Sway-A-Way Torsion Bars!

[rrdstarr]

I put the new T-bars in a few months ago but haven't put the Swampers on till tonight! WOW! They make a hell of a lot of difference! I used to get terrible wheel hop(felt like they were out of balance) in the front at 35mph and 65-75mph. Not anymore with the new Sway-a-way t-bars! I have a good of a ride on the Swampers as I do with my Grabbers! I think I'll leave the Swampers on for a month and see if my opinion changes?

FWIW. I already have +20% Bilstiens, ARB, full Skid Row skids for weight upfront.

[XSAL]

Good to hear good thing about Sway-A-Way. I hope mine will work just like that at the end.

I just recently purchased a set through AC, and attempted to installed last Saturday (4/20). Everything went soomthly until when we tried to install passenger side rear t-bar. It wouldn't fit. Just out of curiousity, we switched front and rear, right and left... Only passenger side rear does not fit. It appears that the diameter of the end is slightly too large to fit. Gave up installing the new t-bars, and installing back the stock ones.

On Monday (4/22) I talked to Mike (AC)...I also talked to Tech Support of Sway-A-Way. Both of them have never heard that the diameter of the t-bar being too large to fit. Only solution that came up was for me to send the defective t-bar to Sway-A-Way at my expense, have them examine it, and they'll eventually send me a new one. Meantime, my Xterra just sits at home with out of alignment (Calmini Upper Control Arms and Idler Arm Brace, Warn XD9000i winch were also installed on Sat.). It looks like basically I have two options: 1) leave my Xterra sit at home until I get to send back the t-bar, they examine it, and they send me new one, which would likely to be another week from now or more. 2) live with the stock t-bars for a while until they really starting to sag, then replace with new t-bars.

...Does anyone know if I need to have another alignment if stock t-bars are replaced with Sway-A-Way t-bars in about a couple of months from now? I am thinking about getting alignment done with stock t-bars for now, and later on install the new ones, but keep (or try to keep) the exactly the same front measurement with stock ones and new ones.

Please advise if you could help me in any way...

Thanks,

[rrdstarr]

Well, if you took the stock t-bars out and tried to install the new ones, you'll need and alignment after putting the old ones back in. It is about impossible to get them indexed back to the setting you removed them from. When you get the new ones installed, if truck just sits, you'll need an alignment.

[ChuckH]

you don't need to do an alignment unless you change your ride height significantly. Just changing out he bars doesn't change any of the suspension geometry.

[rrdstarr]

Don't mean to argue with you bro! But you should!

[ChuckH]

Don't have to argue because there's nothing to argue about. :finger:

The torsion bars have absolutely no effect on the front end alignment. The indexing of the torsion bars has nothing to do with the alignment either and I doubt your local LEs Scwab or such will even touch that. THat's simply an issue of installing the bars correctly. If you go into an alignment shop and ask for an alignment they will not even touch the torsion bars 9wouldn't even think to) That's not their job because they aren't part of the alignment equation. You will have to fix the indexing yourself or have a regular mechanic do it. The alignment adjsutments are built into your tie rods and A-Arms, NOT the torsion bars.

On the other hand, if you install the new torsion bars and change the ride height, then you definately would want to consider an alignment, since changing the angle of the suspension arms will affect the angle of the wheels.

Changing the torsion bars themselves has no more effect on alignment than changing out a shock or putting taller tires on. Which means, no effect at all.

Just reread XSAL's post. He did install A-Arms, and so should have an aligment. I didn't catch that when i read it before. Doesn't change the argument any though!

[Schludwiller]

Originally posted by ChuckH
I didn't catch that when i read it before. Doesn't change the argument any though!

LOL. I'm arguing the wrong point, but that doesn't matter.

Regardless XSal did you loosen or remove the front torsion bar anchor before trying to fit the rear of the torsion bar? You'll have trouble getting it to fit without doing so, especially if you haven't lube'd the splines.

[wqbang]

As Schlud said, make sure you put some all purpose grease on the splines before insertion. I think you will find that you can get that end in with a little work.

Jokes welcomed, but not required

Be carefull not to hose up the splines. I think Rick used a rubber mallet on one of his to get it seated in the anchor, but I am not sure.

[XSAL]

Originally posted by ChuckH
On the other hand, if you install the new torsion bars and change the ride height, then you definately would want to consider an alignment, since changing the angle of the suspension arms will affect the angle of the wheels.

Changing the torsion bars themselves has no more effect on alignment than changing out a shock or putting taller tires on. Which means, no effect at all.

Just reread XSAL's post. He did install A-Arms, and so should have an aligment. I didn't catch that when i read it before. Doesn't change the argument any though!

