rear spring force not equal

I am setting the rear ride height by indexing the rear torsion bars and now have it set at 35mm of tyre showing above the rim with the engine not installed. Should be close and if necessary I will adjust when the engine is installed.

The problem is that the L side requires force to almost lift the body off the jack stands when installing the spring plate, while the R side is barely loaded at all.

Torsion bars are installed in the correct L and R positions, with the L&R facing out
Spring plates are the adjustable type and the same length
Torsion bars feel to be indexed with the internal splines.

This situation does not seem right, and one would think that the spring plate angle/force should be the same side to side?
What could I have done incorrectly?

do you have the shocks removed?

Assume torsion bars are same diameter and spring adjusters are set the same. Can you measure to upper shock mount vs the amt of tire showing on body? You did say your wheel arches were not correct - perhaps higher on one side which impacts spring adjustment. VW pan - it could be twisted or sub frame twisted?

Beyond all that, I've found that it's fruitless to try to set overall height without the engine in the car. All you'll end up doing is re-setting it once you get the engine in.

Don't worry about it for now.

I agree with Gordon, wait until the engine is installed. Once the engine is installed then go to work setting the ride height.

I assume you're aware that their are 2 sets of splines on the torsion bars, the inner set has 40 splines and the outer has 44.

You may want to read this: http://vw.zenseeker.net/Wheels-TorsionBars.htm

Well, depending on what side is "right," obviously a fat man or his hefty housemate has either extensively driven in the VW that the torsion housing came out of or an equally fat man or his portly passenger has been driving in the car as it is for some time. Either way, one side of torsion bars have completely worn out from the shear weight of the occupant . . . !

I have another set of bars and will have to see if they are the same length, and if so will swap them out to check the portly driver theory.

Will then wait until the engine is installed as recommended

Thanks for the help

seems I have to cut a hole in the body to remove the torsion bar.
Nothing on this project is easy

Get a hole saw and cut torsion bar access hole on either side just like the originals! VS replics the access holes on their creations. You could fiberglass cover back (but I'd leave the circle indent) or make it truely functional and keep it removeable.

Is there reason bars couldn't be flipped side to side (I wasn't aware they were even marked L & R)?

Since there is a wide range of ride heights that can be set with those bars (and it's pretty easy to set them wrong) I would be inclined to think that one side is just set wrong and needs to be set up correctly. Those bars are something like 3/4" in diameter so I really doubt that you've broken one, especially on the street.

Yes, you can't remove a rear torsion bar on a CMC without putting a hole in the body and then a curved hole plug (like the originals and IM cars) so why go to all that bother? Just set the height correctly on both sides and drive it.

BTW: The bars on my current build were both swabbed with orange paint. Don't know what that means......

Orange painted rear torsion bars means Cory has a long lost brother!

I removed both sides when doing the pan just to make sure that I could re-index them when the time arrived, and took that opportunity to never-seize both ends.

The bar(s) are not broken and I am beginning to question that a portly driver could have worn out the bar. In order to do this, would not the bar not have to yielded? Not too many portly people here in Thailand anyway.

I will cut the acess hole and leave it as a removable bit, like the good Dr. intended.

I have read Gordon's article on this site and now the article linked above. If there is an incorrect way to install something it seems that I always try this method first, however I do not see how this could be done wrong. Is the only factor that one splined end be indxed relative to the other end so that the desired height is acheived?

In my case not only is the spring force not equal, but the angle of the spring plate is not the same from side to side. I can see how one side would be stronger than the other to counteract the torque of the engine, (hence the R and L markings) but mine seems far too much side to side difference.

"Is the only factor that one splined end be indexed relative to the other end so that the desired height is acheived?"


Yup, that's it. Combining spline differences on both ends allows you to index up or down by about 3/16" at a time. Given that, I usually just decide which side is closer to what I want and then adjust the other side to match by using the chart in the article. If I'm lucky I get it first shot. If not it might take another adjustment to dial it in.

Then there is no way that these can be installed incorrectly, other than the R and L issue.

The only thing that I can think of then is:
one bar has yielded
pan is twisted