Any hints on how to remove the torsion bar in my 67 4.2 series 1 Roadster? I don’t need to take it out of the suspension arm but I’m rebuilding the entire suspension and removing the engine and figured engine removal will be a lot easier without the reaction plate.
Charles;
From your question I suspect you have not read the ‘Bentley Manual’.
My reading of the Bentley Manual tells me that the reaction plate has to be removed to get the engine out, and the engine and transmission come out together.
If you don’t have the manual get it, if you have a copy please read it. It will save you many times over.
Also the book gives a very detailed description of the technique needed to remove the torsion bars.
Good luck with your project.
Regards, Joel.
I’ll add - that you do not have to remove the torsion bars to remove the torque reaction plate and you may not have to remove them for your suspension rebuild (depending on what you need to do). You probably want to assess if you are happy with the current ride height and if so, you will want to either leave the bars connected or carefully mark their current position.
But those are simply points to keep in mind as you read the manuals. The Bentley covers some of this but an alternate engine removal technique (out the bottom) is found in the Haynes manual (last chapter) and in many threads here on the J-L Forum.
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hutch3 Joel F Hutchins
April 18
Charles;
From your question I suspect you have not read the ‘Bentley Manual’.
My reading of the Bentley Manual tells me that the reaction plate has to be removed to get the engine out, and the engine and transmission come out together.
If you don’t have the manual get it, if you have a copy please read it. It will save you many times over.
Also the book gives a very detailed description of the technique needed to remove the torsion bars.
Good luck with your project.
Regards, Joel.It absolutely blows me away the number of people that apparently never bothered to acquire a Bentley or Haynes repair manual! With the exception of newer cars the first thing that I bought after the car was a repair manual!
Bob
889076
Plymouth, Mi.
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A quick comment on the manuals: The Haynes is cheaper and I find it much easier to use. You can get by with just the Haynes. The Bentley is more comprehensive. I have both and glad of it. But you are taking risks and inefficient if you have neither.
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I have both and you can pull the engine without removing the reaction plate. I did it about 5 years ago but I know it’s very tight and not an easy way to do it. I know that the manual is good and give you a lot of information but sometimes people have little hints that can be helpful so I thought I would put it out there. Thank you all for answering my thread.
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I agree completely. I was able to do everything I needed to do with just the Haynes manual when I owned the 2+2. Before I bought the FHC I stumbled across a Bentley manual for $5 at a swap meet, so I use both. I still don’t own a parts manual. I substitute the thick SNG and XKs Unlimited catalogues for the parts manual.
The Haynes manual that came with the 2+2 told me which systems the previous owner had problems with. The brake and carb sections were well thumbed.
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Both my manuals are well thumbed, dogeared, have grease prints, and the covers are falling off. I worry a bit about how the next owner will judge that. The person I’ll consider fit to buy it will view it as implying the car is well maintained. The tightest cars have the loosest manuals.
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when I got my car it was all beat up and the bentley manual was new, now my car looks new and the manual is all beat up. one tends to over complicate the torsion workings, learning how to remove and reinstall is a good thing to learn. I found that if you are fighting with it, your not understanding it.
This forum has so much more information and I find both of those manuals confusing. Maybe it’s the English accent!
Hi Charles…I dont know why people get so worried about removing torsion bars…it really is very straight forward and quite easy to do…it will certainly make removeing you engine and refurbishing your suspension a much simpler job…the only sticking point could be if one of the bars is seized in the wishbone…but that should be one of the reasons for doing it to to clean and refurb everything…Steve
The best hint I can offer which does not appear in the manual is that the t-bar isn’t under zero stress until you’ve:
- split the upper ball joint
- loosened the shock and sway bar
- dropped the lower control arm to it’s lowest point supported by a jack (tie up the vertical upright so the lower joint doesn’t neck)
- remove the 2 bolts on the rear splined receiver
- jack up the lower control arm again till it points straight out to the side. The manual doesn’t mention this. This is the only position under which the bar is under zero stress because of where the bar connects to the control arm. When it’s in this position you can either pry out, or from the rear tap out the splined receiver and at that point wiggle out the reaction plate. This leaves the front of the the bar engaged and should greatly simplify resetting it later since you just have to find the original orientation of the rear receiver (I’m not sure what the official name of that part is)
Thank you Erica for your helpful hint. Exactly what I was hoping for.
Charlie
Hi Erica…the tension you are refering to is in the lower wishbone bushes…these should be undone so as not to stress them when you drop the wishbone down…retightened once everything is fully assembled and the full weight of the car is on the ground… Steve
I’d be interested to hear how you extract the 6 cyl engine/gearbox without removing the reaction plate? Doing so without removing the torsion bars certainly works (I have an emgine-out FHC sitting on taper pins right now) but leaving the reaction plate sounds difficult to impossible?
Not really no. It’s friction on the splines themselves. In order to not have friction, all three parts have to be both unsprung as well as in alignment, and they are the most aligned when the lower arm points straight out to the side. I used poly bushings that don’t care about being laden because the collar is separate from the rubber.
Peter, Peter, Peter…you just have to cut off 6 inches of the drive shaft 
(just kidding folks- an old joke).
Cheers,
LLynn
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Now you’ve done it… I wasn’t going to poke that bear.
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The rumor I seem to recall is that you can remove the trans cover (or possibly just the lever) and sneak the assembly out from the top. Having taken mine out the top once I’m a doubter. The pitch required to extract from the top means the gear box has to dip down. Short of having some matter phasing technology that allows two physical objects to exist in the same space Buckaroo Banzai style, I don’t see how it could happen.