Lowering a torsion bar, nick method...

[GP123]

Hi, does anyone have a good guide to doing this with pictures etc? i remember watching a friend do it to one of my 306's in the past, but cant for the life of me remember the procedure. Although it took him not even 10 minutes to do each side?!

Also any guide on putting coilovers in the front?

Thanks for any help!

[Midnightclub]

The nick method isn't really advised.. it'll end up upsetting the bearings in the beam IIRC

[GP123]

The nick method isn't really advised.. it'll end up upsetting the bearings in the beam IIRC

It's just to play about with different heights to see what i think looks best mate. Has anyone any information on doing it with pictures if possible? Thanks.

[RePT]

Its easy af, just watch darrens video? When you get to the actual torsion bar, remove the 13mm nut off the flat top screw(opposite side) then whack back of hub with a sledge!(leave egg shape washers in) Its as easy as that.

But if its tooooo seized, you mite just ruin threads in bar, but i doubt tht will happen unless u have a ph1.

Nick method is shit though. Srsly.

[Matt]

The notch method is a real pikey way. Will upset the bearing and you will end up with a collapsed beam in no time atall. Best to just pull the bars out. May take slightly longer but you can set it to any height as iirc the notch method you can only go 30mm 90mm then Irish mm.

[darrenjlobb]

People really dont seem to understand this whole torsion bar thing and "nick method"

The nick method simply means lowering it by only removing one end of the torsion bar, hence only having 3 set "nicks" it will slot back in on....this in no way involves ruining any bearings, the reason people say it ruins bearings is because often, people smash the arms off in the process of doing the "nick method".... alot of people also smash the arms off in just the same way to get the bars out and do it "properly"....

More to the fact, if the bearings are good, they will stay good, if they are bad, removing the arms will cause them to fall apart...either way, you should have replaced the bearings as they were fooked anyway....I have smashed arms off a countless ammount of beams before I had my torsion bar puller, many of which are members on here, so feel free to come foward if they have had beam bearing failures since, because id put money on not a single one of them having that issue!

Its amazing how rumours travel on forums!

[KrisB]

There's a lot of valid points here...

- Knocking trailing arms off is OK if the beam is good to start with.
- Some torsion bars are too stubborn nowadays and no kind of puller/slide hammer will touch them, so providing the beams good, you might aswell remove the arms, clean and lubricate the seals and grease up the bars and get your stubborn (drivers side) torsion bar out with the arm off.

However,

Knackered beam and you can wave bye bye to the last of the remaining short future it had.

Doing it the propper way IS the best way to do it, and should be tried before any arms start getting damaged with a sledge hammer. The propper way means that you can lower the car to ANY height and the bars can be cleaned and re-greased. The propper way is also better because you can level out any differences in L/R ride height and obviously you're not limited to 40mm at a time.

306's are the hardest torsion bars out of the lot, Saxo's, 206's, 106's, 405's, 205's are all so easy to do! Has to be the 306 though with the drivers side bar ALWAYS a ladycake.

[Just Sean]

Who's this nick fella?

[darrenjlobb]

You can lower it the "proper" way by hitting the arms off....it makes no odds how you go about it, as long as you can get the bars out both ends, which you can either do by hitting it, or pulling it, you can put it back together like you want...if the bearings are bad, there bad, they would only have lasted a short while anyway....

Just makes me giggle when i read people saying never to lower a 306 like the "videos on youtube" come to krisb so i can do it "properly" unless you smash the brake caliper off with a hammer or something, it makes no odds.

[Rippthrough]

It usually fucks the seals when you knock the arms off, if you don't replace/check them = f*cked bearings in short order.

[darrenjlobb]

indeed, but why would you knock the arm off and not replace a 2 quid seal?, espically as there just about all f*cked if there original by now anyway....

[pugtk]

ive always lowered my beams ''the nick way''
made no odds

infact everyone i know with a psa rear beam lowers it the nick way

the beam just doesnt shit itself because of it

[miles]

85% of the beams need bearings anyway so not do this really does shoot you in the foot, Preventative maintenance is better than oh s**t it's dead maintenance

[Rippthrough]

indeed, but why would you knock the arm off and not replace a 2 quid seal?, espically as there just about all f*cked if there original by now anyway....

Dunno, but most people don't bother unless they're doing it 'properly'...which is kinda ironic...

[darrenjlobb]

lol, and wonder why they last then and dont when they "dont do it properly" lol..

End of the day its just a set of bearings, arms, and torsion bars, who cares how it comes apart just as long as you put it back with new bits / correctly.

[rd070707]

is it not a good idea to start trying to lower a beam with minimal camber then? or can it be saved in the process by replacing the bearings?

[miles]

As above most beams are on there last legs now, If you can save them it's a few quid but worth while and makes a huge difference, The main thing if got in time you can save the beam tube as these quite often go oval when the bearing rusts/wear's away, so some new bearings, seals and maybe arms shafts and off you go again, mind it's not the cheapest route which I guess is why most do not bother,
It was Ok to lower them without looking when they where upto 6 years old, anything after that well ....

