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Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting
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oscarsnapkin
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PostPosted: Fri May 28, 2021 11:03 pm    Post subject: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

The subject line pretty much says it all. I have my chassis nearly stripped down. I wasn’t planning on taking the suspension apart but I keep thinking that I’ve already gone this far, I might as well in order to do a proper rustproofing/paint job. I read up in the Bentley Beetle book and it ‘seems’ fairly easy. Will I be hating life when I go to reassemble? I’ve never worked on VW suspensions but have plenty of experience with large truck springs and such, not there’s any similarity but just to say I’m not a complete mechanical novice. What parts should be replaced while in there (bushings etc...). I knew I’d get sucked into the rabbit hole once I decided to remove the body, but for the most part it has been enjoyable, these suspensions just scare me a bit. I’d say a summer drive is out of the cards for this year, but eventually.....Thanks as always.
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- 1973 Thing

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TDCTDI
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PostPosted: Sat May 29, 2021 6:07 am    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

It’s only the parking brake cable, three spring plate bolts & the 17mm Allen bolt holding each one on at this point, and only four more bolts per side to remove the spring plates, it could all be yanked in an hour.


The pivot bolt has a 17mm Allen head, the same as the transmission drain plug but it takes a lot of force/leverage to loosen/tighten them. I use a Snap-On drain plug socket, 1/2”to3/8” adapter & a large Snap-On ratchet to break them loose & it still takes additional leverage to avoid the fallout of the violent moment when it finally lets loose.
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HOWEVER, I would suggest that you complete your current task of installing the pans & stripping/cleaning everything else before you blow the rest of it apart & lose track of how it came apart or where you stored those parts six months to ten + years into the future.
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oscarsnapkin
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 01, 2021 3:30 am    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

TDCTDI wrote:

HOWEVER, I would suggest that you complete your current task of installing the pans & stripping/cleaning everything else before you blow the rest of it apart & lose track of how it came apart or where you stored those parts six months to ten + years into the future.


Funny you say that. It took me close to ten years to get my Bus on the road. A lot of that had to do with a title issue that I was unsure how to correct, so I didn’t want to put any money or work into a car I may not own. When I first bought it I was less than sober, so I started a bunch of small repair jobs on it that I never finished and never remembered starting. Years later when I got everything straightened out (with the title and with myself) and I started to seriously work on it I had a whole Bus full of parts that I didn’t know what to do with. Without thesamba and ratwell.com I’d still be lost. I learned my lesson though, everything gets clearly labeled, bagged, tagged etc... I take lots of pictures and even draw cut little diagrams so I know how things go back together.
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_________________
- 1977 CEI Sunroof Bus 2.0L F.I. Hydraulic Lifters
- 1973 Thing

"It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind."
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TDCTDI
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 01, 2021 3:52 am    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

Yeah, but you gotta find them after you moved “this” to get to “that”, then someone else moved “that” to get “those”... Laughing
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.
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oscarsnapkin
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:34 am    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

TDCTDI wrote:
The pivot bolt has a 17mm Allen head, the same as the transmission drain plug but it takes a lot of force/leverage to loosen/tighten them. I use a Snap-On drain plug socket, 1/2”to3/8” adapter & a large Snap-On ratchet to break them loose & it still takes additional leverage to avoid the fallout of the violent moment when it finally lets loose.


You’re not kidding about being tight. The right side was a bit of a mofo to get off, but I got it. The left side so far has claimed a Snap-On 1/2-3/8 adapter, a Craftsman 1/2-3/8 adapter, and now my 17mm drain plug socket.

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_________________
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- 1973 Thing

"It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind."
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TDCTDI
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:40 am    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

Get the snap on 1/2”-3/8” adapter also, it’s the only one that will withstand the force needed to remove those bolts, & don’t even think that a 3/8” drive ratchet will do it, I broke one of my snap-on ratchets trying to do it.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.
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Wildthings
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:16 pm    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

A quality 17mm allen wrench and a piece of pipe would like do it or a 1/2" drive 17mm hex bit socket using this design:

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_7741999?cid=pai...D_BwE&

I have a massively heavy one that I just can't imaging ever breaking.
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Q-Dog
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:19 am    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

I found this 1/2" drive 17mm hanging on the wall at my FLAPS and it had no problems getting off those bolts. Total impulse buy. It might have come in a set of 3 or 4, don't remember, but wasn't expensive.
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mondshine
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:05 am    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

I haven't seen any mention of the spot where the raised portion of the pivot point on the diagonal arm is peined into a slot on the so-called fitted bolt.

Relieving that peined spot will greatly reduce the force required to remove the fitted bolt. I used a 90º drill, with a bit that laid nicely in the groove in the fitted bolt (small arrow). It just tool a few seconds.

