tempest411

Hello,

I'm curious if it's possible to pull out a torsion bar from a modified spring-plate enough to re-index it without having to cut holes in the rocker panels. That is, I would assemble the rear suspension with drilled and tapped torsion bars and modified spring-plates, install into the chassis, then adjust from there. This is part of my planning to install larger diameter torsion bars as part of a suspension rebuild.

I also wonder what the factory procedure was for setting up the rear suspensions on these cars. I'm sure they didn't do it by trial and error. There must have been known position for the spring-plate relative to the carrier for a torsion bar of a given diameter. Has anyone seen what this procedure was?

Thank you,

Rick

V2Rocket

Factory probably had a jig to set it all up.

As far as new bars or adjusting the old bars...it's so much easier to adjust everything with the assembly out of the car.

Tip - find a large flat area of your driveway/work space, set the suspension on that and measure the spring plate position relative to the ground until they are equal...

When I put larger bars in I was able to get the height set in about 30 minutes, only had to install the suspension one time.

thomasmryan

http://www.clarks-garage.com/pdf-manual/susp-06.pdf

And the 968 wsm list various inclination angles for the variations from manual to auto, coupe to cab, CS vs normals, ect for the bar free hanging at rest.

The height adjustment on the spring plate is approximately two notches of index changes of one tooth at each end of the bar.

tempest411

How did you know where it would sit with the weight of the car on it?

V2Rocket

Measured the "travel" with the stock bars still installed and car on the ground.
Then with the assembly out of the car, measured the "unloaded travel". Wanted to keep same ride height.
Did the math relating to new spring rate vs new "travel" and set the index to that new measurement (all measurements relative to the "stop spacer" that the spring plate jams against, it's the oval shaped 10mm thick aluminum washer thing)

Put it back in the car and when all was finished, measured and final adjusted with eccentrics, car now sits +/- 1/16" L to R.

Van

If you grind the crimp holding the metal disks on the torsion bar cap and remove it, then fasten something to the end of the torsion bar so you can pull it out (weld on a nut or washer so you can lever on it), then you can index torsion bars without making holes in the rocker and without dropping the rear suspension.

tempest411

Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. I would only need enough room to get a tool in there, and for the splines to disengage.

tempest411

Thank you VERY MUCH for this link! It tells me everything I need to know to set this up.

grenadiers

Just 'slot' the cap on the spring plate, dremmel cutter, and us a big screwdriver to wedge it out. It's soft, and you don't have to grind it.

thomasmryan

I posted the angles for the fatter model in this thread.