Installing torsion arms - Part II

So, if you're following through from Part I, the bus is in the air on jackstands with a new set of upper torsion arms installed. The lower arms are not on the bus yet. We'll start there. Here's a picture that I'll be referencing through the entry. Oh, one other thing: if you have a friend that's relatively handy that's going to be hanging around while you do this, have him/her jump ahead to step 8 (Part III). S/He can do step 8 while you're doing everything else, and you'll save yourself some time.

3) install lower torsion arms.
Remember to have the ball joint pointing down (threaded end pointing towards the ground). I didn't the first time I did this, and realized the mistake when I tried to get the steering knuckle all hooked together. Fun. Next time, I'll look at the pictures I took during the removal of something, so I can see how it used to look and how its supposed to go back together. Anyway, before you do anything, slobber a bog glob of grease inside the arms. Slobber another one. Aw... just put a whole lot of grease in there. Then, butter the outside of the part of the arm that will be going into the torsion tube. Its the shiny part. Now, slide and wiggle the arm into the tube until it kind of clicks, then press them on. You might need some light banging with the muffled sledge, but nothing near what you needed for the uppers (no tension on the springs is why). I was able to kick one of them on with a booted foot. Just like the upper arms, put on the set screws (8mm Allen) and torque to 29 ft. lbs. This can be hard if you don't have an Allen socket. I put my Allen wrench alongside my torque wrench, and torqued that way. I did this for the uppers first, so by the time I got to the lowers, it wasn't too hard to get right. Put on the lock nuts (13mm hex) and torque to 29 ft. lbs as well.

4) install the sway bar.
Before I get into the install of the sway bar, we should look at some of the parts involved. Pictured here are the stock bar I removed and the new thicker 7/8" bar I installed. The shiny gold one is the new one :) You can also see both the stock and new "C" clamps and rubber bushings. Notice the direction of the bushings on the bar? The thinner end is closer to the bolt hole. This is important when you try to get the clamp on. If you're thinking of upgrading your sway bar please remember that any modifications you make to your suspension will change how your bus handles - and it may not be in the way you expect. The sway bar is what reduces the tilting sensation you feel when you drive around a corner. In my opinion, the stock sway bar is too thin on a bus, making cornering quite an adventure especially on hills. The thicker bar is 7/8" thick versus the 5/8" thick stock bar. That may not sound like much (1/4" for you math folks), but you can feel the difference when you take a corner.

I got the thicker bar from bus-boys, but there are a few vendors that offer it for pretty much the same price: $100. The install process is the same: get the bar up there, and finger tighten the bolts, then get the clamps on. If you've never worked one of these clamps, they are "C" shaped steel/brass clamps that are probably 3 inches long. The "C" is held together to make an "O" with a rectangular bit we'll call the clamp lock. The clamp lock slides on from the higher front towards the lower back. Both the clamp and the bolt attach the sway bar to the lower torsion arm. The picture at the top shows this.
You'll get under your bus and start to try to put the clamp around the bushing and the arm and you'll start to wonder how it actually fits. It does. I found that I could do it by holding the clamp together with channel-lock pliers while I slid the clamp lock into the little channels on the clamp. Some folks found this to be the hardest part of the whole torsion arm replacement job. I think that's because it seems like you need a 3rd hand, but once the clamp is lined up right, the channel lock pliers do most of the work. Just tap the clamp-lock down with the side of a hammer or wrench until the protruding tab passes the end of the bushing. Then release the channel lock pliers and bend the tab up. I used my framing hammer to bend the tab. You may find something less dramatic, but the hammer worked with a few whacks. I had to hold the clamp lock in place with the channel lock pliers while I hit the tab with the hammer. If I hadn't, the lock would slide down the clamp, unlocking it.
Once the clamps are on, torque the bolts that connect the bar to the steering knuckle to 25 to 36 ft-lbs (Bentley ch.2 p.36).

- show off your handiwork to your friends and pick a side -

5) attach lower ball joint to steering knuckle.
Thread the shaft of the ball joint through the steering knuckle, and put on the washer and nut. Hand tighten, and then, using a jack, put pressure on the knuckle to seat the ball joint while you tighten the nut. Don't torque it down just yet.

6) attach upper ball joint to steering knuckle.
The hardest part here is getting the threaded end of the ball joint into the knuckle. First, take the eccentric bushing and thread it onto the ball joint. Making sure that the dimple on the top of the nut is pointing toward the exact front, tape it in place with a short spot of tape. Don't go crazy with the tape, only use "just enough" to hold the bushing onto the ball joint for a couple of minutes. Use a pry bar to get the torsion arm up while a helper guides the steering knuckle underneath the ball joint. If you don't have a helper, you can use your foot. That's what I did. Once you're pretty much aligned, remove the pry bar and the tape holding the eccentric bushing to the ball joint.
Put on the brake-line holder, then the washer and finally the nut. The picture here shows them in that order, though its a little blurry. Tighten as much as you can by hand, and then use the jack again to help seat the joint while you wrench it down. Use channel-lock pliers to hold the eccentric bushing so it points directly forward while you tighten. The more careful you are at this point about that dimple pointing forward, the more likely you will be able to avoid the alignment shop when you're done.

Now torque down both the upper and lower ball joints to 72 ft. lbs. I wanted to be really careful, so I slowly raised the torque from 50 up to 72 while switching from upper to lower. Meaning, I did the upper to 50, then the lower to 50, then back to the upper to 55, then the lower, etc. Double check your final torque settings regardless of how you get there.

- repeat steps 5&6 for the other side -

7) attach the brake backing plates.
The install is pretty straightforward. Remember that the side with the lip near the center faces out, and the side that's really flat/plain faces towards the center of the bus. Check the picture at the top of the page and orient your backing plate like that. I used new stainless steel bolts, and I'd recommend it. Although stainless steel metric can be hard to find, they don't rust, so I try use them when I can and encourage you to do the same. I also painted the plates flat black so they would look almost as nice as the bus-boys arms and sway bar. Hi-temp was all I had around, but I don't think exhaust paint was necessary. Torque the bolts to 7 ft. lbs.

--- more next time ---