The crap one finds - I have no rear torsion bar covers

[sobamaflyer]

So I've owned, driven (beaten upon) and worked on this car for 3+ years. After finishing my engine rebuild I decided to tackle raising the back end by a smidge.

This led me to discover the PO apparently removed the rear torsion bar covers and never put them back on!



I'm not sure how completely awful this is but I don't imagine it's a good thing. I did find out I had 28mm bars in the back which are apparently a good 5mm thicker than it came with.

[Craig_D]

If you posted that yesterday, I'd say April Fools!

If today, that's totally insane!

[kugelfischer]

Not awful at all if you want a stiffer rear end. I'd expect that the fronts had also been upgraded. Also, when done correctly, you usually update the shocks and struts with different valving.
Have you found the car to be especially harsh to drive?

[sobamaflyer]

Originally Posted by Craig_D

If you posted that yesterday, I'd say April Fools!

If today, that's totally insane!

God I wish! I'm a bit embarrassed it's taken me this long to notice they weren't there but I've just now started messing with the suspension.....to find that "Step 1" seems to be unnecessary

[tharbert]

Update the bushings for a stiffer rear end, yes. But to leave the covers off? Can't be a good thing...

[sobamaflyer]

Originally Posted by kugelfischer

Not awful at all if you want a stiffer rear end.

Sorry, my thoughts were running together, the awful comment was about the missing covers. I'm quite happy with the stiffer torsion bars. It's got Koni Adjustables in the front and if I'm not mistaken Bilstiens in the back. And no, I've never had a problem with the ride although it is certainly stiff.

It was so low when I got it that it that even maxed out for positive camber in the front it chewed up the inner half of a set of tires (and left the outsides almost new) in several thousand miles. I was able to align the back myself to closer to a -1° camber and raised the front by about 1.5". The back as it sits is somewhere around 2" lower than Euro height IIRC and it's so low that the sway bar can't stay in the end links.

So I am raising the back up about that same 1.5" to gain a little ride/handling/tire wear improvement.

I think my car was a track toy at some point, I've spent all this time fixing LOTS of stuff that had been abused or removed before my time with her.

[sobamaflyer]

As she sits right now.



I don't like that the front has a good 1" of gap between the fender and the tire and the back has the fender overlapping by almost that much.

[safe]

Looks pretty good from here, the front and rear arches are different, the rear arch should be about an inch lower than the front.
Check the angle of the rocker, it should have an 1 degree incline forward.

[sobamaflyer]

I've read that but it just looks odd

I measured rockers the other night, rear was about half an inch higher than the front.

[safe]

Its an odd car, engine in the back and things like that!

[porschenut]

It doesn't look odd to me. Looks just right. The rake angle is what matters, not the tire/fender clearance.

My question is, how can you work on this car for 3+ years and only now notice your covers are missing?

BTW, if the car was lowered a long way, the covers probably would have had to be removed to eliminate interference with the spring plates.

[sobamaflyer]

Originally Posted by porschenut

My question is, how can you work on this car for 3+ years and only now notice your covers are missing?

Complete, unadulterated, blissful ignorance is the honest answer.

My waning youth telling me "it's never too low" aside, it's too low. The suspension geometry is compromised to the point it won't align properly and won't accept my rear sway bar being attached. I don't really want to raise it above what it takes to fix that.

New tires will be on my doorstep tomorrow with 205/55/16's replacing 205/50/16's and that may alleviate some of my gap problem. I'm raising the back enough to just see the top of the tire and I'll start with that slight rake on the rocker and see where it goes.

[Driven97]

Originally Posted by sobamaflyer

It was so low when I got it that it that even maxed out for positive camber in the front it chewed up the inner half of a set of tires (and left the outsides almost new) in several thousand miles.

Unless you're above 3° or so, camber typically doesn't chew through tires very fast. Excessive toe (either direction) does. Might be worth double checking.

Those missing covers are crazy.

[sobamaflyer]

Thank you, I'll be checking and resetting [or trying to] all of my alignment as soon as I get tires on and the suspension where I think it should be.

It was pretty well canted in at the top of the wheel (before) and merely adjusting the screws for the front arms made my tire contact patch literally half of what it was (the inner half of the tire no longer touched the ground). I raised it up 1.3" in the front. Would toe do that?

New tires were worn down to the belts inside and still looked new on the outside over 3-4k miles.

[sobamaflyer]

Ok, so last night was miserable. I got the left side plate off, rotated it one outer spline clockwise which by my angle finder measurements was ~+5° (down). By my Autocad quick calculation this should give me ~1.5" up on the body (right?).

Then I spent the next hour or so cussing with no avail to get the #@!$% spring plate back on the swing arm. I do have the shock off, read something about the e-brake after I went inside (it's on, I'll take it off and try again).

In theory my settings are still a good bit lower than stock (although my torsion bar is way thicker than) how in the world would one ever get it on with an even greater angle such as stock would seem to be? My car is a '75 without an adjustable spring plate, is it wholly different than what I've been reading about?

Am I doing something wrong or are the Porsche gods telling me I should really have left this one alone .

[safe]

Originally Posted by sobamaflyer

Ok, so last night was miserable. I got the left side plate off, rotated it one outer spline clockwise which by my angle finder measurements was ~+5° (down). By my Autocad quick calculation this should give me ~1.5" up on the body (right?).

5° is way off for one spline, it's almost double, 9°.

Outer splines = 40 outer, inner=44
360/40 = 9.025 degrees
360/44 = 8.18 degrees

[sobamaflyer]

Hmmm, I wonder if I managed a combination of rotations? My angle finder read -33.5° (bar resting) before I touched it. What I ended with was close to -39°. And no, I'm not sure I'm measuring as I am "supposed to" since everything I've been reading has figures in the 20° range, maybe that is measured assembled with the car resting on the ground?

I will double check everything with fresh eyes tonight.

[Hellraiser]

you should measure with the sill perfectly horizontally

[sobamaflyer]

I'll re-check that too, I did make an attempt at it the other day when I started this and took the wheels off but I won't swear it's precisely level.

Is it generally accepted that this is just a royal pain to get re-mated? I found a thread this morning giving some tips on getting the spring plate back to the swing arm in increments with the bolts and a jack, just want to make sure I'm not completely missing a piece of the puzzle.

[zippy_gg]

It might help if you could find a set of used adjustable spring plates to install in your car...
Try posting a WTB in the classified here.

BTW have you installed spring plate covers? I did not see a pic with them on, hence my question.