Rusty Torsion Bar Removal
 

99 F-150 4x4. Anybody have any tips to get these rusty things separated from their homes? Ive got the torsion keys unloaded and loose and the cross member loose. They will not budge. Aside from getting a bigger hammer and abusing the cross member till something gives Im out of ideas. Well I do have another idea but I dont like using the torch on heat treated components :-roll

i would soak it with PB blaster--- or you can put 50% acetone and trans fluid in a pump sprayer and will act as a good penetrant... loosen the rust, let it soak in, smack a few times with a big hammer to get the parts to loosen up.

I tried PB & Liquid Wrench. Had it soaking for days. The 10lb hammer couldnt budge it and I didnt want to bang up the cross member any more so last night I broke out the torch and melted the stupid things off. The torsion bars still seem to be ok. Im putting in new keys so I dont really need the old ones any ways. I will be sanding the bars tonight and using a liberal amount of antisieze on the new keys. Boy Id like to get ahold of the moron that came up with the :-X01torsion bar idea.

I'm late to the party here, but I was curious how you ended up getting them loose. I see you used the ole smoke wrench (torch), but what else did you used to push them through so they would release the key?

Did you slide the torsion bars out of the front position as well? My truck has 140k on it so I'm just going to replace the bars when I get them out anyway.

Uthinkso,

I had the same issue with my '99 4x4. I ended up removing the A-Arms with the torsion bars still on them. Once they were out I soaked them with WD-40, PB-blaster etc. After a few good hits with an 8lb hammer, I used a 12-ton hydraulic puller to push the bars out of the arms.

I then sanded them down, used Rust-converter, and then primed and painted them as well as the keys. I used wd-40 on the install so if I ever have to pull them apart, it will be a lot easier.

I had to pull the A-Arms out anyway to replace the lower ball joints on the truck for a failed state inspection. My ball-joint press wasn't large enough to get them out while the arms were on the truck.

Good luck!

I have a few projects I want to get done at the same time. So I usually get extra parts on hand just in case. I'm going to do the Belltech kit and exhaust at the same time. I will post some pics on this when I do it. I noticed that nobody has done the DYI Torsion Bar Removal yet.

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sry to bring this thread to life again.. ive had a 98, 01, and 03 f 150 all in witch ive taken the torsion bars out, the 01 was the first, ended up cutting them out, and putting new ones in also a arms , and this weekend going to attempt to do it on the 03, ive been spraying them for 2 months now every day in attempt to not buy more parts, (trying to get the transfercase out to replace a cracked extension housing from god knows what) when i finaly got rid of the 98 i cut the frame to get the x member out along with the torsion bars and a arms out all in one, (truck went in for scrap due to a nice accident) and its been almost 2 years now of hitting the ***** out of them with a big ole custom 20 lb hammer and to this day they have not once budged. the x member is all bent to he!! and the god forsaken a arms or keys refuse to let there death grip, seriously, WTF was ford thinking when they designed them,,, no antiseez? or anything?

I have a 99 F150, 138k miles, transfer case is bad, torsion bars rust/welded in place..... soaked them , beat them, they haven't budged. My thoughts were to either heat them with a torch or remove the front A-arms. I am just a little unsure as to where I should heat, at the cross member where the keys are or at the front A-arm?

Old thread I know guys, kudos to you for actually using the search though instead of beating a dead horse... Heat the keys. If you do have to replace them they are cheaper than the arms :) Use a combo of heat and gear oil to penetrate it. The gear oil stinks, but it doesn't flash off like penetrating oil does. The heat draws the oil to it.

To the guys pulling t-cases. The easy way is to leave the tbars alone. Unbolt the trans cross member. Then use a jack to push the trans/drivetrain up a little bit. The t-case then will clear the t-bar cross member enough to be slid back. Then down and out towards the front. :-drink

I am attempting this method right now. Looks pretty tight, but I am optimistic.
I'll post up results. Maybe even make another youtube video explaining it.

The only viable way of that working is if you have a dual exhaust. The cross over 100% prevents that from happening.

The Torsion bar keys have a dent hole for a puller to be used to lift them up, then the key stop can be removed, and the tension can be taken off and maybe pounded off. Wish me luck.

Remove control Arm without removing the torsion bar?
 

I have replaced all of the components of my front suspension with the exception of the Lower Control Arms, (LCA), and I would like to tackle them soon. In fact, after doing the rest of the suspension I took the truck to a shop to have them replace the LCA's since I didn't want to mess with the torsion bar removal and I needed an alignment anyway. They soon called to tell me the torsion bars were seized in place and that they couldn't remove them without the possibility of damaging the torsion bars with heat or hammering and since the torsion bars are not available from anywhere other than a bone yard they didn't want to take the risk so I'm stuck doing this myself. I've been reading as much as possible about this subject I'm not convinced that I have all the info. I'd love to hear from someone who knows about this in task in depth. The fact that I still need to work and pay bills means that I'll need minimal down time.

I know I can I press the Lower Ball Joints, I had replaced the LBJ's in the past, at approximately 120k miles with a press and now the Left LBJ has failed again as well as the bushings at 278k so it's time to replace the entire suspension including the LCA's.

Now here is my question, after removing the rest of the suspension and steering components from the LCA as well as releasing the tension at the keys, what would stop me from sliding the control arm off of the torsion bar without removing the torsion bar other than the rust for the smart *****es out there.

So my idea is to remove the bolts that fasten the LCA to the frame and lower it enough to slide it off the end of the torsion bar and slide the new one on and bolt it back up, would this work?

From my perspective it looks as though the hexagon socket on the control arm just slides over the torsion bar so I can simply slice the old control arm at the socket with an angle grinder being careful not to damage the torsion bar and this should free everything up and I wouldn't have to worry about removing the cross-member to free up the keys which are also seized.

Does this make sense and if not, why?
I need to get this done next weekend since I'm getting uneven wear on my tire and it's clunking pretty bad. Thanks in advance for any input.

John

You probably have fixed your truck but here is an answer to your question.

First follow the torsion bar from the front of your truck to the back cross member and take out the bolt that holds your torsion key up. Next use the torsion key removal tool (if you dont have the tool use a c-clamp and a small long bolt put the small bolt in the hole near where the other bolt went in now push the key back up and remove the little space thing theat the actual bolt came out of and then loosen the c-clamp and your torsion key should be down enough that the tension is no longer on the torsion bar) now if you want to take the lower arm off and cut it out you wont have any snap from the torsion bar while doing that removal and replacement.
the rest should be common sense.

P.S.
If your reading this and you dont understand what I just typed then please take your truck to the shop.

The only way I have figured out to remove the cross member under the transfer case is to remove the lower swing arms from both sides of the truck and take them, the torsion bars and the cross member out as a unit and don't bother to take it apart beyond taking the keys out. When the transfer case is replaced then put the whole thing back in as a unit. If anybody knows a Ford automotive engineer then beat the crap out him for all of us. Don't kill him though, that would be too kind.