Adjusting rear suspension - Average Joe edition

[J1]

I've lowered the front and my rear is cockeyed like this with the right side slightly prouder than the left (don't mind the muffler, it's been taken care of)...

After reading/watching a dozen+ sources about spring plates, torsion bars, and splines, I found myself having to triangulate information and still ending up with loose ends. So I'm going to do another average Joe thread, trying to more clearly document this process. It does seem pretty easy after you've gone through it once, but hopefully noobs like me will find it helpful.

I've already done a little work and will go back to document from the beginning, but I need to overcome this hurdle to really get going...
How can I clear the spring plate from the wheel assembly with a minimal amount of disassembly?

I've seen videos where the spring plate is on the outer side of the wheel assembly, but mine is on the inner side making it more challenging. There doesn't seem to be enough room to raise the wheel assembly over the spring plate, yet lowering the wheel assembly under the spring plate seems to require disassembly of the brake line, emergency brake cable and even the CV joint. Thanks!

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1971 Ghia coupe. Assume I know nothing and you'll be pretty darn close to the truth.

[TDCTDI]

Twist the bump stop off of the trailing arm & lift the trailing arm up all the way & the spring plate will just clear the trailing arm.

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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.

[J1]

[c21darrel]

I have a long threaded springplate tool (like in chris pic) if you want to borrow it.
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[TDCTDI]

I'm guessing that the "Articulating hose" that you speak of is the parking brake cable.

The spring plates are just that, spring steel. I use a prybar between the spring plate & the torsion housing & pry them a bit to get them past the lower stop. *** THIS IS DANGEROUS*** Make sure that none of your body parts are in the way of the downward arc of the spring plate, it WILL rotate 4"-6" down violently. I release them without the tool because I've had a tool slip & was far more dangerous than just the spring plate jumping off the landing.


Upon reinstalling, just use the prybar to guide the spring plate behind the trailing arm as you tension the tool.
_________________
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.

[didget69]

'Articulating tube' may be a reference to the heater box duct tube?

bnc
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I never found the need to impress people with any mechanic certifications, trophies or track wins... unless it was for Mom to post on the refrigerator door.

[J1]

OK, here we go. Got past the above hurdle, so I'll start documenting step-by-step from the very beginning now. I know I'm repeating a lot of stuff that is already out there, but I'm also going to address noob questions that came up for me and hopefully clarify some fuzziness. Please feel free to correct and clarify where I mis-speak.


Step 1: Remove wheel
Yes, starting from the very beginning! I say this only to point out that's the only unrelated part I'm removing despite some sources suggesting otherwise. I am NOT taking off the brake line, emergency brake cable, or CV joint.

Step 2: Remove shock
Some sources say you only need to take the top bolt off, but I'm replacing the shocks, so I just took it all off.

Step 3: Remove the torsion bar cover plate
I left a couple bolts loosely threaded since I recall one source saying it'll prevent the spring plate from jumping out.

Outer bushing in there.

Step 4: Remove the 3 spring plate bolts
Pulling the top bolt out from the back requires finesse not brawn since it's a tight fit. I turned the bolt little by little until it landed on the perfect configuration to pull out. The wheel assembly is now loose, so be ready to support it, though mine stayed in place by the rusty spring plate friction alone.

Step 5: Remove rubber bump stop and plastic heater box duct.
First part necessary. Second part maybe not. This is to give you more clearance when you do the next step.

Step 6: Raise the wheel assembly
Some sources say lower it, but that stretches out the brake line.

So it seems safer to raise it. This is as far as it goes because it binds on the top two circles. The lower circle shows that the spring plate doesn't quite clear, but I learned that's ok.

Step 6: Pry out spring plate
This is where you read the warnings that the loaded spring plate can dismember you. I used a pry bar under it, behind it, and it eventually popped out. Some people just seem to let it pop out, others use a jack to lower it more elegantly. Do what you need to protect yourself, but honestly it wasn't all that dramatic.

Step 7: Mark the spring plate position
This is where my first point of confusion was (is). I wasn't clear when you are supposed to mark, but this made the most sense to me. It's when the spring plate and torsion bar are in resting position and the point is to remember where they used to be before adjusting. If I'm wrong, please correct.

Now that the spring plate is loose, this is where the fun spline adjustments come in. But I'm going to take a break, because I'm planning to clean up the area and apply some Masterseries before doing the adjustments. More to come.
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1971 Ghia coupe. Assume I know nothing and you'll be pretty darn close to the truth.