[darrenjlobb]

If its got camber, bearings are shot, IE when you pull the tubes out, they will just fall apart, put new bearings in it and itl be like new provided its not to fooked / worn the tubes

[rd070707]

thamks darren, means i need new bearings or a new beam before i can get some lows

[miles]

if the bearings are worn that much then the Arm shafts will be dead too, any marks on them and they should be replaced

[Ollie]

1 nick? struggled to find a picture of 1 nice because no one around here has them that height.



2 nicks



3nicks



3 nicks with cut bumpstops

[Silky]

Anyone in Essex willing to lower my Rallye?

[darrenjlobb]

I dont know why the irish dont just lie under the back and chop the bars with an angle grinder tbh, given they just lower them onto the stops anyway, they might as well hehe

1 nick? struggled to find a picture of 1 nice because no one around here has them that height.



2 nicks



3nicks



3 nicks with cut bumpstops

[Ollie]

Lol Darren... My old field car.

[Grant]

That is f*cking awesome!

[Sinbad]

Right, I'm digging up this skeleton because I've just had a farken mare of a WEEK (7 days) trying to get the passenger side (drivers side in UK) torsion bar out and toay I gave up being nice (aka heat WD40 pullers prayes pleading etc) and removed (hacked out with a drill) the poxy washer thing, took out the threaded do-dah and took a works mini-kango to the end of the torsion bar. I achieved................ knocking the opposite arm out ?‍♂️?

Long story short, I'm stuck with the "Nick method" on the right hand side, and the left side has to follow it. So my question is (because all the pictures are broken in this tread) what are the rough mm drops per Nick? ??

Because of a serious diet, the old lady (98 136PS Cab) was sitting with her arches 110mm (yes, one hundred and ten ? ) above her 195/55 tyres.
As far as I can make out the first Nick has dropped that by around 45mm - I was hoping for 55mm to sit her down properly for her new Vogtland legs that are minus 40 at the front - but that might be out the window...

I'm not sure I can be arsed to do it all again, only to find out Nick Two drops it 80mm and she's dragging her arse ??

So... heeelp... please... somebody ?

Quick add: now had a proper measure up and the right side is dropped 38mm, the left 37mm - so pretty good on the levelling, but I can't see it being enough - that will probably still leave her arse in the air...

[Sinbad]

So after a day of faffing about, sort of got here where I want her    not sure if she's a bit too low, but I guess a good drive will settle it. As she stands, 40mm between the tyre and the arch. 
The only thing that is worrying me is that a 2-3mm gap has appeared between the arm and the axle on the left side    Everything is buttoned up, and I've had the ARB tabs on and off a couple of times to make sure they're fully home, tried belting it to see if somethings stuck  - but still this bloody gap is there, showing a couple of mm of axle shaft 

Anyone got any ideas on that?

---

While I'm about it - 51€ for a pair of 20.5mm torsion bars - for a Berlingo, but can anyone confirm whether these will fit on a Cab? If they will, I'll bite their arm off 

Cheers

[Sinbad]

So after a day of faffing about, sort of got here where I want her    not sure if she's a bit too low, but I guess a good drive will settle it. As she stands, 40mm between the tyre and the arch. 
The only thing that is worrying me is that a 2-3mm gap has appeared between the arm and the axle on the left side    Everything is buttoned up, and I've had the ARB tabs on and off a couple of times to make sure they're fully home, tried belting it to see if somethings stuck  - but still this bloody gap is there, showing a couple of mm of axle shaft 

Anyone got any ideas on that?

---

While I'm about it - 51€ for a pair of 20.5mm torsion bars - for a Berlingo, but can anyone confirm whether these will fit on a Cab? If they will, I'll bite their arm off 

Cheers

Answering my own question in case it's of use to anyone else in the future - Cab torsion bars are the same as every other 306 - 1063mm long, so the Berlingo's would be too short - although not by much since the splines in the arms are longer than the splines on the TBs - but I don't think 15mm of spline would cut it for very long...

[Alan_M]

So after a day of faffing about, sort of got here where I want her    not sure if she's a bit too low, but I guess a good drive will settle it. As she stands, 40mm between the tyre and the arch. 
The only thing that is worrying me is that a 2-3mm gap has appeared between the arm and the axle on the left side    Everything is buttoned up, and I've had the ARB tabs on and off a couple of times to make sure they're fully home, tried belting it to see if somethings stuck  - but still this bloody gap is there, showing a couple of mm of axle shaft 

Anyone got any ideas on that?

---

While I'm about it - 51€ for a pair of 20.5mm torsion bars - for a Berlingo, but can anyone confirm whether these will fit on a Cab? If they will, I'll bite their arm off 

Cheers

Torsion bars not driven fully home. There is a clearance measurement between inside of shaft and the rubber seal on the tube, can't remember what it is. Have you changed the seals?