pacemaker63

Sway bar disconnected and no changes. I'm afraid that if I pound out that eccentric bolt, I won't be able to realign the two plates. Mind you, the wheel is completely non-supported here. (except for the the rear shock)

MAGK944

Ok if you are supporting the car body and the wheel/hub the only thing that will move when you loosen the two spring plate nuts is the spring plate. The short plate that comes off the torsion bar tube with the two nuts you loosened is attached to the torsion bar and will move down a bit due to torsion bar tension. The other larger plate behind it is under no tension whatsoever, if the arm wasn't attached to it you could move it with your fingers. So, you can completely remove the eccentric as long as the other bolt on the spring plate is only loose and not removed completely. Don't worry about aligning the plates, they cannot misalign horizontally just vertically and that's ok. If you have another jack you can lodge it under the short plate and align it vertically to put the eccentric back in where you want it, the do some fine adjustments with a wrench. If you have rear sways I think you do have to remove them to get the eccentric nut out.

pacemaker63

MAGK I think I'm starting to appreciate the geometry now. I haven't taken the bolt out yet but I can now turn the eccentric bolt with a different wrench. It appears that there's a round collar under the base of the bolt head that fits into the trailing arm hole. I can turn the bolt so that the eccentric side of the head (?beefy side) is pointing up which now puts the collar back in the hole. Pointing down pulls the collar back out of the hole and binds the bolt.
I may be having only an AHHHH! moment here and not an ah-ah, but I think in order to lower the car ride, I want the eccentric side pointing down ultimately, no? I'm going to retighten (by hand) just enough to pop the collar completely in the hole and straighten out the bolt, and then try to turn the bolt 180 degrees to face the eccentric side down. (I tried the hammer and didn't like the feeling. If this doesn't work I'm bringing out the 3lb handsledge.) Keep your fingers crossed...

pacemaker63

Okay, I've managed to pop the collar back in the hole with gently tightening of the nut and hammer massaging of the bolthead. Now when I go to turn the eccentric bolt, I can turn it but when I go to reposition the wrench, the bolt goes back to its original eccentric side up position. (I guess from the pressure of the torque arm...) I have a rachet fitting but it won't fit with the frame in front of the trailing arm. Even still, the trailing arm is now up 3/8" compared to previous which should give me at least that much lowering on the car. No?

Dave W.

Have you unbolted the lower shock mount? That's what's holding up the trailing arm. You should put a jack under the trailing arm to take the stress off the lower shock bolt so you can unscrew it easily, then lower the trailing arm. That should remove all tension so you can install and rotate the eccentric easily. Just beware that the eccentric bolt only rotates 180*.
HTH

pacemaker63

Dave, No the lower shock mount was the last thing that I didn't remove. I considered it but was able to finally SLOWLY retighten the eccentric (with a little gentle massaging with a hammer) and get the cam relocated into the hole. It's back together and the eccentric side of the bolt head now faces UP.
I went to the other side and lowered that as well. The trick here is to only LOOSEN the eccentric nut so that it's not tight. When the nut is so tight that I need the air gun to loosen, you need to quickly remove the gun before it basckspins the nut halfway down the shaft (my mistake on the opposite wheel). On this side, I used the gun to just barely move the nut about a 1/4 turn, then used the rachet wrench to turn maybe two or three more turns. Then loosen the pivot nut. The trailing arm drops into place automatically and the eccentric bolt head is up again on this side. I haven't lowered tha car yet, but will check the ride height later this weekend.

NOTE: For those of you looking to do the same procedure: You only need to barely loosen the eccentric nut (and loosen this one first keeping the pivot tight in case you loosen the eccentric TOO far. Otherwise, you will need to remove the swaybar linkage and the rear shock mount in order to retighten the eccentric bolt.

Perculator00

Bump.

I am really looking forward to trying this out. Pacemaker, so you simply ended up adjusting your rear height throught the eccentric bolts only and NOT through the torsion bar correct?

mhr

This is just eccentrics and lower weltmeister springs in the front. I wouldn't want it any lower with the splitter it already hits speed bumps and driveways often.