looks like factory in comparison, and my truck is kinda rusty. Good luck.

Edited September 4, 2006 by Mr. Pickles

[QuismO]

here is another view. While I was working on this I spoke words that my son has never heard from me in his 22 years "scrap it".

i'm sure it was hard to say. but man, that's some severe rusting!!! dangerous!!! i wouldn't know what to do!

Edited September 4, 2006 by QuismO

[zonianbrat]

Man I have to ask do you literally live ON the beach? I have never seen rust quite so bad even on junkers that have been sitting for years.

[cdhicks99]

The LCA has to come off, but I would probably try to find a donor to replace all that cancer.

[Slick]

:o i agree on the "wreck of the titanic" comment... holy moly........ that's pretty bad there.... dang......

[Precise1]

You mean the 3 holding the torsion bar socket ? Yes, I believe you can normally take them out and replace them. I'll have to double check tomorrow, but thats what I remember from loosening them when I pulled the T-bars. Hopefully yours arent being blocked by the rust...

 

B

[solid snake]

:o :o :o :o :o

 

Man, and I'm just worried about some popping coming from the front end. Man, I have no words to explain, but holy moly. Find a donor and replace parts asap, cause I wouldn't drive that to the corner market!!!

[RedPath88]

Yeah as they said above, that is some extreme rust you have going on there!

 

Replace the parts and if it were me, I would not tocuh anything until I had all the parts and was ready to do the swap... or park it until it could be fully fixed.

 

Is the rest of the trucks underside like that?

[lgranch]

The right side is like new due to an oil leak early in the pathy's life. As for normal, now maybe you west coast drivers can see why 90-95 pathy's in this area sell for $500 to $800. While I would not take this off road, the entire mess is really quite solid. But then that is the problem it is very solid.

Precise1- I have studied the non rusty side of the forward mount. I see no way to replace the bolts once they are loose. I can not even find a wrench to reach the head of the larger of the 3 bolts. This thing is buried in the LCA with no access that I can find. So what is the trick I am missing?

 

Now for a comment that forum memebers have been questioning me for several years. I take the tranny out leaving the Torsion bars in place. Yes you can do this! However usually I am removing the engine also. I pull both together. On this truck I have been trying the traditional method since the heads were just redone and then the clutch came apart. The no noise failure turns out to be the disk coming apart in shreads and leaving all the metal in place.

[offroad95pathy]

Man! You’ve got like Rust Gone Wild! Like CD said, I’d be doing some serious searching of the bone-yards. If that was my Pathy I’d be looking for a complete lower cross-member assembly. If you can’t find donor parts, and you elect to piece it together, you can get the LCA’s and LCA pivot shafts, and the cross-member online:

 

http://www.trademotion.com

 

The T-bar anchors are dealer only , the hardware that holds them on are also dealer only, the large bolt is a special 14mm extra fine pitch shoulder bolt, and the 2 smaller ones are low profile head type bolts. From the looks of things, if you plan on doing it yourself, if you don’t have a gas-axe, you’ll be spending the rest of your life trying to get that stuff apart. :furious: I know from recent experience, I am rebuilding my entire front end and adding a 3.5”- 4” SL lift at the same time. When I stripped all the OEM crap off, my LCA pivot shafts were fused to the inner sleeves of the LCA bushings. You have to remove the pivot shaft before you will be able to remove the LCA. Trying to cut the shaft with a Sawzall is a waste of time, the shaft is case harden and unless you use cobalt blades you won’t even scratch it. Even if you got past that point, you still have to remove what’s left from the bushing, heat is the only way! My truck was only about 10 -15% of what yours is and getting mine apart with a gas-axe was still no walk in the park, getting the pivot shaft out is the peak of the experience.

 

You must remove the LCA to replace the bolts , there is no other way or trick to do it. What I used to get to the head to keep it from turning is a flat blade screw driver that I jammed in the space, what little there is! Lots of PB and heat on the nut, it will come off!

Edited September 4, 2006 by offroad95pathy

[Precise1]

The no noise failure turns out to be the disk coming apart in shreads and leaving all the metal in place.

 

Your clutch plate could have come apart if it was down to the rivets, letting the friction pads fall off. It would feel like the clutch was engaged...

 

 

Ok, I looked, and no, at least the two smaller could not be replaced without removal of the lower arm, but my recollection was that you could easily bolt it from the other side and just use a lockwasher and nut on the indside...

The larger bolt may be changable with some finess. It is much more accessable with the suspension at full droop (wheel off the ground) I believe I snuck a wrench in angled down and out ward from the front/left side of the diff and just let it bind against whatever to hold the bolt.

 

B

[mws]

I really want to say I was able to remove and install the all three bolts by letting the lower control arm droop all the way down (ball joint was not yet installed) and wiggling things around a bit. But I'm only 90% sure that was the case.

[offroad95pathy]

My remarks were based and assumed on normal conditions. The OEM LCA bushings are natural rubber vulcanized to the inner and outer sleeves. This in turn only allows a limited amount of controlled pivot of the LCA. When I pulled mine off, my spindles were completely removed; my truck is on supports high enough off the ground that I have at least 2’+ of clearance. I tried for over an hour to figure out how to get those bolts out and the only way I could figure was to force the LCA down and inboard as far as it could possibly go and then you could remove the bolts. I would have had to put a lever bar on it to force it into that position, but in doing so I would have sheared the bushings, not that it would have mattered in my case because all of that was junked anyway. So my thought is: you may possibly have sheared or torn bushings if you were able to easily pivot the LCA into a position it would allow you to get those bolts out. Or you are one very lucky guy and pivot shaft wasn't frose to the inner bushing sleeve like mine was, which made it impossible to pivot the LCA enough to get the clearance to get the bolts out.

[mws]

You know, I think you are right on that. I was replacing the LCA bushings during the same project when I removed the torsion bar, and the bushing spindle bolt was likely not torqued at the time and the bushing would have been able to turn on the bolt. I left it snug until the truck was sitting on its own weight and then torqued it so the rubber was at neutral postion when suspension was neutral.

 

And being CA trucks, the bolts were not frozen and there is almost no rust at all under both the '88 and '87. I was a lucky (and happy!) boy that day.