Chunkerz

The time has come to reinstall the torsion bar housing in my 88 944 NA and I am having a really hard time getting it in there. I was able to get the housing into the slots behind the doors, but I can't get the mounts at the top of the wheel wells for the banana arms to line up. The ends of the banana arms extend past the mounts and won't fit down inside the slots Anyone have any advice? I'll try to get pictures of what I'm talking about tonight.

Also, I installed new bushings for the spring plates and I cannot move them at all. I will need to turn them down a little bit to get the rear trailing arms in, but they won't budge. I do not have torsion bars installed, so I assume they should be able to move up/down freely. Are they supposed to be this tight?

Thanks,
Jeff

Edit- Here's some pictures of what I'm talking about. In the first picture you can see that I finally got the banana arm to fit down inside the slot in the mount. The second picture shows that the hole in the mount doesn't line up with the hole in the body with the banana arm in the slot. I am completely out of ideas for getting this thing back in there... If I trim the ends of the banana arms I might be able to get the mount to line up, but I don't want to ghetto rig it or anything...

Van

You are correct - you want your suspension to move freely. A bound-up suspension will make a very ill-handling car.

For installing the torsion bar carrier, it sound like you are "offering it up" to the car at an angle. Pull everything down, make sure the upper mounts are lining up before you get the front mounts into place.

Chunkerz

How can I loosen up the spring plates? I lubed the holes in the torsion bar housing and end caps to make installing the spring plates easier, but they were still a bitch to get in. The bushings seem like they're twice as big as they need to be. I am using the Elephant Racing rubber bushings if that matters.

I've tried lining up the upper mounts first, but if I do that the ones behind the doors won't go in because the housing is too far forward. It seems like the banana arms are longer than they used to be

Van

The new bushings are rubber? Or are they delrin/urethane? If rubber, it will be tight - they rely on the flexing of the rubber to move. If they are performance bushings, sometimes you have to make the mating surfaces a little larger with a die grinder or something.

For the amount of misalignment in that picture, you might have to rely on rubber flex... can you get a screw driver or punch in there to "lever" it into alignment?

Chunkerz

I'm using the Elephant Racing rubber bushings. I was able to fix the spring plates by following 9FF's advice and polishing all metal surfaces to a mirror finish then lathering everything with silicone grease. The spring plates are still nice and tight, but I can move them with some effort.

I tried levering it into place with a large screwdriver last night, but that was a no go. I'm thinking about just trimming half an inch off the ends of the banana arms up by the top mounts where it keeps getting stuck. Good or bad idea? I am installing coilovers in the rear with no torsion bars, so supposedly the banana arms aren't even needed anymore.

Edit- got that thing in there with no modifications required!!!!!

Van

Congrats!

reno808

very nice

Butters944

I'm so jealous of everything about that last picture...

Chunkerz

I just hope they perform as good as they look...