i went under my truck the other day and noticed that my front bumpstops are not touching by a good inch and a half or so. so from what i hear this means my torsion bars were raised by the previous owner right? problem is to me i coulda swore the truck has a lot of rake but when i look at the pics it looks level??




the truck is howeever on a hill in that pic. man i coulda swore it was a lot more raked than that. i guess i will have to look again after work. so how do i know how much it was raised? im wondering if it was raised all the way and that my tbars have just sagged? 100k miles on the truck now. i was wondering why it was riding like crap i thought maybe my shocks were gone. now i know why it needs an alignment too

 

took a side pic on level ground. looks a lil raked probably just needs another inch.

 

My stock torsion bar key bolt were set at about 5/8 from the key to the head of the bolt. Thats all i know. That thing needs a lift man. HAHAHA. I have a body lift for that truck if your interested pm me.


I dont know if that will help.....

 

Check how many threads remain before the key adjusters would bottom out. This won't tell you anything for certain, but if they're nearly bottomed out (or are bottomed out) it's a good sign it's been adjusted.

I'd definitely hit the shocks first to solve the crappy ride. If they're the originals, then they're long since dead.

A TB adjusted truck will generally have the bottom of the front valence at or above the height of the center of the front hub. If your truck did have its TBs adjusted, it's either sagged or they weren't adjusted much.

See sig photo for example of a 1" TB lift.

 

ok thanks for the info. i didnt think they were adjusted until i saw that the bump stops do not touch the control arm. i heard this means that it was adjusted but im not sure. i will check the bolts. and yeah i will replace the shocks cuz im sure there probably bad at this point. i think im just gonna get the ford keys and be done with it. i think i saw somewhere that was selling the keys and the shocks as a kit. thanks.

 

Measure the fender opening to the ground. so from the middle of the fender to the ground in front.

 

hrm i just got back from an exhaust shop and they said all my shocks and stuff are in good condition. not sure if i believe them but im sure if it was bad they would jump all over wanting to replace them. maybe the poor ride quality is due to the tbar raise, maybe not, ill just replace them anyways when i do the ford keys.

 

btw, I think you might want slightly longer front shocks for ford keys. Otherwise you can be limited on negative travel by the shocks as I understand it.

 

You can never tell really. I've seen trucks from the factory where one torsion bar adjustment bolt is barely tapped, and the other one has only 3 threads left.