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It is an issue, Michael. I set my irs up with shorter (swingaxle) bars and custom spring plates for this very reason. I don't think drilling holes in the body (like stock) would help, as you still have the be able to push the spring plate out far enough to clear the longer torsion bars. If you're using stock type rubber bushings, what about slicing them to remove the old ones and get the new ones in, as they are held tightly in place? Anybody see anything obviously wrong with this idea? Al
I did think of slicing the inners to get them off and slice them to put them in as it would seam that the cover holds the inner and outer in place.
The obvious solution was to lift the body but I did that awhile back and was trying to avoid for now.
I started this quest to try and eliminate the 4degrees of camber I had and after doing the inner trailing arm bushings its at 2degrees. All this stuff is 1975 vintage.
Do your shorter bars clear the body when you installed them?
I think the Dr. has a trick for this if I recall.
I originally assembled the front and rear suspensions with the body off the pan, Michael, so I don't know if there would be enough room to change/install torsion bars with the body on the pan. With the short bars there's more than enough room to re-index the spring plate, as it will come right off. Bill thinks Alan has a way, so it'll be interesting to hear what he has to say.
There are splines at both ends of that orange torsion bar so the end clamp cap will come off. Then you can replace the bushings and put it all back. If you accurately recorded angle should be too hard getting it indexed right when it goes back - might take one or 2 tries.
Wolfgang, the problem is that the end cap with spring plate does disengage from the outer spline but because the torsion bar is so long the end cap and plate cannot be remove from the bar as it hits the body. With a shorter torsion bar as Al has the end cap and spring plate would slide right off.
I have a magnetic protractor and have all my angles recorded from my lowering session two years ago so now its like changing pants.
It comes apart but after 40 years it may take some persuasion or a gear puller.
OFCS........Since I have a LOT of experience with this, let me answer it for you.
No, the end cap will not come off because there is not enough space inside of the body to do so. That is one of those "speedster things" IRS pan owners have to deal with.
Go to a Sears craftsman hardware department and buy a razor cutter - looks like a pair of really big pliers with a razor blade in the maw.
Pull the end cap off as far as you can, pull the inner bushing out enough to get the cutter on it and cut the thing off.
Once it's off, cut the new bushing cleanly in two on ONE SIDE ONLY, making a big "C". The VW manual tells you to use talcum powder on the bushings and you certainly can, but modern talcum pretty much sucks - so does baby powder.
What to do? Go to NAPA and get a big tube of CV Joint grease and lube the heck out of the bushings - both inner and outer. Lube the cap tube that mates with the bushings, too (why not? It's only grease...)
Replace the inner bushing by opening it up, placing it around the torsion bar/end cap and positioning it in the casting (hint - it only fits one way). Use some "super glue" to glue it back together (you avoided getting cv joint grease on the ends, right?)
IIRC, I cut it, position it around the shaft, glue it, THEN lube it up - just a thought.
Since the end cap can't be removed, you'll have to repeat the process for the outer bushing, too - "Second verse, same as the first......"
That should do it.
I wrote this whole process up somewhere - on this site, maybe, but I'm not exactly at home right now or can access my server from here (I'm supposedly on vacation, right?) so maybe do a search for "torsion bar bushings" on here and see what'cha get from me......hopefully it might help.
yup, that should do it. Back to the beach.
Thanks Gordan, tools to cut things I have.
Will post pics of the dismemberment.
They come off. I ended up with separate orange torsion bars and the separate end caps with the spring plates. You can buy separate torsion arms and spring plates (even the adjustable ones - which might make fine adjustment easier). I forget whether I just drilled a hole in the very end cap or pried/ground it off. I then used a gear puller to pull the spring plate off the torsion bars. The splines in that end are often required for further fine adjustments. I didn't have body on so getting a gear puller in with it maybe issue. You could make a shallow gear puller with angle iron and bolts. High heat (propane torch) on the ends where the splines are might work too.
This link has those inner and outer spline/degrees that drop/raise rear x? ". Think page 2.
The issue with adjustable spring plates, Greg, is they are heavy. It will take longer to set up the rear suspension height with regular spring plates, but once it's done, the adjustable plates have no more advantage. If you want to try a set I've got an adjustable pair for short torsion bars for irs...
Just an update on the the results of my IRS spring plate bushing replacement.
On the first go around I removed the entire trailing arm to install new inner trailing arm bushings and found that I did not order the inner spring plate bushings so I put it all back together.
After receiving the new inners I was ready to install both inner and outer spring plate bushings without removing the spring plate from the torsion bar as there is no room to do so as described in previous threads.
I moved the spring plate far enough to gain access to the inner bushing and cut it off and then cut the new one so I could put it around the in place torsion bar and seat it in its seat. This all went well and now my camber which was 4degrees negative is within 1degree of positive.
I've posted a few pics.
NICE!!
I will have to do the same on Bridget. Less room to maneuver than you, so I'll have to take the tub off. But nice to know (finally) that THAT is the thing. Bushings! I always forget about those!
