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Yellow R4
 
Réparateur d'automobiles

1963 4L torsion bars

wheelnut

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Nsw, Australia
Hi. I am New to the Renault 4 and just commencing a full restoration, and new to the forum. The body is off and I want to remove the torsion bars so that I can clean up all of the suspension components and re-bush them. I have the Haynes manual, and have canvassed You tube and a couple of forums, and I just want to be clear that I understand how to handle the torsion bars. Am I correct in thinking that I can take the whole front and rear suspension units out without any "special " tools to release tension on the torsion bars. I understand that once the units are out, I can re-spline the torsion bars to different height positions if I need to. Once everything is tidied up and ready to go back, roughly how much of a 360° circle does it take to re-tension the torsion bars to secure them in position? I haven't found any diagrammatic description of the rear end of the front torsion bars that is clear to me, so I want to be sure I can get this back together again. I do appreciate the information that others have put up in the past, but it's just not clear to me how far things have to be moved, and at what point these things will bite me, to do these jobs with my present knowledge. Thanks. Ian.
 
Welcome Ian, I'm fairly new here to but there's a number of people on here that know these vehicles inside out & I'm sure somebody will be along to advise you correctly. I can't help with the front end as I've never stripped one but I rebuilt the rear as you intend on mine last year. Mine's a later car so slightly different but same principle. Not sure if you've searched on here but there's lots of info on the subject I also used tbe 'la4desylvie' site which is an excellent number of tutorials on the common issues including what you're doing (translate to English) following these and help from here got me sorted
 
Thanks Qplate and JdeW. Between the two sites that you directed me to I now have a good understanding of what I need to do. I'll get into that in the next few days and report back about how I got on.
 
Amazing how easy it is when you've got good teachers. Thank you guys. The chassis is in amazing condition, so I had better do a good job of the restoration. The only rust is where moisture has sweated between the floor and the rubber mats. Three patches each about 1 ft² (300 mm) square and it'll be like new.

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Succes with your restoration I'm a little jealous that there's little rust on your R4, compared to mine.
Still busy with my rustoration that's maybe finished next year https://www.renault4.co.uk/forum/threads/r4-gtl-1985-restoration.8252/
There are many full resto projects on this forum so lots of different kinds of repairs, welding, preserving, painting etc. are available.
Just take a good look in the projects section and never hesitate to ask.

Cheers,
Joop
 
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Yes, Joop. I have seen many blogs and Youtubes of R4 chassis with severe rust, and as I bought my car sight unseen from another state, I was expecting to have to do more work on my own chassis. Naturally I'm very happy with what I have got.. My work will be in the body, where every panel has been heavily filled with putty, and where surface rust has generated between the putty fill and the panel, needing descaling and then a lot of heat shrinking and hammer and dolly work.. As a few hours on that I think.
 
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