Sounds like you broke a torsion bar. Have you even looked underneath?

 

Yeah i had taken a quick look underneath, but it was dark and rainy. Still raining now, but at least I have light.

Took off the skid plate, torsion bar is not broken physically, could it have just bent out of shape?

I just got this truck, not sure what stock tire size is but currently has 31"x10.5 tires.... Could it be that the torsion bar was cranked up to the max, then hit it hard enough to bend it?

When I jack up the front I can wiggle the torsion bar a little tiny bit. When I lower it back down the rubber bushings get really squished down on the back side of the bushings. There is almost no pressure on the front side of the bushing, I can still see the connecting rod in between the bushings and torsion bar ends. It's definately not sitting flat.

Does this make any sense? Hope it helps you help me.


Thanks.

 

That's not your torsion bar, that's your tension rod. The torsion bars are underneath the truck and are about 4 feet long. You can't bend one unless you land on it.

 

Sorry, my bad.

OK, took the wheel off to see entire torsion bar. It does have a slight curve in it, but not too bad.
with the wheel off I can lift the entire wheel and suspension assembly up and down about 2 inches, that normal?

Could it just be the shock that is blown?
I'm thinking it's the torsion bar, I'll take it off and take some pics of the slight curve.

 

Oi, that's bad. You shouldn't be able to move the suspension by hand with a good torsion bar. They should be straight, not curved at all.

 

Free play on the suspension was partially due to the shocks, bushings on the bottom were gonzo and the top one's were in very poor shape.
Also the splines on the torsion bar and front spring torque arm are all worn out, which seems to be the cause of the front end that will not hold itself up.
The anchor arm on the back of the bar was jammed up to the top of the cross member, but the adjusting bolts were not tightened to the max, they were dangling loose.
The BIG bump appears to have twisted the bar beyong it's capabilities....

Now, I removed all the adjusting bolts, the arm bolt, C-clips (snap ring) from the back side of the bar, the front side fell out pretty easy, But I cannot get the back part off.
I pulled and banged and pulled, it's not moving.
Since human strenght seem to do nothing, I wrapped my quad's winch cable around the torsion bar and attempted to force it out, still nothing.

And advice on getting this old torsion bar out?

 

Plasma torch???? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/AR15firing.gif

 

Cut it off, if possible. Sounds like it took enough of a beating to render both the anchor and the bar useless anyway.