TRUNK TORSION BARS

[thos25]

Has anyone fooled with the torsion bars on a COMET trunk lid? I can't get my lid to stay open with out a prop stick. Is there some way to increase the tension? My shop manual give little info .
Thanks, TOM

[Lou's Comet]

I played with mine when I moved the mounts. They have three settings, three different notches Where the ends of the rods hook into. Each notch gives them different tension.

I had mine in the middle and trunk lid wouldn't stay open. Moved them to the tightest setting and the trunk stays open now but barely. They are kind of a pain to move. I used vise grips and pry bar. If you move them be careful ! Even though they don't seem to hold lid open, they do have some tension.

Lou

[Comechero65]

Here's the tool one guy made.

spring%20tool.jpg (72.87 KiB) Viewed 3553 times

DSC_0451.jpg (45.12 KiB) Viewed 3553 times

Ron

[lavron]

Mine won't stay open either, funny we had the torsion bar discussion at PF this year.

Guess I won't attempt to fix mine until after I start putting it back together again (after I take it apart )

See Ya,
Mike

[Comechero65]

If the trunk lid torsion bars are already at their max setting it may be possible to create another notch or setting to restore them to hold the lid up.
Ron

[poboyjo65]

If the max adjustment isn't strong enough you might could try switching them to the opposite sides. when I put mine back on, they wouldn't hold up the lid. Seems like I was thinking they may be a left & right I believe I switched them around. I don't know if there is a left & right or if they just get sprung over time.

[Lou's Comet]

Did a little work on my Comet yesterday. While in the trunk I took a picture of how the torsion bars mount for ya.

You can see the three adjustment notches. The rod end with the piece of tape is where it locks in place. I took some vice grips and unlocked the end with the tape on it and then you can put the other end into which ever notch you want. Then put the end with the tape on it back into the lock position. There is some tension so be careful. Mine is in the rear most notch and it does hold it up. When I was in the center notch it would not hold the lid up completely.



Lou

[LENYM]

HI, When trying to install mine with the tubs my helper lost the end of his thumb so be careful, so we made mine with two little cylinders that hold the hoods up on newer cars and they work great. Leny Mason

[poboyjo65]

Did a little work on my Comet yesterday. While in the trunk I took a picture of how the torsion bars mount for ya.

You can see the three adjustment notches. The rod end with the piece of tape is where it locks in place. I took some vice grips and unlocked the end with the tape on it and then you can put the other end into which ever notch you want. Then put the end with the tape on it back into the lock position. There is some tension so be careful. Mine is in the rear most notch and it does hold it up. When I was in the center notch it would not hold the lid up completely.



Lou

Lou with the bigger tubs I had to do like you & unhook the rod the same way you did, but after an incident removing the torsion bars from a parts car I was a little intimidated by them so I made a crude tool to unhook them. it looks like shet but it worked & allowed me to keep my hands out of range. Made it from a bottle jack handle.



Leny I can relate to that! I had taken off one side of a parts car sawed off the hinges from the car , had both rods & hinges still hung together, I guess they caught somehow & never released the torsion of the other bar. when I picked it up & threw it in the scrap trailer it popped & jumped back & hit my arm really hard. hard enough that the snaps on my cuff made little bruises on my arm & a cut but the bone ache brought out a few ugly words!! folks dont under estimate them!

[StPro]

I had a problem on my 70 Torino. With the wing on the trunk lid it was too heavy. Ford had a prop rod on the factory installed wing. I just added another hole or bracket to extend the lift on the spring.

[SASSY]

brought out a few ugly words!! folks dont under estimate them!

Ya I made a tool and posted it somewhere but can't find it.
YES those rods can be bad!! I was assembling Sassy after it's last paint job in the spring of '03 tryin to get those rods in place with a visegrip and whatever else and it slipped away, almost took my face off (some would say no loss) but smoked the underneath of the trunk lid,,,,FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUKKK!!!
I crawled out of the trunk to look at the damage,, there was none,,phew,, THank you!!
I looked back in the trunk, the rod put a decent dent in the support structure about an inch for the skin,,, RESPECT THE ROD!!
fRED

[Lip Ripper]

Thanks for pointing that out. It didn't register that the other end was being released. I don't have mini tubs so I'm good.