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I tried replacing my spring plate bushings one side at a time today, based on this walk through written by Chuck from Elephant Racing. The pics seem to have disappeared unfortunately, but I've seen them before, and the idea is that you can lower the torsion bar tube enough on one side to get the spring plate and torsion bar out. But no matter how much I pried I couldn't get it down far enough. It was close, but it would not go down any further. Here's where I got stuck:
Even that was hard, and there was just no way the edge of the spring plate was ever going to clear the body. So I had to give up and put it all back together having replaced nothing but a trailing arm bushing I didn't have time to drop the other side too and I can't really leave the car up on stands overnight in case I get in trouble with the property manager!
I'm pretty sure the tube wasn't getting caught on anything. There was still clearance above the exhaust. I tried disconnecting the sway bar too but that didn't make any difference. I could see the wheel and everything on the other side flexing as I pried...there just didn't seem to be enough play in the bushings on the other side to make it work.
Has anyone done this one side at a time procedure before? Any tips on making it work? I might just take a whole day to drop the entire thing next weekend if I can't figure it out.
I did mine one side of a time and was able to clear the body. My tube came down lower than yours in the pix. Did you try loosening everything on the opposite side?
A hacksaw work's good to remove the bushings from the spring plate followed by a wire wheel
If you're replacing them with elephant rubber bushings? If you are the super glue that's supplied with the kit will lubricate to help the bushings slide on. But you must work fast! You only have a few seconds before the glue set's.
Last edited by marc abrams; 04-15-2018 at 08:50 PM.
I did mine one side of a time and was able to clear the body. My tube came down lower than yours in the pix. Did you try loosening everything on the opposite side?
I didn't try that. It's probably worth a shot though.
having done this full job i have to ask WHY you don't take 1 more minute and drop the entire assembly from the car.
Well it's a lot more than 1 minute. If the technique I'm trying to use worked, it would have been 1/2 the total time to do each side. Since it took me a few hours to get one side down, the other side would have taken hours too. I didn't think I could get it al done (both sides) in one day and I don't want to leave the car on stands overnight, so this seemed like the best option.
Can you pull the spring plate off the torsion bar.
Not if the torsion bar is rusted in place. But that can be a good thing, no tricky reindexing of the torsion bar spines.
Originally Posted by thomasmryan
the plastic cladding makes a '68 easier but the drivers side entail the tailpipe and drivers half shaft to be removed.
Can you elaborate on this?
Originally Posted by V2Rocket
having done this full job i have to ask WHY you don't take 1 more minute and drop the entire assembly from the car.
Spencer, I'm not so sure if that's any easier. Disconnecting the exhaust, brake lines, bleeding the brakes afterwards would take considerably longer. Then again my experience is only on my car.
Not if the torsion bar is rusted in place. But that can be a good thing, no tricky reindexing of the torsion bar spines.
Can you elaborate on this?
Spencer, I'm not so sure if that's any easier. Disconnecting the exhaust, brake lines, bleeding the brakes afterwards would take considerably longer. Then again my experience is only on my car.
In my case I actually disconnected the brake line already so I could remove the trailing arm from the car to replace the bushing.
Divil, I was able to drop and reinstall the torsion bar twice by myself within a day by hanging it from the bottom of the car with ratchet straps. You can put a jack under it and loosen the straps to lower it, and reinstalling is easier because you can hand adjust each side while ratcheting upwards, which is a little harder to do with a jack.
Divil, I was able to drop and reinstall the torsion bar twice by myself within a day by hanging it from the bottom of the car with ratchet straps. You can put a jack under it and loosen the straps to lower it, and reinstalling is easier because you can hand adjust each side while ratcheting upwards, which is a little harder to do with a jack.
I would always recommend dropping the whole assembly because you don't have to work in the cramped space of the inner fender.
handful of bolts, hoses and cables and the thing basically falls out.
i got mine out, swapped torsion bars, replaced trailing arm and spring plate bushings, indexed and reinstalled in a day, easy to do when you've got it on the floor or work bench.
I believe I was able to wiggle the spring plate out with just lowering the tube but it was free from the torsion bar. To get the tube low enough on the drivers side, the exhaust was in the way.
The fender is shaped different on the 968s so the bar can easily slip out with the plastic cladding popped loose.
Divil, I was able to drop and reinstall the torsion bar twice by myself within a day by hanging it from the bottom of the car with ratchet straps. You can put a jack under it and loosen the straps to lower it, and reinstalling is easier because you can hand adjust each side while ratcheting upwards, which is a little harder to do with a jack.
Hello Mike, this sounds interesting... Where did you connect the ratchet straps?
500, I was trying to remember this. Pretty sure one hook went through the bolt hole on the upper shock mount, But I can't for the life of me remember where the front would have gone. Perhaps I supported the carrier with the jack and hung each trailing arm from a ratchet strap, allowing me to rotate the assembly easily to get the bushings aligned.
04-15-2018, 07:48 PM
Spring plate bushings
I didn't have time to drop the other side too and I can't really leave the car up on stands overnight in case I get in trouble with the property manager!
