TheSamba.com :: View topic - Spring Plate Question

Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:23 am

Hi everyone. I've been lurking a long time and decided to join and start posting. If anyone knows the answer to this or has a picture I would Really appreciate it.

I'm going baja with a 69 bug. Since I needed to crank up the rear torsions anyway I decided to replace the long IRS torsions with the short swingaxle ones. My question is when attaching the spring plate to the trailing arm does the spring plate sit on the inside of the trailing arm mount? I had the thin double IRS spring plates and am putting on the Sway A Way Spring plates specifically for the IRS to Swing Axle torsion switch if that makes a diiference.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:31 am

I would stick with the IRS suspention for the baja. Most people will convert their Swing axle to IRS when making a Baja because its better.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:35 am

ok just to be clear, you only need to do this if your planning on running tires bigger than 31" with stock trailing arms. if your planning on doing this ok, if you not planning on doing this then your just wasting your money.

first off the dual plates are the good ones, i would much rather have (i actually do) stock VW dual spring plates than after market ones. and if its torsion bars your looking for you can get aftermarket ones in the long version to.

but they go on the inside of the arm

Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:35 am

It still is an IRS, I'm just switching out the long torsion bars that stick through the covers for the shorter torsions that were normally on Swing Axles. The tranny is still IRS.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:45 am

That's great runslikeapenguin Thanks! I have 31x10.5 BFGs and they looked like they would clear the long bars, but I just wanted to switch to the shorter ones. i like the looks and I had Sway A Way torsions and Spring Plates already from a previous rail project (thats where the tires came from too). Since we already have a sand rail and now have 2 kids my wife has let me know that this needs to be a super low budget build. Namely, using all the vw parts that I have from old dune buggy projects. So if it's in my garage I'm finding a way to make it work. Thanks for the help. I've been so happy since I found this site with how nice everyone is with their "constructive criticism" regarding other people's projects. I just haven't seen that on other offroad sites. I hope to finish getting the rear back together tonight and this week post my pics and start my build thread.

Thanks again because I bet my wife that people on this site are so many and so helpful that I would have an answer within 15 minutes! Thanks

Sun Oct 26, 2008 12:00 pm

SoCal619 wrote: That's great runslikeapenguin Thanks! I have 31x10.5 BFGs and they looked like they would clear the long bars, but I just wanted to switch to the shorter ones. i like the looks and I had Sway A Way torsions and Spring Plates already from a previous rail project (thats where the tires came from too). Since we already have a sand rail and now have 2 kids my wife has let me know that this needs to be a super low budget build. Namely, using all the vw parts that I have from old dune buggy projects. So if it's in my garage I'm finding a way to make it work. Thanks for the help. I've been so happy since I found this site with how nice everyone is with their "constructive criticism" regarding other people's projects. I just haven't seen that on other offroad sites. I hope to finish getting the rear back together tonight and this week post my pics and start my build thread.

Thanks again because I bet my wife that people on this site are so many and so helpful that I would have an answer within 15 minutes! Thanks

ohh dont worry we get into fights here to :lol:

but if your doing it just for look i wouldent. your tires will clear and the longer torsion bars will provide a better ride and the dual plates you have are what most people upgrade to.

IMHO leave it alone, just crank it up and run it.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 12:03 pm

OK my bad............. :oops:

and yes on the inside..... Just like Penguin said