I always considered replacing those rear bushings, but NO ONE here re-indexes T-bars that's why i stay away from them. Being a student and working at the same time just doesn't give me time at all to tackle such a job.........your lucky

 

Hey Chuck,
I really do appreciate all that you're saying. And the link you provided is what I've used to remove the bars so far. With all the bad things being said, I'm considering not using the Welts, but I can't justify the cost of the polybronze bearings. I'm still ambivalent at this point, but hey, I enjoy working on my car, so it's a nice respite from the daily grind.

 

Option 4: go with the Kelly Moss Racing setup (if its still available). By far the most expensive but probably also the best. You have to either send them your torsion bar carrier or out source the machining yourself. They install sealed roller bearings (I believe they are tapered) to replace the spring plate bushings. Very trick setup, but again, very expensive. This setup is worthwhile for torsion bar delete cars, and because of machining requirements, not legal for Club Race stock class cars.

Anyway, back to reality......

 

Done 5 times on 3 different cars: Put in 28mm T-bars, ran two cars T-bar delete with coil overs, reindexed stock bars to ride height for helper coils on two cars. Not anywhere near as bad as some other jobs like a clutch or turbo removal/replacement.

No point in doing the job just to replace bushings. Only replace the bushings if you are reindexing for ride height changes, different T-bars, etc.

 

You can get a sense of bushing status without taking the car apart. Look where the spring plate protrudes though the cover plate hole. The spring plate tube should be concentric in the cover plate hole.

If the spring plate tube is not centered in the cover plate hole, your bushings are done. When the tube drifts off center, it move up towards the top of the hole. In extreme cases, the tube will actually contact the spring plate cover.

The factory rubber bushings "cold flow" under the weight of the car. This happens over time even if the car is not driven.

 

Jim B.: I got the hight set-up, those shocks need replacement soon (not relevant though), other than that, do the t-bars themselves need repalcing after time?

 

Here is a picture of bushings off the car showing the cold flow. In this case the car is 18 years old with about 80k miles,




The digital readout is partly obscured but you can read the scale. One side of the bushing is 16mm the other is 20.22mm. It is supposed to be round / equal thickness. With the weight of the vehicle the difference would be even greater.

 

Try replacing the bushings with delrin or polyurathane. Taking the old stuff off is loads and hours of fun by itself.

 

You could get into a lot of materials theory here about fatique, endurance, strength/strain, etc, but for our application, I would say, no - torsion bars will not wear out and you do not need to replace them as a maintenance item.

 

ok, here's another question (inspired by shmark's comment on the first page) - anybody tapped the spring plate carrier for a Zerk fitting so you can grease the bushings with bushing grease at various intervals?

 

No really,
I greased mine when i installed them, but notice squeaks on warm up/ cool down laps. I don't notice all the time and never during racing or hot laps.

The bad news about my car is have helmet on, window's open and am not focused on it. The good news is that without an interior most noise is amplified and I have a relativly quiet exhaust.

 

This is common in the 914 world, adding a zerk fitting and greasing them regularly. Those that have done it say it works well but I chose not to. Doh! The only thing you have to do is slot the bushings to give the grease somewhere to flow.

 

Sure it is. You can have a BBQ!

http://members.rennlist.com/mlitherland/bbq.jpg

914 obviously, but getting them off was absolute cake.

 

I tried a torch and caught on fire. It stunk up the whole neighborhood and I put it out because I don't want to get cancer or give my neighbors cancer. 944 may have more rubber too compared to a 914.

 

It's easy to get the rubber bushings off if you use the right technique. Check here to see the easy method.