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Good luck, Mondshine
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Q-Dog
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 9:20 am    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

The peened area wasn't an issue. 1/2" breaker bar with the tool I posted and it came out without issue.
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TDCTDI
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 7:16 am    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

Wildthings wrote:
A quality 17mm allen wrench and a piece of pipe would like do it or a 1/2" drive 17mm hex bit socket using this design:

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_7741999?cid=pai...D_BwE&

I have a massively heavy one that I just can't imaging ever breaking.



Yes, but it’s so much nicer using a ratchet instead of being limited by the every 60° nature of just the Allen wrench. In addition, you can only back the 1/2” socket & ratchet out but so far before it interferes with the torsion housing, this way I can remove the ratchet & adapter & back the bolt out the rest of the way with a 3/8” drive ratchet. And, well, I already had them.


Do what works for y’all.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.
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oscarsnapkin
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:56 am    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

Success using a regular 1/2 inch drive hex driver. Only problem was that the socket is so long that it hits the arm, as was mentioned above. I was able to crack it loose with a breaker bar, and then use my broken drain plug socket to finish unscrewing the bolt. The chassis is mounted on engine stands so I had to put a truck frame stand on top of the engine stand to keep it from falling over from the torque.
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A little bit of water came pouring out of the tube, which I wasn’t too thrilled to see. Bit of a rusty mess, but seems limited to the surface. I guess my next post will be “How to Clean and Paint Rear Spring Tubes.”
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_________________
- 1977 CEI Sunroof Bus 2.0L F.I. Hydraulic Lifters
- 1973 Thing

"It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind."
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TDCTDI
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 11:36 am    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

With the length of that socket, you can put a 17mm wrench on it instead.


I used the “flush & mop” (or maybe flood & mop) technique to coat the inside of the torsion housing.

TDCTDI wrote:
metz wrote:
Glad to see you found a replacement. Will follow with great interest as usual Smile



Thank you sir!


Today I decided to tackle the rear passenger side to raise the rear up to match the front.
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As per usual, nothing goes right when you tear into a new project, after fighting to get the spring plate for 45 minutes to give up the torsion bar, I discovered lots of nastiness in the torsion housing...
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After scraping the inside of the torsion housing with a pry bar to knock off the scaly rust, I slid a piece of PVC pipe into the housing & then attached the shop vac to the other end to clean all of the crap out.
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I then zip tied a shop rag to the PVC pipe to effectively make a great big Q-tip & then poured some Ospho into the other end of the pipe to flood the housing & saturate the shop rag to treat the entire inner diameter of the housing.
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I then lowered the jack to tilt the vehicle & let the excess run out.
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After letting it dry for a while, I began to install the torsion bars, this is where I discovered that the differences in the Thing components was going to make this endeavor a bit more of an effort. To begin with, the Thing torsion bars were shorter than the 29mm Sway-A-Way bars that were in the Ghiapet.
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No problem, I wanted to install double plates on this beast anyway. Unfortunately, the modified spring plates that were on the Ghiapet were notched far too aggressively for the Thing.
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So I then needed to liberate a set of spring plates from a parts car. After that, I found that the third bolt location on the Thing was in a different location from the Beetles & Ghias. Evil or Very Mad So I had to use the spring plate from the opposite side of the parts car (Read, go back & remove the other side too.), and map out & drill the appropriate, slotted hole.
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Once slotted, I slid the spring plate in place, & after finding where the CVs started to bind, I scribed a line on the back of the spring plate where the suspension stop would limit the travel & carefully clearanced the spring plate.
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This is where the aggravation continued, while I was JUST able to remove the old torsion bar...
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The new, thicker, longer torsion bar required that I unbolt the leading edge of the fender to get it & the spring plate in.
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This is where I found that the captive nut on the lowermost fender bolt was spinning freely & had to cut the head off the bolt. Oh well, more rust repair is in my future. Confused


I finally managed to get it all back together (that side anyway).
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That concludes today’s self imposed masochism.

_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.
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oscarsnapkin
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 1:43 pm    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

TDCTDI wrote:
With the length of that socket, you can put a 17mm wrench on it instead.


I used the “flush & mop” (or maybe flood & mop) technique to coat the inside of the torsion housing.


Read your thread, did you do anything to the insides of the tubes after the Ospho? I was thinking of painting the insides with POR-15, but I’m not sure it’s worth the risk of getting paint inside the gear in the middle of the tube. Mine actually looked pretty good once I cleaned them. I used a long attachment on a blowgun to clean them out, with a vacuum at the other end to avoid making a dusty mess inside the shop, along with a similar ‘Q-tip’ like you did.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

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Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

_________________
- 1977 CEI Sunroof Bus 2.0L F.I. Hydraulic Lifters
- 1973 Thing

"It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind."
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TDCTDI
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:21 pm    Post subject: Re: Disassembling Rear Axle Spring Plates Diagonal Arms For Painting Reply with quote

Ospho will convert the rust but doesn’t keep the metal from rusting if it gets wet again, so you do need to top coat it.

Unfortunately, I did not have the time to top coat it, so I reassembled it as it was. I’d rather drive it than wait for paint to dry. I already have 6,000 miles on it since the middle of April.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.
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