I have the desert camo, 6 inch lifted brat with 30x9.50 tires on toyota rims...

 

anyways... I had extended some old crappy shocks, and they have been failing over time..

 

The back end would bounce and rub all the time, and tires hit fender on turns etc.

 

Well the other night, on my way home from Bills house, I was in the middle of the downtown tunnel between portsmouth and norfolk, the back end just bouncing right along, when all of a sudden, there was a big 'BANG' and crunch, I could see sparks shooting out of the back.. At first, I thought "My god, one of my wheels must be flying back down the tunnell" but after getting out, I could see the rump roast end was laying on the tires. The suspension had given out. The torsion spring had sprung!

 

The tunnel people are cool. The sent a tow truck within 5 minutes. I told the lady there was no way she could tow me. She would need to tow me from the rear, or have a flat bed.

 

She called another tow truck (the tunnell people have a couple), and he camed down the tube...

 

He had to turn that sucker around in the middle of the tunnell. I was amazed he could do it..

 

He clamped the back tires, lifted it, and we rolled back up the tube BACKWARDS!!!! they had traffic stopped, but good thing it was 12:30 in the middle of the night.

 

They sit you in their lot safe..

 

Well,, Bill and I built our coil over brackets to fit.. installed them, and realized one of the 6inch lifting blocks was broke.. so the torsion bar was laying on the driveshaft.. well knowing the driveshaft was messed up anyways.. we limped it to his house.. shaking, making noise, etc.

 

I am going to Marks (lostwater), in the mountains this weekend to pick up another driveshaft, and bill is gonna reweld a block back in and firm it up for me, since he has a day or two off..

 

I should be back in business by the end of the weekend..

 

Just wanted to give a little narrative of my expierence.

 

Mike

mikldom@yahoo.com

Sounds like metal fautigue with all that constant bouncing. Get some Ranchos front and rear.

Yep, know of it happening a few other times too. I don't know how common soobs are in the local junkyards near you, but the whole assend suspension can be had for pretty cheap around here.

I had to replace the torsion bar in one of my hatches, I got a tip that the ones from an 83-84 wagon would be stiffer than the hatch. (saying this cuz I'm betting an actual Brat assend would be harder to come by.)

I am not worrying aobut replacing it..

 

I did the coil over conversion as suggest by McBrat..

 

the coils give much more capacity anyways.. and considering they came off an EA82 wagon that weighs more...

 

my torsion bar / spring was wore out anyways.. and any weight put in the back lugged it down..

 

now,, it bearly moves when I get in the bed.

 

Mike

Sweet.