[jeffrey8164]

You mark it when it’s loose and at rest primarily so you know where you started.
I recently re-indexed my rear suspension for a 1” drop. I replaced all the bushings while it was apart and even went as far as swapping sides with the torsion bars.
Here are a few tips.
With the car sitting level, the at rest angle of the spring plate, unloaded, not on the stops is 21 degrees for stock ride height.
A 3 degree adjustment is equal to an inch of height.
Don’t get confused about the notches. Just get a magnetic angle finder from the Deep Homot. I they’re about 12 bucks. Adjust the torsion bar et al until you get the angle you want.
You need to do both sides at the same time or you’ll still end up cockeyed.
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Turning owners into mechanics since 1938.

“Let he that is without oil throw the first rod”
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[J1]

After 3 weeks of sneaking in a few minutes here and there into the garage, cleaning off at least a decade or so of grime off the rear suspension area, scraping and sanding off rust, and slapping on Masterseries into all the nooks and crannies down there, I think I’m finally ready for reassembly.

But how tight should the rubber bushing be?

It's a little hard to tell in this photo but the old bushing is sitting on top of the new bushing. The inner diameter of the new one is a bit smaller and would take some concerted effort and stretching to get it on the spring plate, even with talcum powder. The old one is softer and bigger, but still snug so I’m wondering if I should just keep the old one on.

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1971 Ghia coupe. Assume I know nothing and you'll be pretty darn close to the truth.

[J1]

And where the heck am I supposed to walk in and get talcum powder?! And now I’m doing all this research on glycerin and graphite, etc. I hate being a noob. You have to learn 20 things to accomplish one task. And my memory sucks so i’m gonna have to learn it all over again next time too
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1971 Ghia coupe. Assume I know nothing and you'll be pretty darn close to the truth.

[c21darrel]

[jeffrey8164]

I just used mineral oil.
_________________
Volkswagen!
Turning owners into mechanics since 1938.

“Let he that is without oil throw the first rod”
(Compression 8.7:1)

[J1]

Thanks, c21darrel. Got it. Johnson and Johnson baby powder. I think I got distracted by people saying to be careful about similar products that aren’t truly talcum powder.

So now, anyone have input about how hard it should be to get the rubber bushing onto the spring plate? The bushing feels too hard to stretch or compress enough. But if you say that’s par for the course, I’ll work on rigging up a homemade press with some C clamps.
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1971 Ghia coupe. Assume I know nothing and you'll be pretty darn close to the truth.

[TDCTDI]

[J1]

[jeffrey8164]

Have no fear. It will go on.
They’re not supposed to be that pliable. They’re supposed to hold things in place firmly. Rubber is used to absorb shock without being noisy.
_________________
Volkswagen!
Turning owners into mechanics since 1938.

“Let he that is without oil throw the first rod”
(Compression 8.7:1)

[22manybugs]

[sputnick60]

I don’t know why you risking inconsistency with baby power which might be an unspecified mix of corn starch and talcum. Instead, chase down a supplier of French Chalk. ( Freedom Chalk for the George W fans ). It’s basically the same as Talcum powder but finer and certain to be free of corn starch.
Nicholas
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[J1]

Step 8: Install bushings on spring plate
Johnson & Johnson talcum powder from the local Walgreens was indeed the ticket. The smell brought back both fond and bad memories of diaper changing days! Ingredients say “Talc, fragrance”.

Next question: Should my single spring plate be installed on the inner or outer side of the trailing arm? If inner, is there a trick to it? Without disassembling anything on the trailing arm.

Inner seems right and that’s how it was before but I see stuff like this with the spring plate on the outer side

_________________
1971 Ghia coupe. Assume I know nothing and you'll be pretty darn close to the truth.

[J1]

My questions are either so obvious that you are thinking I'll eventually figure it out... or so stupid you don't want to waste your time. Either way, I could still use some hand-holding!

Here's where I'm at... I'm trying to re-install my single spring plate (which I understand are in 70's IRS models, while the double spring plates are earlier and may not encounter this issue). And I've concluded it needs to bolt on to the inner side of the trailing arm.

So my core question is... How do I install my single spring plate WITHOUT having to remove parts of the trailing arm? Right now, only the shock and bump stop have been removed.

I know that removing the trailing arm pivot bolt and/or the CV/e-brake are options, but I'm hoping there is an easier way. And I know about chaining the jack and shock mount together, but it's unclear to me whether that is the solution for this situation.

Thanks for any input.
_________________
1971 Ghia coupe. Assume I know nothing and you'll be pretty darn close to the truth.