924Board.org

[MikeJinCO]

I'm replacing the 22mm torsion bars and spring plates in my '77 with 23.5 bars and adjustable spring plates that I got from Grenadiers. Please remember that this is the Super Beetle TB carrier and the later ones are quite different with that cast aluminum cover/mounting plate When I pulled the shock off the spring plate stopped on the bolt boss in the photos below and when popped out a little actually covered part of the bolt holefor the torsion bar to be fully relaxed. When I put the 23.5mm bar in and by my calcs it needs to be rotated up so that only about 1/4" of the bolt boss is covered. I used Marc Belangers index method from Clarks Garage.

The problem is that the only way to fit the trailing arm is to get the bar fully seated and it runs into the bolt boss. I have tried to reinstall the carrier(actually easy at this point))then jack the spring plate up until it clears the boss and tighten the cover plate to force the TB home. That really doesn't want to work. My only other method is to simply grind off part of the bolt boss so that I can get the torsion bar seated then reinstall the trailing arm and stick the whole assembly back up there. I'm looking for suggestions. Is there this problem on the later TB carriers? How do you get around it.

I'm using Super Beetle torsion bar bushings -see the knobby interior one. The outer one appears to be about the same as the 944 interior one, the 944(aluminum cover plate) bushing is much larger than SB one with a steel cover plate.[url][/url][img][/img][url][img][/img][/url]

I Hope these pictures get on here
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Mike


'67 MG Midget Dp
'71 Ocelot Dsr Kawasaki 1000(under rebuild)

[MikeJinCO]

My pictures didn't get there, I'll try again tomorrow morning.
_________________
Mike


'67 MG Midget Dp
'71 Ocelot Dsr Kawasaki 1000(under rebuild)

[fiat22turbo]

I had to jack mine up a little and then slowly draw it up with the cover plate using the bolts in a cries-cross pattern after tapping it in with a 3lb mallet.
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Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

[MikeJinCO]

Still trying to get photos in



Another view

I think I got them this time.

Fiat22turbo- did you manage to get them the spring plates into location with the carrier not in in the car, or did you have to put it in then jack it up? I sat on the carrier to hold it down then had my wife try to jack up the spring plate, but she just picked my right up.
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Mike


'67 MG Midget Dp
'71 Ocelot Dsr Kawasaki 1000(under rebuild)

[fiat22turbo]

Out of the car.

I had it out of the car with the carrier in a bench vise. Used a floor jack to lift it up with my 200lbs stepping on the edge of the bench to hold it in place. I've got 28mm torsion bars so I'm glad it didn't need much
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Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

[MikeJinCO]

Got it back together. I put the TB carrier back in, then jacked up the spring plate to clear the boss. I replaced the cover plate bolts with socket head cap screws and just cranked the spring plate into place.

When I started there was metal to metal contact between the spring plate cover and the torsion bar/springplate housing. I expected it to be about centered on reassembly. Wrong, it isn't metal to metal, but is considerably off center, and that is using new polyurethane bushings rather than the 30 year old rubber bushings. The later 944 style bushings are probably better, but it speaks a lot for using some type of delrin bushings for high performance applications. This mislocation is making the suspension geometry off from the get go.
_________________
Mike


'67 MG Midget Dp
'71 Ocelot Dsr Kawasaki 1000(under rebuild)