Ok, so my torsion bars are messed up. The PO put in larger ones at some point, and in stereotypical PO-wisdom, he or she put them in wrong.

No big deal, right? Oh, in case I didn't mention it, 944 Torsion Bars are the Devil Incarnate.

So I call up an extremely competent family friend who knows German cars better than I know... well, myself. Anyway, he comes over, expecting a relatively easy task (despite the warnings I had given), glances at the rear suspension, and begins cursing each consecutive part as we go down the list.

"So we have to take this off?"
"Yep"
"Jesus"
"And this?"
"Afraid so."
"****"
"And this?"
"Mhmm"
"**********"
... 30 seconds later....
"So you're telling me that, apart from the transmission, we pretty much have to disassemble the entire rear end of the car."
"Hey, I told you it wouldn't be easy"

Believe it or not, we made pretty good time. It took us just under 3 hours to get the CVs out of the way, the brakes disconnected, the entire trailing arm assembly removed, the entire exhaust system aft of the test pipe, and the torsion tube itself. Not too bad considering that I am rather incompetent at these things, and that he had never worked on a front engined Porsche, either, oh, and the bolts were quite literally torqued down with more force than I had ever seen on any car (impact guns notwithstanding).

OK, the ADVICE PART-------------
1. Don't do it.
2. Really, don't do it.
3. If you insist, have help on hand.
4. Wear protective gloves of some sort.
5. Just jack up the rear of the car (and use chocks, this makes, or at least seems to make, things much more stable when you're pulling at some SOB bolt with all you've got).
6. Don't half-*** it. Don't try to do it with most of it still mounted. Can it be done? Yes. But go ahead and pull the exhaust and simply remove the trailing arms while you're at it, you'll have more room to work.
7. If things get tough, go ahead and just pull the tube yourself and forget the bars for now, and (if you can get this far) bring it to a pro so he can finish the job (I'll explain...).

ANYWAYYYYYY
So we get the torsion bar tube dropped down, torsion bars still inside. Then we come to the problem: the spring plate is still pushing down on the stop bolt on the end cap with more force than we felt comfortable with. Nothing would make that spring plate budge. Diagnosis? The PO put the torsion bars in in such a stupid way that even at the top of its travel, the spring plate was too scary to warrant pulling the end caps.

And so here I stand, needing to go to work tomorrow at 8 am, car-less, with the 944's butt 3 feet off the ground, and no rear end whatsoever.

My plan is to take the tube to a pro on monday and have him pull it for me, unless anyone can offer any advice (first-hand; don't just say "DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!) to explain this phenomenon.

 

1.- whyd you pull the trailing arms?
2.- what was wrong w/ the PO's install? too high? too low?
3.- the way i set mine-with the trailing arms installed- was measured the distance from the trailing arm to the curved plate that attaches to the frame on the rear suspension, then moved it a few teeth- or one in your case may work- and then made sure both sides lined up.
4.- its not like he could have twisted the bar then put the end caps on, you just need to pull the caps off and rotate the arm plates then reinstall. They are very hard to get apart but after you do they are easier to re-install.

 

if there is a load against the endcap from the arm plates, reinstall the arms and use a strap to pull the arm towards the arched bar- pull the end cap then release the strap and reclock the bars.

 

1. Made things much easier to work with, in my case at least. Plus it really doesn't add any additional time to the project.
2. Way too high. They car was running absurd positive camber.


I was thinking about doing what you suggested, but I may end up trying to do it with the tube already pulled. It's depressing how daunting it seems just to reinstall the tube alone after the amount of work I've put into it today. This is one massive disaster, but it had to be done at some point.

 

I had to do the same thing when I removed my torsion bars to put in my rear coilovers. My advice to you is to delete the TBs and go to a full coilover. The biggest effort/cost is removing the TBs, which you have already done.

 

You've done the hard part. Spend the $100 bucks to have a pro pull the plates if thats more comfortable for you. Putting it all back together takes a while, but it's easier than taking it apart, but you will need at least 2 floor jacks. I just did the whole job myself on an S2. I won't do it again, but I shouldn't need to. Look thru the archives here there are some very good write-ups on setting the ride height. If you haven't already, read those before you go any further. There are a few key measurements that you need in order get your new ride height set correctly. One of the key measurements must be taken BEFORE you remove the spring plates. If not you will have no reference or basis for reassembling at the height you want.

Jeff

 

I'm not objecting to tackling that bolt myself, but I am wondering if it poses any risk to me.

If it is a common occurence, I guess I'll just take it out carefully with a good distance between myself and the plate. All of the write-ups I've read make no mention of a loaded spring plate. I can't get the arm to budge one bit.

I guess my best bet will be to secure the spring plate to the torsion tube somehow with a tow strap or tie-down. Then I can release it at a more relaxed rate.

 

On a side note, I'm honestly considering painting the trailing arms and torsion bars some shade of Ninja Turtles green in an ode to the 2.7 RS.

Just thought it would add an interesting touch to the underside of the car. (Oh, I'd do the front sway bar and possibly the control arms as well).

 

http://clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/susp-06.htm

 

I have process to do the t-bars. Unfortunalty the very critical start of the process requires you to take measurements with the car on it wheels.

 

It really isn't neccessary to pull all of that off the car. I did the torsion bar delete on my car one side at a time without removing the hubs or the exhaust following the procedures here https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-944-951-968-forum/147541-how-to-spring-plate-bushing-replacement-part-1-a.html

 

See above. You made this about 3 times harder than it is.

 

Time for a coil-over conversion

 

Frankly, unless you race these cars, there's no reason to convert. Practically, it gains you nothing.

 

The issue at hand is whether or not I will lose a digit if I attempt to remove the torsion bar from the tube. It doesn't seem right that there is still a load against it.

Coil-overs are certainly not something which poor college students such as myself can justify having.

Once again, has anyone ever experienced this, or even heard of the spring plate still being under load?

Some articles say to pull the end caps with the torsion tube in place, and (depending on which route you take) then drop the tube. Even if I had done that, it seems to me that the spring plate would've still sprung with a lot of force once I removed that stop-bolt. Someone please help me here, tell me I'm not alone in this situation.