Remember, if you don't like what you do to the torsion bars, it is easily reversible! Just remember how many turns you screw and unscrew them.

 

A friend of mine got 2.5" out of his 250 torsion bars and he never wore out a CV joint out he recently told me...he had the setup for about 20,000 miles and he had it in 4wd quite a bit...anywayz, food for thought...


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-Brandon Warford
97 F150 4x4 Sport Brt. Red SuperCab
4.6l Triton V8
3.55LS Rear-end
MECHANICAL MODS:
3" Performance Acc. Body Lift & lift lips
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Fabtech 4" Blocks to replace stock
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American Racing Atlas 16x10
True Dual Exhaust
--(2) 3 Chamber Flowmasters (Exits like the Lightning)
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Thats about it for now!
Check out my NEW WEBSITE:
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"F-150: The other woman!"

"...the road curves to the right and there are a lot of signs that say you cannot turn left...TURN LEFT."

 

I posted earlier that I would try to look into what Ford says is the recommended angles for the CV's. The guys where I'm from didn't know (of course), but they deal with a lot of trucks, and very few problems with CV joints, whether they were "cranked" or not.

They did say the you can't think of a CV joint as an axle u-joint. CV's are designed to work at more extreme angles, whereas a u-joint will wear after only 7 degrees of angle. As I've said before, the front end of a 4x4 is designed to operate in 4x4 with the wheels turned fully, and with full suspension wither way, and not have any excessive stress.

Where you WILL wear out CV's (along with your transfer case and axles) is using constant 4x4 and lots of sharp turns on high traction surfaces like pavement. Not because of excessive angles, but because the wheels all turn at slightly different speeds due to wheel loading, different inflation, and slightly different diameters from wear. There is no "give" on the wheels on a hard surface, and binding occurs.

If the CV's are so weak because of 2 or 3 extra degrees of angle, then they would break all the time, expecially after some good off-roading in 4x4.

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'97 F-150 4x4 SC SB 4.6L. Riding on Sport King 265/75R16 AT's. Add-a-Leafs & Torsion lift. Side Bars. WMS Intake, TB spacer, and Superchip!

Wish list: 4.10 Gears, Hedman Hedders, 3" body lift, 33x12.5 MT's!!

 

JimW--

You say that CV joints wear out because of tight turns. That is right, why? Because of the extreme angle! Now if you crank the bars too high, you are increasing that angle on them. The other thing is that the boot when it tears or comes off is a major cause of failure on FWD Cvs. So the extra angle is not helping there at all.

Food for though there.


yes, I have cranked my bars. Same day I got the truck, I was under it. I did it 1.25", so the front is like 1/4-1/2" lower than the rear.

Meek47- the rear of the truck is higher than the front of the truck stock. So that is not an issue. One of the reasons why people turn on the bars to make a more level look.

 

Thanks Matt. How bad does it kill the ride quality. The Off-road store who put a 3" body lift my friends 99' Nissan Frontier 4x4 had to adjust his so he could run 33's (never a problem with a Ford. I ran 33's stock. ha ha...anyway...) The ride quality of his truck SUCKS...not just a little bit, but it SUCKS. I don't want my ride quality to be anything like that at all. Anyone have any other suggestions for CHEAPLY and safely getting a couple inches taller (i.e. 2 or 3)....MEEK

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1997 Black 4x4 F-150 XLT 4.6L 285/75/16 Bridgestone Dueler A/T's Eagle Alloy Wheels, K&N Airfilter, Flowmaster Exhaust, Dual tips off of one pipe. Nerf Bars, Brush guard, 2 Ralley Lights, Sony X-plod head unit, Jensen 500 watt amp, Sony X-Plod 10" Sub

sooner or later: a lift and bigger mud terrain tires
meek47@f150driver.com

 

Matt90GT

I guess we will agree to disagree. If I had an engineer here, he would agree that the CV's were designed to run at full extenesion or compression, and at full turning angle, without stressing components. The Ford techs have said so. Dozens of guys, probably hundreds, here on this website have done torsion mods like yourself, with no adverse effects. So we can all agree at least that "cranking" the bars, at least to 3 or so turns above stock, WILL NOT hurt the CV's. So, everyone, go ahead an do it if you want, just get an alignment afterwards.

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'97 F-150 4x4 SC SB 4.6L. Riding on Sport King 265/75R16 AT's. Add-a-Leafs & Torsion lift. Side Bars. WMS Intake, TB spacer, and Superchip!

Wish list: 4.10 Gears, Hedman Hedders, 3" body lift, 33x12.5 MT's!!