Urgent! What are we doing wrong? Rear torsion bar Q...

[beepbeep]

This is our earlier thread about removing rear torsion bar:
How to remove rear SC torsion bar?

The bastard won't coume out! Mattias did fair amount of banging and i'm soon driving to him for some heavy hammering. Is there anything we forgot before i take the sledge-hammer?

This is parts-pic:


As you can see, 35 and 36,37 are removed...so is 30/1 and 30...so it's just a question on banging on spring-plate before it pulls out torsion bar from it's inner hold, right?

As you can see, it's getting pretty ugly by now:


Did we forgot something?

Thanx!

[KTL]

You didn't forget anything. It's just not letting go.

What exactly are you banging upon?

I'd get your biggest flathead screwdriver or crowbar and pry the spring plate away from the body as best you can? Just use a piece of wood or flat metal to protect the area of the body where you're prying.

[BGCarrera32]

Does the other side come off? If so, bang on the end of that torsion bar (back it up with wood) and use to drive through the center and force out the other bar from the center outward. There is nothing in the middle splines that stops the bar from falling right through to the other side when you reinstall...I found this kind of stupid but it could play to your advantage here...

-BG

[Hald]

I just went through this on my '77 Carrera 3.0.

Thanks to Dean ["Blown"] Moore, I hooked a slide-hammer behind the spring plate, with the shaft out through the t-bar hole in the body, & wailed away at it. No prying against the inner body required.

You can try using a gear puller to separate the spring plate from the outer t-bar splines. First, you have to pop out the end cap, then use an 8" gear puller with the center-bolt against the end of the t-bar & the 2 jaws hooked behind the spring plate. If that works, you're most of the way home. You then just need to pull the t-bar out of the body. If it doesn't work, as in my case, then the slide-hammer should get the bushings out of the body & you can pull it out far enough to cut the t-bar with a cutoff wheel.

[Joe Bob]

PB Blaster/Liquid Wrench over night....then bang on the spring plates. Like the other poster suggested try the otherside and push the other t-bar through.

You might also try MAPP gas and heat it up.

[targa80]

That is looking like it is really frozen in place. To remove one of the spring plates from my car that was stuck I used a 10 ton hydraulic body press kit with a scissor attachment. It is like a miniture jaws of life that firemen would use in a car wreck. The scissor was placed between the body and the spring plate. The scissor expands open under hydraulic pressure and popped it free. This is a picture of the hydraulic kit from harbor freight.

No damage was done to the body or the spring plate.

[beepbeep]

Originally posted by Hald
I just went through this on my '77 Carrera 3.0.

Thanks to Dean ["Blown"] Moore, I hooked a slide-hammer behind the spring plate, with the shaft out through the t-bar hole in the body, & wailed away at it. No prying against the inner body required.

You can try using a gear puller to separate the spring plate from the outer t-bar splines. First, you have to pop out the end cap, then use an 8" gear puller with the center-bolt against the end of the t-bar & the 2 jaws hooked behind the spring plate. If that works, you're most of the way home. You then just need to pull the t-bar out of the body. If it doesn't work, as in my case, then the slide-hammer should get the bushings out of the body & you can pull it out far enough to cut the t-bar with a cutoff wheel.

We ended up with dremelling away pressings from the cap, drilling hole in the cap , pulling cap away and using Mattias home-made gear puller to try to extract plate from the torsion bar.

No luck, puller legs were made from too soft metal and started bending. Mattias bought new harder puller today so we'll se what happends tomorrow. We did lot's of soaking and banging too...

[CamB]

This'll be the dumbest question I ask today, but I'll ask anyway.

Is the torsion bar under any, er, torsion like that? If so, this might be hindering the release.

Cam (who spent a long time on Sunday helping to get a Lotus ball joint free - it only came out with lots of pressure AND when the suspension was 100% unloaded, rather than mostly unloaded).

(edit) Regardless of whether what I asked is true at the other end of the t-bar, I've realised there cannot possibly be any meaningful load at the end you are working on. Me = idiot. Ignore post above.

