Lowering

You will have to re-index the passenger side rear torsion bar to match the driver's side. Check the Bentley manual; it's fairly involved but doable. You need a way to get the springplate back up on the ledge where it sits (I modified a VW jack). And when you first pry the springplate off the ledge, make sure your legs (and any other body parts) are out of the way. 

Just completed doing this on my build (70 pan also). There are lots of prior posts here on this subject. Read thru them and you will get an idea of what is involved. Mine was farily easy to do since I was working on a pan that hasn't had the body installed on it.  It's a little more difficult with the body on the pan, since you will have to work from underneath. It was nice working from the side and top with the pan on jackstands. There is a post by Gordon Nichols about clocking the tosion bars, read that and it will help you understand how to adjust the ride height.

Bill

Is this a New to you car?

Is it the front or back…, I see that it’s a CMC.

Did you measure from the ground to the pan to see if the body is level on the chassis?

If it’s the front (side to side), block the front up off the ground, now measure from the ground to identical points on both sides of your ride. Hopefully their close to the same…, if their different it gets a little evolved to remedy this…, let me know!

David   /   dd-ardvark

Thanks.  It is new to me and it is the rear of the car.  I used the basic method of parking on level ground and walking around it then measuring the gap from the rear fender well to the rim and the driver side had more. 

Seeing it done always helps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMxBolHOJR4

I looked in the "knowledge" section and my old article is no longer there - too bad, so I'll re-post it here (the picturated version):  You'll have to click on the pictures to display them - it was written for a Phpbb site.  I also no longer recommend using baby powder on the torsion bar bushings - I have MUCH better luck with CV joint grease.

This article should give you enough information for you to re-set the rear ride height on a VW pan-based Speedster, regardless of whether it starts out high or low and regardless whether it is an IRS or swing-arm suspension (although we’ll be showing IRS suspension in this article).  The job is relatively simple (and what isn’t simple on a pan-based car?) and should take about two to three hours to re-set BOTH sides.

Make sure that your car has settled the suspension by either driving it around or rolling it back and forth across a 20 foot distance a couple of times.  Start out by measuring the distance from the ground to the top of the wheel well arch on both sides and write them both down.  When I started on mine, the passenger side was sitting at 23-7/8”, while the driver side was a mere 23-1/4”  A difference of about 1/2”!

Once you have the starting heights, you’ll need to decide how you’ll adjust it.  In my case, the passenger side will be left alone and I’ll raise the driver side the needed 1/2”

We’ll start by getting the car up on Jack Stands such that it is comfortable to work on and securely stable.  Once that is done, remove the wheel on the side(s) you’ll be working on for access to the suspension, and then remove the shock absorber and put it aside.  

http://i593.photobucket.com/al...y/startingheight.jpg

As you can see from Photo 1, the rear hub is attached to the spring plate by four bolts.  Before you touch any of them, use a metal scribe to outline the hub casting where it attaches to the spring plate, and make a line mark on both the hub casting and the spring plate to reference later on for alignment.  I used a cold chisel a while back and marked both permanently (look close to see the mark).  On my car I have a rear sway bar attached, so the hub mount for that must be removed along with the spring plate bolts, as shown (just swing the bar down out of the way once it’s been let go on both ends).

Once the alignment mark is made, go ahead and remove all four bolts.  Be careful in case your hub is loose between the spring plates, but it usually stays put.  Now loosen the four bolts holding the torsion bar end cover in place - back them out 1/2” or so to allow the cover to move out.   Place a floor jack under the bottom end of the spring plate(s) (use a wooden block between jack and plates) and slowly jack it up until the inside plate just clears the stop on the torsion bar mount, then use a small pry bar to gently coax it outward and then slowly lower the jack to allow the spring plate to swing down beyond the plate stop.  Remove the torsion bar cover.

http://i593.photobucket.com/al...loweringplate1-1.jpg

Find a socket that will just fit through the big hole in the torsion bar mount so that it’ll prevent the spring plate from moving up in the next step.  Use a socket extension as a handle and hold it in place while you do the next step:

http://i593.photobucket.com/al...guy/socketstop-1.jpg

Put a floor jack under the brake drum (use a wooden block between jack and drum) and jack it up until it  clears the spring plate - it should be free of the plates.

