Bill 944 S2

Hi All,

Very new here. Just acquired my first Porsche a 1990 944 S2 Convertible.

The rear right corner is sagging a little (1 inch) so I believe it is Torsion bar related. The history of the vehicle shows that the rear right trailing link and driveshaft was replaced at a shop a couple of years ago after hitting something in the road. I can't see any info on the invoice if they set up the torsion bars?

I had the car up on a lift and noticed that the same right wheel is sagging lower that the left.

I can't see any obvious structural damage where the body could be twisted from an accident etc. The mounts on the body to the trailing arm look original and unmolested.

My question is, would a torsion bar issue cause the wheel to droop more when weight is off and the car to sag when weight is on?

Has anyone seen this kind of thing before & maybe how they fixed it?

The car runs straight otherwise.

Dimi 944

IMO, it is either incorrectly indexed torsion bar or if both shocks are the same, one might be damaged of some sort so it does not have the same travel as the other one.

admiralkhole

It could also be the eccentric bolts on the trailing blade.

Mueller944s2

Are you saying there's a larger difference in that side's height when weight is added? The lower the torsion bars are set, the less give you'll have. The back of my cab was lowered for years and it rode much harder, whereas there's more of a cushion once we raised it back up. If one side is lower then the torsion bars are out of whack. If there's more give then shocks should be looked at. If the shop didn't know 944s then they're probably off. Torsion bars are a pain in the butt to deal with on these cars, not like a Hummer where you can adjust them in no time. There are bolts at the end of the spring plate that are used for height adjustments, but only SLIGHT adjustments. For larger adjustments the torsion bars have to come. My left side is adjusted all the way up and right all the way down in order to level the car because the torsion bars are slightly off, you can't tell though.

MAGK944

I cannot see how the torsion bars or eccentric bolts can effect the droop you get with the wheels off the ground. iirc only thing that determines the droop is the dampers being fully extended. Take the dampers off and the wheels may drop a little more and probably even out. Maybe one of your dampers is not fully extending.

As for your sag with weight on, as others have said its a tb reindex or an eccentric adjustment to fix that. How is the cars stance measured from the factory recommended height points at the rockers? The fenders are not good points to judge the correct height on these cars as they varied considerably during manufacture.

Bill 944 S2

Thanks to everyone for the fast responses.

Yes, I think it's safe to say my shocks are bad too, so will be replacing those asap, funny how you can't see the obvious and go looking for other more complex answers!

I'd not measured accurately for the correct ride height, I just knew that 1 inch low wasn't looking right

I'm a bit happier now that this may just be an indexing thing (still have to resolve it of course) but now I have a stronger feeling that this is a good course to follow

Jfrahm

The 944 rear shocks are not the high pressure gas type and do not add ride height if replaced.

I have seen many 944s that have the squatting dog look, and the right side often more so than the left. You might be able to fix this with the ride height adjustment eccentric.

What I do is jam the rear spring plate with some square stock before jacking up the car, otherwise you can't adjust the eccentric without fighting the torsion bar. If you do this right, when you raise the car the spring plate traps the square stock and the wheel does not sag as far. You can then adjust the trailing arm by itself.

Then break loose the eccentric bolt and snug it up again (to make sure you can get it loose and tight again) then loosen the ride height pivot bolt, then go back to the ride height adjustment eccentric and sort that out. I use a 36mm bike wrench for this.

Adjusting the ride height changes the rear camber so you might have to realign the rear.

This diagram is helpful but NOTE THAT THE CAMBER AND TOE ADJSUTMENTS ARE SWAPPED!
http://www.924.org/techsection/techp...adjustrear.gif

You need a special tool for rear toe, I made one out of an old 15mm socket. They are not expensive to purchase.

-Joel.

Van

The early and late rear shocks (steel vs aluminum control arms) are actually different lengths - so you might find that one has been incorrectly replaced.

While its possible that one torsion bar might be incorrectly indexed, it's also possible that a torsion bar was replaced with one that's a different diameter (thus a different spring rate) when the rear control arm was replaced.