[beepbeep]

No, your point is valid. When he turns the wrench to press it out whole sheebang rotates slightly upwards. Not much but it does. Do you suggest that we fixate spring-plate so it doesn't "torsion" the torsion bar when we try to extract it??

Torsion isn't that great (at least not as big as when engine is pressing it down) but it's still there.

[Mike Kast]

Now I see why Wayne said in his chapter on torsion's
"The replacement procedure for the front bars is quite easy, and can be carried out by the home mechanic"
When I read that line I wondered why he stated it backwards. He didn't say the rears are really hard, but that the fronts were easy ... quite easy!

[Hald]

The rears certainly can be a 'challenge'... My t-bars were seized in the splines & wouldn't budge, even with a very heavy-duty gear puller. Yanking the whole assembly out of the body with the slide-hammer & cutting the t-bar to separate it from the spring plate seemed like the path of least resistance.

[Neilk]

Have you tried putting a crowbar between the body and the spring arm while having someone wiggle the spring arm around? Move the end of the spring up and down, left to right... it will eventually come loose. I hope....

[beepbeep]

Originally posted by Neilk
Have you tried putting a crowbar between the body and the spring arm while having someone wiggle the spring arm around? Move the end of the spring up and down, left to right... it will eventually come loose. I hope....

We are afraid of doing damage to body behind the spring-plate and spring-plate itself so that's the last option. We'll see tommorow if heavy-duty gear-puller will take it off. I've also been thinking of heating it with gas and cooling inner torsion-bar with cooling spray...what do you think?

[MBAtarga]

I had to use two different crowbars purchased from Home Depot to remove the spring plates on my SC. I pried against the bosses to prevent damage to the sheet metal. The ends of the two crowbars were angled differently, which was a necessity , as I used the sharper angled bar to start the spring plate assembly moving loose, and then switched to the crowbar with the shallow angled end to get it all the way out. You're fortunate on your car, you don't have the complication of the external thermostat and oil lines on the passenger side.

[Neilk]

Use some cardboard to protect the body from the crowbar. You don't have to use very much force. Wiggling the spring arm while applying a little pressure to it will free it up.

[beepbeep]

Originally posted by MM83targa
You're fortunate on your car, you don't have the complication of the external thermostat and oil lines on the passenger side.

Hehe...Mattias started this as "little restauration process". Next thing you know, car is stripped to bare bones, both engine and gearbox are sold, there is some strange new engine sitting beside waiting to be fitted with truck-turbocharger, carbon-fibre fenders are on order and everything is disassembled to pieces just to be replaced with something different and/or better or just plain weird

[Mike Kast]

So your saying no oil lines? lol... I wish I could find someone in NC tearing down a car like you so I could help and learn on someone else's problem! Anyone in the Raleigh area need some help? I'd love to go to Sweden but I think it would effect my income in a negative way. Besides all the women are taller than me there

[Mattias Hellore]

Originally posted by beepbeep
Hehe...Mattias started this as "little restauration process".

Little restauration process?, everything began with the removing of rear screen wiper, heavy piece of junk, then so removing all sound deadening mats in engine compartment, then whole interior , in the quest for better hp/weight ratio.

So I´m stranded here at this moment with TWO swingplates DON´T want to go away!..

Maybe the 935 style rear suspension is the way to go...
Coilovers are easier to remove than these torsion bars..

[beepbeep]

Originally posted by Mattias Hellore
Little restauration process?, everything began with the removing of rear screen wiper, heavy piece of junk, then so removing all sound deadening mats in engine compartment, then whole interior , in the quest for better hp/weight ratio.

So I´m stranded here at this moment with TWO swingplates DON´T want to go away!..

Maybe the 935 style rear suspension is the way to go...
Coilovers are easier to remove than these torsion bars..

Hey, you should be in the garage, not in front of the computer! :P

[Mattias Hellore]

Originally posted by beepbeep
Hey, you should be in the garage, not in front of the computer! :P

Yes, sir! *running to the garage*.