Scribe a line along the top edge of the spring plate onto the torsion bar mount as a reference of your start point.

Now for a little info on how the rear suspension is adjusted:  Rear torsion bar inner and outer splines are different. Inner splines move 9 degrees per 

spline, while outer splines move 8 degrees, 10 minutes per spline.   Measuring my car (a 1969 Beetle pan with IRS) gives 17 inches between the centerlines of the torsion bar and the axle, so using C = pi(D) you get a circumference circle of 106.814 inches (imagine drawing a big circle with the torsion bar center at the middle and the axle centerline at the 

circumference). Break that up into degrees and its .297 inch per degree and .005 inch per minute.

Applying the math gives one inner spline (9 degrees) for 2.673 inches of axle travel (either up or down), and for one OUTER spline (8 degrees, 10 minutes) you get 2.426 inches of travel (either up or down).   Using combinations of inner and outer splines allows a little less than 1/4" travel at a time by going one way with an inner, and the 

other way with an outer.

Here’s a table I did to save you all that math:

Table 1:

U = UP

D = Down

Inner  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -Outer  -  -  -  -  -  -Result (inches)

1D .  2.673 .  .  .  .  .  1U 2.426  .  .  .  .  .  . D  .244

2D  .  5.346  .  .  .  .  .  2U 4.852  .  .  .  .  .  . D  .488

3D  .  8.019  .  .  .  .  .  3U  7.278 .  .  .  .  .  . D  .741

4D  .  10.692  .  .  .  .  .4U  9,704   .  .  .  .  .  .D  .976

5D  .  13.365  .  .  .  .  5U  12.130  .  .  .  .  .  .D  1.235

6D  .  16.038  .  .  .  .  6U  14.556  .  .  .  .  .  .D  1.482

7D  .  18.711  .  .  .  .  7U  16.982  .  .  .  .  .  .D  1.729

8D  .  21.384  .  .  .  .  8U  19.408  .  .  .  .  .  .D  1.981

9D  .  24.057  .  .  .  .  9U  21.834  .  .  .  .  .  .D  2.223

10D  . 26.730  .  .  .  . 10U  24.260  .  .  .  .  .  D  2.470

11D  . 29.403  .  .  .  . 11U  26.686  .  .  .  .  .  D  2.717  

12D  . 32.076  .  .  .  . 12U  29.112  .  .  .  .  .  D  2.964

13D  . 34.749  .  .  .  . 13U  31.538  .  .  .  .  .  D  3.211

14D  . 37.422  .  .  .  .  14U 33.964  .  .  .  .  .  D  3.458

Ok, so in my case I have to move the car UP 1/2”, so the spring plates must move DOWN 1/2” at the rear axle.  Pretty simple, but I will also be sitting on the driver’s side, so I’m going to increase ride height a little more than that for my weight - say, 3/4” or so.  Looking at the table, I need to go three splines DOWN on the outer end, and three splines UP on the inner end.

Now for the trickiest part of the job, because you want to do each end of the torsion bar separately, but not screw up one end while adjusting the other.  Let’s start on the inner splines first:  Grasp the spring plates and the torsion bar end cap and apply a sideways pressure to them by using the spring plate as a lever so as to keep the outer end from coming loose on the torsion bar.  Now rock/jiggle the torsion bar out of the inner splines but do it gently so you can feel when it just lets go.  Now gently press it back in to feel the splines and move it in the desired direction - in my case I have to move the inner splines 3 up, so I gently start to move the spring plates up, feeling each spline until I get to three, then I push the torsion bar back in as far as it will go.

Now for the outer splines:  Again, grasp the spring plates and bar end cap and gently wriggle it around to work the end cap off of the end of the torsion bar.  When you feel it let go, gently hold it in place and rotate it in the desired direction - in my case, I now need to go three splines down so I rotate  while gently pressing on the cap and spring plates to feel one, two, three splines down and then push the end cap onto the splines, but not yet all the way on.

