Torsion Bar troubles

[clio_dude]

Hi all, Well tried to lower my mk1 clio torsion bar, it all went pear shaped when the bolt sheared off in the nearside torsion bar... I've tried everything to get it out with no joy, so i wondered if i took the far side torsion bar out, is it possible to nock the nearside out? Are there any complications doing this?

any help would be appreciated

 

[JAY172]

you should be able to do that as long as link in the centre of the two bars is hollow so you can put something completly through to hit the seized bar

 

[Sami]

Take it you have an open type torsion bar so there is one on each side which meet in the middle? If so then im pretty sure that u cant take one out to knock the other through as there isn't a whole. U tried using a stud extractor etc to drill the bolt out?

 

[clio_dude]

It's a closed type, me and a few other have tried pretty much everything. Does anyone know if there is something in the middle that would stop me hitting it out?

 

[Jim NM]

An example of the torsion bars I removed on my 5GTT there was a spacer between the two bars in the middle. My 5GTT was over 16 years old I used a brass drift about 12" long and a lump hammer 6lb on the end of the torsion bar there was a bolt in the centre I used loads on penetrating oil by squirting it on the splines. I taped some cardboard onto the rear arches to protect the paint, then just started bashing with the drift and hammer, first one side then the other knocking each torsion bar against each other until they moved off the splines. Took a couple of hours but got there in the end.
On the 5GTT the handbrake cables are attached to the torsion bars. Clips and torx screws. I removed these first.

I lowered my 5GTT by 35mm (forgot to replace the spacer shim. to no adverse effect)

Good luck

 

[clio_dude]

Success! After remving the offside torsion bar, you can knock out the nearside.. The only problem i encountered was that i had to guess roughly the length of of travel, then re assemble everything, drop the car, then repeat the procedure as there will now be some torsion and wont be slack