Dimi 944

After some research and two weeks of work on the car during weekends and free time, I managed to remove the torsion bars and upgrade the spring plate bushings without dropping the rear end.

I would like to thank to all the people that helped me with answering my questions and providing helpful information.

These are some pics of the project.....

This is what came off the rear:


This is what went on the rear:

19mm 2-way adjustable sway bar with solid center mounts


Bilstein Escort Cup COs with 500# springs


Removing the t-bars without dropping the rear end was time consuming but not that hard procedure having the right directions....but removing the stock spring plate rubber bushing and putting the derlin solid ones was a different story

This is a procedure I made up myself and is relatively fast for removing the rubber bushings and placing derlin ones:

Having the spring plate on a vice use an exacto knife to cut the bushing across to the metal from side to side....


Cut/separate the bushing on the inner side from the spring plate...


Start peeling the bushing off by cutting with the knife as close as possbile to the spring plate....


Then use a steel brush or a set of these (see picture) and clean the rest of the rubber off....


This was my result...




After that I followed the instructions provided with the derlin bushings and manage to slide them on after having them heated to 300F degrees in the oven.




and when I thought I am done....the inner bushing did not fit the bearing flange
Eventhough I test fit the bushings before I had them mounted on the spring plate the outer one did not fit after it was mounted. I had to file it pretty well before I manage to make it fit....1 hour of test fitting and filing
At least it was one out of four

Also, the stock torsion bars and rear shocks are with 2lbs heavier than the coilovers.

I believe I deserved the few beers I had at the end

Hopefully this somewhat of a write up will help for all of you that are thinking of doing this upgrade!

Thanks!

marky522

Great job, i bet its night and day to drive..

Mark

StoogeMoe

Nicely done. But I want to know how you removed the torsion bars without dropping the whole thing.

Also, where did you get the bushings from?

drew44

That rear sway bar looks familiar, did it come from Tennessee? Good luck man.

ritzblitz

Nice work dude.

Dimi 944

Thanks to a Rennlist-er I was directed to the "ultimate" post/write-up that helped me remove the t-bars without dropping the rear end. This is the link with Part 1 which has the links to the other two parts.

Part 1

I got the bushings from Paragon.

StoogeMoe

I tried to use that method, but it didn't work for me. Even when I had all the bolts out, the torsion tube took considerable persuasion to get it lowered. Maybe that was just because it was in there 25 years. I might be able to do this technique next time. I look forward to it!

gt37vgt

hey Dimi how did your rear ride height end up i have some billy cups just like them and i want to lose the tender spring and go for a full 8" like that but my calcs say i cant get it as low
so when they went in as pictured with a few threads from fully low did you screw them up somewhat ...?
and i do have a similar rate