For the next step, you’ll need a small container of Baby powder with which to “lubricate” the torsion bar bushings.  The inner bushing is held captive by detents in the housing, so all you’ll need to dust is the inside of the bushing and/or the outside of the end cap where it inserts into the torsion bar tube bushing.  Be liberal - dust it up nicely white, then push the end cap all the way on/in.  For the outer bushing, grasp it and slide it outward on the end cap tube, then liberally dust the tube and slide it back into place, then dust the outside of the outer bushing as well as the inside of the end plate.  You can then slide the end plate onto the end cap.

http://i593.photobucket.com/al...uy/applypowder-1.jpg

If you’re not using new spring plate bushings at this time, then the end plate should slide on far enough that it’s bolts will thread into the torsion bar end mount.  If they do not reach, you may need to go get four new bolts the same size and thread pitch and about 3/4”-1” longer to get everything started.  Simply thread the new bolts through the end cover and into the casting and tighten them so that the cover goes on far enough to, one by one, replace the longer bolts with the proper ones.  Get them threaded in, but do not yet tighten them down.

http://i593.photobucket.com/al...uy/longerbolts-1.jpg

Re-position the wheel hub flange between the spring plates and gently slide it down more-or-less into place.  You may need to use a small pry bar to get it in between the spring plates again, but it should fall right in.

http://i593.photobucket.com/al...y/replacinghub-1.jpg

We have to get the spring plates back up onto the bottom stop of the torsion bar mount.  To do that, place a wooden block onto your floor jack and position under the rear end of the spring plate and jack it up until the bottom of the plate just clears the stop on the mount.  Now, tighten the four bolts of the end cap cover a little at a time in a cross pattern to keep it even until all four are tight.  Torque them to 30-35 ft. lbs.  Remove the jack.

Line up the wheel hub holes with the slots in the spring plates, insert the four bolts but do not yet tighten them.  Line up the scribe marks you made earlier and tighten the single bolt at ten o’clock, then tighten the other three bolts (unless you have a sway bar mount - for that you’ll need to assemble the mount and THEN tighten the bolts.)

Your finished project should look like this:

http://i593.photobucket.com/al...stahguy/finished.jpg

Well done Gordon! Love the chart.

Gordon...Thank You!!! This is GREAT info.

Gordon---great explanation---wonderful stuff.  Thanks for going through all this!

Definitely a "keeper!"

GORDON THIS IS LIKE A FOREIGN LANGUAGE TO ME.

Yup, I know.

Gordon, detail question: about how far does the torsion bar end cap have to come out before it "clears" the bar? I ask because some of the TD guys (OK, all of the TD guys) seem to have body shell interference and some have asked this question in trying to figure out if/how they have to take the body off their cars to adjust the rear suspension height.

Gordon,

You are an asset! Your old article is in the knowledge base section I still need to cleanup and move over.  However,  I granted you permission to post to the knowledge section right now. Your info is invaluable.

Thanks

-=theron

Confucius said "always better to be asset than asset-hole..."

Ed:  What year Nova do you have?  Just curious.....

The torsion bar cover needs to come out about 2" to clear the bar splines - that's it.  Typically, there's enough room in the wheel well to just allow adjustment and then put the cover back on.  You cannot change the torsion bars without removing the body or cutting holes to pull the bar through (personally, I would pull the body).

If you want to change the rubber bushings on the bar, you might think that there is no way to do it, but if you cleanly cut the bushings on one side (making them a "C") put them over the shaft and then glue them together with Super Glue they'll hold forever.

One other thing I just thought of, is that I showed pictures of a 1969 IRS suspension.  It is NOT swing-arm, but the instructions for height set are the same.  Also, that year had dual (2) spring plates per side, just like a real 356B, making the rear suspension quite a bit more stable under load.  That's why I always refer to the spring plates as plural.  If you have a single plate per side it makes working with the hubs to line them up that much easier.

gn

Gordon,

I just added this to the Knowledge Base and put the pictures in-line with the article.

Adjusting Rear Ride Height -VW

-=theron

thanks, Gord.

The old Nova was a '67 SS car, 4 speed and a later 350. Bought in 1981 and sold in Oct. 2003, reluctantly, to make mortgage & other bills while awaiting a proper job offer and/or payment for services rendered . . . .

The current car is a '69 Beetle with a British Coach Works Model 52 (MG TD) kit on it. Sure I don't have the 2 inches on the torsion bar covers but I think some of the guys with other TD kits might, and rear suspension sag is a pretty common issue with these old kits. I'll pass your post along on the TD forum. Very helpful, and thanks.

e

Ed:

Happy to help.

Thanks, Theron!

gn