so here is another installment of SD Yota Garage tech. many have requested this so again, here's a well detailed session on how to do the torsion rekey on your toyota pickup.

this is gonna help keep you low but without having the ride suffer because of your torsions getting loosened to go lower. this will up the torsion bar preload and as a result stiffen up the ride a bit.

you will need a few tools.

- jack
- 4 jack stands (dont have to have them but this will make it way easier)
- a 22mm open/closed end wrench
- a 22mm socket and your choice of wratchet, impact gun or otherwise
- rubber and or brass mallet
- large pry bar

first step, yer gonna have to get the truck up in the air.








next step, lossen and remove the torsion adjustment bolts.








next step, you will use a mallet and tap the rear keys off. you may need to use a large pry bar to lower the torsion bars down so you can remove the keys with enough clearance.




next step, jack the wheels up into the fender wells. i used the LCA point to jack them up as i will later on place a jack stand under the tires to hold them up into place.




this is the ride height im aiming for so this is where i placed the tires at.




with a jack stand under the tires, the front suspension will now be near the "ride height" geometry.




next, i will align the rear keys at an angle that silhouettes the down sloping line thats on the transmission xmember.



again, you may need to use a pry bar to pry the torsions down a bit to clear and slip back into place. here they are reinstalled.




once in, reinstall your torsion adjustment bolts and snug them down. once in, my method to measuring how much to tighten the bolts in is measuring the amount of bolt sticking up past the first lock nut. i grab a 12" strip of old measuring tape and measure from the top of the nut, till the top tip of the bolt. i cranked in till I had 2.5" of threads showing on the drivers side, and 2.25" on the passenger side.

why a 1/4" difference more on the drivers side? since most everyone drives their trucks 90% alone, this difference will offset the weight of the driver and keep the truck riding even. (and when i measured my distance with the driver in the truck, the distance between the wheel and fender were dead even)




you may need to do some fine tuning in adjustment for your ride height. if its close, loosen or tighten your bolts 1/4" at a time. if its far off, do so within 3/4" to 1" and go from there.


in a nutshell, thats pretty much it. hope this helps you guys out. thanks for reading in.

 

Awesome, I've been wondering about this!

 

Great write up. Can't wait to do this. Thanks SD YOTA

 

fosho fellas!!

 

Too bad my 22mm sockets and wrenches are at home. biggest wrench is 15mm :'(

I'll look into this, need to reset that front end some.

 

it does help out allot... it sets the correct amount of preload for a dropped truck.

 

Greatest thing since sliced bread!

 

All you guys and your t bars I love my coil springs

 

oh, you mean those 3 rings left in between yer upper and lower control arms?

do your coils lift or lower your truck at the turn of a simple bolt?

 

Aggreeeeeeed!

 

Hey my truck has like 5 coils per side

And who here has ever said their t bar bolts were simple...I dunno. I've seen people fight them for days. Me included

Back on topic, good writeup. What's the next one you plan to put up?

 

ok ok... so i was off by 2... but yea, bars are a chore if they are stuck... trust me that same truck snapped a torsion bolt that left a nice sized chunk out of my driveway

that is an excellent question though. most of my writeups have been per requests of people here on the forums. maybe ill post it up in off topic.

 

Nice!! Great write up man, bees to do this soon!

 

Need ^^

 

Really glad I found this a couple days ago when I started working on torsion dropping my front a little more after the BJ flip I had done. Thanks so much for the excellent write up.

 

Awesome write up man!! I'm gonna use our drive on lift to do this that way it's sitting on the front wheels while doing it.

 

fosho guys! glad its helpin yall out!

 

Great write up dude!

Too bad I've already tried doing this and found that I have the gay torsion bars with the single solid spline ....ruined my day, lol.

 

actually, if you grind down the flat key, you can reinsert the torsions with ease. also, if you use the later rear keys, you can also redo them as well..

 

I've heard of some having a master spline. Is it a year thing? Older had it I guess? Using a newer key will solve that? Can you swap to newer/4wd/beefier torsions too? I never learned all them little details. When I had a 92, I turned the keys til they were even with the crossmember and rocked that. Wasn't low enough lol.