How do I get the &%$#@* Torsion Bars Out?

[La Voce]

I guess patience is indeed a virtue. After more than a week of morning and evening penetrant squirting and hammer tapping, number two finally broke free today. I put the propane torch on the bar and mount, for about five minutes each, then shortly after removing the heat, sprayed both ends of the crossmember bar mount with Liquid Wrench (careful here, have a clean dry rag and a fire extinguisher handy, as the first squirt ignited for a second- carefully direct the spray inside the mount, use the plastic straw that comes with the can). I then immediately began hammering on the bar to get it vibrating, the idea was to let the liquid wrench draw into the splines as the metal cooled. Then, I mounted my homemade extraction tool to the rear and wrenched her down tight (more on this later) and slid the A-arm on the front of the bar (perpendicular to the floor as described in my earlier post) and started swinging the big sledge against the A-arm up high, parallel to the bar. After I returned to look at the extraction tool in the rear, I noticed it had slack! So back and forth I went, a squirt of penetrant, snug down tight on the extractor, slam a few times on the front A-arm, move to the back, wrench on the extractor again, squirt again, etc. Millimeter by millimeter at first she grudgingly moved rearward, until finally she popped out the rear. Now as for the extractor- I gave up on using any washer stackup, no matter how thick or hard or how many washers. Everything I tried eventually cupped to some degree and I doubt ever did much good. I found a large thread tap and used its block instead, as it was a hardened block of steel it did not "give" and cup inward as all my washer stackups had, resulting, I believe- in a more effective rearward pull.

[colingtv6]

Well,

I'd decided that my project 75TS would need to be lowered, and I'd found a nice pair of lowering springs off my old GTV6 under the house. I reckon they take it down about 40mm.

Having read this thread and all the horror stories about getting the t-bars out the crossmember, I'd decided that I would make do with just dropping it by 1 spline at the wishbone end.

This I did last night and discovered that this droped it nearly 60mm

Full of dread I went out to the garage this morning to try and get the first bar out of the crossmember, fully expecting a battle as bad or worse than Jim's, seeing as the car has endured 15 UK winters

Before trying to extract it I gave it a few good whacks with the hammer to get it ringing and then had a go.

I was totally amazed and delighted when it just slid out as easy as you please

I'm so delighted that I had to run in and put this post up

Mind you, I've still the other side to do...

Here's hoping it comes out as easily

[La Voce]

Wow! Good for you! Best of luck on the other side.

[La Voce]

Just lowered her off the jackstands and took her for a spin, I'm happy as a pig in mud. I raised the front back up about 22mm and she's still lowered and looks good, but no more tire rub at every dip in the road and no pan guard scraping over the speed bumps. Next stop is a four wheel aligniment and then at the end of this month I'll be taking her to a local car club's two day performance driving school that culminates in as many autocross runs as you can stand. I'm not a full time autocrosser but I'll use this opportunity to wring her out and dial in the suspension.