How hard of a job is swapping out torsion bars?

Easy, just make sure the truck is jacked up by the frame and the a-arms are hanging down all the way (tires off the ground)

And soak EVERYTHING is some type of rust penatrant. Very easy if everything comes off in one piece.

I am not trying to redirect the thread here, but I have some follow up questions. I just need to loosen my bars so I can more easily install some new upper ball joints, 1" ball joint spacers from SDORI, and Doetsch Tech shocks...

I have been soaking all the relevant bolts in penetrant for the last couple of days but I have heard lots of horror stories about lethal torsion bars. How unloaded can you get the torsion bars just with the adjuster bolts? This is relevant for me to know how much I can get the upper control arm to travel upwards without removing the bars completely (I have already removed the sway bar to let the lower control arms droop more). What are the strategies people use to safely unload the bars for either removing them or just working on the front end easier?

Thanks much for any advice. I'll post pictures when I am done!

Following up with an answer to my own question...

Installing new front shocks and upper ball joints this past weekend, I loosened the torsion bars almost completely, basically unscrewing the rear anchor arm bolt from below until just a bit of thread was still exposed out of the upper nut. This allowed more movement in the control arms (I had already removed the sway bar earlier). I still can't answer the question of how much tension is on the bars once they are loosened and you still need to remove them from the front anchor, but simply loosening them to make front end maintence easier was straighforward...

The only difficulty was getting the ride height back to where it was after cranking the torsion bars back to their original position. I had measured how much thread was sticking out of the upper nut before loosening and reset the tension back to this point. But, the ride height seemed a bit higher than before, based on the distance between the top of the front tires and the top of the wheel well. Perhaps this is a reindexing issue, I don't know, its just took a little tuning to get things back to normal.

Time for an alignment..

What kind of shocks did you put on? I'm gonna guess the new shocks are gas type and the worn shocks were just that...worn? That will raise yer truck up a bit. Just adjust them until you git the right height...presto!

BZ - never seen a non spring or air assisted shock do any lifting yet.............

Well...until it settles in...the new shocks can throw off the adjustment compared to the worn out stuff...at least with the gas shocks. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

A worn out shock absorber will hold the truck at a different angle under load than a brand new shock. Simple as that, but I doubt its much to worry about.

If anything the balljoints knocked it out.