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Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:28 pm

Hey guys i tackled the rear suspension on my 59 to lower it a bit and have a few questions.

ive literally read every thread and link regarding the process and ive also printed out the instructions on how to lower the rear.

I got one side lowered(its way too low and i have to raise it)

However my question is. I did not see the "spline" and idont understand how you ajust it 1 spline. I can see how you can adjust it as thats what i did but i did not understand how i have to adjust 1 spline or 2...

Anyone have any pictures?

Thanks.

Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:38 pm

A "Spline" is the name for the grooves, or teeth, that are on the ends of the torsion bars.

Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:39 pm

okay now when you are adjusting the rear are those visible? How do you know when uve gone up 1 spline?

I can clearly adjust the rear to make it sit lower however i do not know how many splines ive gone up. I tried looking for the grooves but didnt see anything

Tue Feb 08, 2005 10:44 pm

I don,t have any pics but ive done this job.The splines they talk about there are two areas with splines there is outer and iner splines.When you take the that cover off with the 4 bolts look at the center thats were your torsion bar conects to your spring plate it probly has grease on it.If you get some brake cleaner and wipe it off real good.You should see the outer splines there like little teeth they lock together kind of like back end of a box end wrench on a bolt.You won,t be able to se the iner splines there inside the tosion tube .I actualy raised mine up years ago i some freinds lowerd it for me when i lived in Phoenix was taping my deep sump on speed bumps so i finnaly decided to dive in and raise it some.I jacked my car up level and used a protractor on the spring plates to keep both sides the same and a spring plate compresion tool. You may have turned your iner splines if you didn,t see the outside splines i would get a protractor to keep track of the degreise .On mine i marked the outer spline with a marker to see how many spline i moved that way both sides should be the same.I would do the other side then raise the low side to mach it .How did you lower that side ?

Tue Feb 08, 2005 10:48 pm

okay this helped a bunch. Now when you said that it might be dirty and i should try to clean it off, could there be some weird possiblity that the spline is not visible? Are they are visible? I could of sworn i looked there and it was just solid metal and no splines were visible.

Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:17 pm

Yeah, the outer splines sould be visable they are fine teeth.When i did mine i didn,t mess with the iner splins.If you pull the spring plate out with the tortion bar still conected it will pull your torsion bar out of its iner splines its harder to keep track of the iner splines sines you can,t se them.Try to pull the sping plate off with out pulling the torsion bar out.Ride hight can be changed by turning iner and outer.When you reajust the low side use the outer splines .

Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:25 pm

okay this is starting to make sense, I just dont see how i missed it.

M an i hope this is the case, I mean i got it adjusted but it was like guess and check since i could not see any splines.

Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:39 pm

A '59 betle has a cover on the torsion arm,so you wont be able to see the torsion bars unless you completely remove the arm.

Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:41 pm

Alan Willis wrote: A '59 betle has a cover on the torsion arm,so you wont be able to see the torsion bars unless you completely remove the arm.

okay a new twist in the story, lol. SO i actually have to remove the whole arm?

Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:58 pm

Hmm I didn,t know that learn something every day :) That will make it harder id defenitly get a protractor now.