Currently my Xterra has stock t-bars (I had to put them back since new ones didn't work out). So, I do plan to get the alignment done since a-arms were replaced, and the front end sits higher now.

I guess my question wasn't clear enough, but it was if I needed another alignment when simply only t-bars were replaced and no change in the ride height.

Thanks for answering my question, everybody. I think I'll get the alignment now with stock t-bars, and just replace them with new ones later on.

[wqbang]

I think that you should perhaps try to install the offending torsion bar again using grease as previously stated. They can sometimes take some muscle. It would suck to send it back at your expense to find out that it should fit all along. Perhaps you could count the splines or measure with a micrometer.

Bryan

[XSAL]

I think that you should perhaps try to install the offending torsion bar again using grease as previously stated. They can sometimes take some muscle. It would suck to send it back at your expense to find out that it should fit all along. Perhaps you could count the splines or measure with a micrometer.

Yes....grease was used when we tried to install at the first time. We also thought maybe it does require a bit of muscle to slide in, but that did not work, either. I would have mesured it if I had a micrometer, but none of us did...

It sucks, but I need stiffer t-bars to support the extra weight added by insalling (Calmini winch bumper-110 lbs., Warn XD9000i winch-85 lbs.)...(those figures are estimate..) ...So, I just sent it out 10 min. ago...

Since two of us tried to fit it in and did not work out, I'm pretty sure that it was somehow defective...

http://files.automotiveforums.com/up...ideBySide1.jpg

http://files.automotiveforums.com/up...ideBySide4.jpg

http://files.automotiveforums.com/up...ideBySide5.jpg

http://files.automotiveforums.com/up...ideBySide7.jpg

[Schludwiller]

Do you have a better side view of the Calmini bumper? That's the second one I've seen pointing down like that. I believe Matt Peckham came up with a fix for it.

[XSAL]

Yea..., I noticed that when I received the picture. The best side view picture I have is "sidebyside5.jpg." The picture that you pointed out is actually just "looks" like the bumper is not sitting level since it was taken from the position closer to the ground and looking up.

I would just go out and take another side view picture if I had a digital camera....

[XSAL]

Just thought about posting an update on my new t-bars from Sway-A-Way via AC.

On May 17 (Fri), I received a replacement t-bar from AC.

According to Sales Rep. of Sway-A-Way, three engineers examined the passenger side t-bar that I returned. They all said that there was nothing wrong with it, and they were going to return me the exactly the same t-bar. Of course, Mike (AC) thought that it wasn't going to work, so he sent me a new passenger side t-bar from his own stock. The next day (5/18), I attempted to installed the one from Mike's stock. There was absolutely no problem installing it!!!

That simply concludes that Sway-A-Way engineers only (possibly) checked the diameter of the t-bar itself, but not each splines. It must have been one of the splines that was slightly too large, so that I could not make it fit at all.

...So, Mike is receiving the DEFECTIVE t-bar from Sway-A-Way because Sway-A-Way does not admit (or failed to find out) that it was, in fact, DEFECTIVE.

I am glad that Mike did what he did for me (I am happy about the t-bar purchase from AC), and I really appreciate his help on this.

I hope everyone else who is purchasing Sway-A-Way t-bars to upgrade realize that you might have to face the same problem... (I'm sure the possibility of that would be very small since they've never heard of this problem before...) Good Luck!

[cedrec]

My suspension lift installation was going really smooth. I replaced the stock shocks, installed a add-a-leaf kit, easy stuff so far...

Until I tried removing the stock torsion bars. The drivers side bar, was easy to remove from the front anchor point, but it simply did not want to come out of the rear anchor point. It was rusted, half a can of LiquidWrench (more or less) did not help.

So at that point I tried the passenger side. It was worst. It took a lot of effort to just get the front to realese. The rear was just like the drivers side. More LiquidWrench, some muscle, and a lovely hammer later, and I was still with two bars hanging from the rear mounts. Not what I wanted to see.

After I recover some of my breath, I decided to put everything back the way it was and to take the vehicle to the Local Pepboys, wich was the closest shop to my house.

They did not have better luck either. I had a mixed feeling, I realized it wasnt just me, but I was mad this was going nowhere fast. We decided to remove the crossmember beam (for lack of a better name) where the rear bar mounts are. More LiquidWrench, or was it WD-40? More hammer time. Still nothing, so lets try the 20 ton Hydraulic press. The result? It didnt move.

So torch time was here! After heating the mounts, it was at last over. It looks like Nissan did not use grease or someting to prevent this from happening.

Well anyway the new Sway-a-Way bars are in, (with some antisieze compound, this not going to happen again). They are great!
I sure hope nobody else goes through some like this. The Xterra is such a great vehicle that even with stuff like this is worth to have.

Cedrec