rear suspension drop -tony z

[hitlers revenge]

Hi Tony

I see you dropped your rear suspension on "suisyde". You say you turned the spline one way and the spring plate the other way. Please give more of an explanation to this job. You say you moved each one knotch, by how much does this lower the suspension and what would happen if you went 2 knotches bothways. Do you or any other member have any knoen links to advice on dropping your rear suspension?

Cheers
Dave (HR)

[calooker]

1 outer notch will drop the rear about 35-40mm, I would not go more than that as the camber goes way out, and will eat up your tires in no time, you will also be riding on your bump stops which is a very lousy ride with a 2 notch drop. It's a very time consuming job and you could cause serious damage to yourself if you are not carefull when removing the spring plate. Side shafts will need to be removed at the spring plates, hand brake cables need to be detached at the handbrake inside the car, spring plate cover 4 bolts need to be removed. Mark the existing position of the spring plate on the torsion bar. When removing the spring plate from the torsion bar care needs to be taken I use a chain attached to a trolley jack to be safe. Make sure the torsion bar does not come out with the spring plate, as it has splines on the inside too, which are not the same as the outter splines, if you F that up you will battle to get the camber right after that as you have no reference as to where it was to start with. The spring plate once removed gets fitted back with one notch turned, it will now sit higher, it will be hard to replace the spring plate cover, with the original bolts, I use longer bolts to get things going and then remove the longer bolts once the cover is on with the original ones.

[Tony Z]

Rui's advise is spot on

Do a bit of research into the internet. I once found in a magazine article a table setting out exactly how to get exactly what height you want. The rear is almost infintely adjustable (within limits).
I cant remeber the exact figures, but the inner and outer splines are different. I seem to think the inner had 30 splines and the outer has 34, but I am sure I am wrong with that number, but the idea is there. count the splines, measure the length of the trailing arm and with some high school maths (ask the kids) you can figure out (pretty close) your drop before you do it.

[hitlers revenge]

Hi Rui
Heres the senario. I decide to go for the 1 notch drop. I mark the original position of the spring plate in relation to the torsion bar. To get the suspension lowered does the spring plate have to move 1 notch clockwise or anti-clockwise. You mention the plate goes back higher, therefore I would imagine the plate would of moved clockwise.

Regarding the removal of the spring plate, where you mention you use a piece of chain on a trolley jack. My under standing is that you use 2 jacks. the first jack is used to jack up the car and then use the second jack to hold up the spring plate while you remove the complete rear hub and axle. Once this is done one can lower the second jack so as to lower the spring plate before removing the plate off the torsion bar for adjustment.

In your post you mention "side shafts". Are your "side shafts" and my "rear axles" one and the same thing.
Cheers
Dave (HR)

[calooker]

On the right side of the car it will go up clockwise on the left side it will go up anti-clockwise. You only need 1 trolley jack and a couple of tressels, jack the car up onto the tressels and place the jack under the spring plate place the chain thru the front axle of the jack and over and around the shock tower, the shock will also need to be removed from the swing axle, bolt the chain together with a nut and bolt or secure it to the shock mounting point with it's original bolt if your chains links are big enough, leave the jack slack and strip the rest off, once you got everything stipped you can srart to jack up the spring plate, the car should not be lifting only the spring plate, once the plate is off it's stop, you will slowly need to slide it off the torsion bar a little at a time but make sure only the spring plate is moving off the torsion bar, use a bearing puller or 2 large flat screw drivers to move the sping plate outwards. Keep a close eye on the torsion bar it must not come out. the use of Q20 or the likes on the splines prior to removal will help. Now that you see the spring plate has cleared it's stop you can slowly release the jack so that the spring plate hangs loose, now remove the spring plate off the torsion bar, and move it up one spline, fitting is the opposite.
The spring plate is under big load and iff it happens to release this load unexpectedly it could cause an amputation, so be carefull. Be prepared for some swearing as it's a long and frustating process.
I have done this twice, last did this some 5-6 years ago and don't intend on doing it again any time soon, it' a kak job.
side shafts = rear axles
Try and support your rear axles somehow don't just let them hang loose, they will probably damage your axle boots if left to hang loose. I had a couple of other tressels hold them up. The first time round I loosened a fender bolt on either side so that I could get some wire around them to hold the axles up.

[hitlers revenge]

Thanks Rui

I know about the danger as I have seen a spring plate hit the ground and send a beetle bouncing in the air. This was 20 years ago though. Maybe I will also do the job just once, but I would like to do it so as to learn how the suspension works.