Any tips on Sway-Away swing Plate instalation?

After trying to adjust my rear ride height three times with the factory swing plates after installing 28mm bars, I finaly broke down and picked up some sway-away adjustable swing plates. May Neatrix bushings be used with these? Any tips on setting the inital adjustment during installation? Any other comments or experiences? (Anyone interested in the factory adjustable plates? I know wrong board, but what the hey.) Thanks in advance.
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Paul
78SC Targa

There should be a paper with spring plate inclination angles and torsion bar size to use as a starting point. I had the help of a mechanic bud of mine who was able to determine this exactly. A couple of points. Try to have your car on jacks as level as possible. Have a measuring device that is extremely accurate, preferrable electronic. I also used 28 mm bars in mine. The angle of the spring plate was determined to me 25 degrees to start. This was done by moving inner and outer splines. Try this to start. Although the adjustable spring plates give you some margin of error, you still have to be accurate. The adjustability is helpful in final ride height and corner balancing.

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8 9 9 1 1, The last of the line.

I'm not sure about starting specs with new torsion bars, but here are my suggestions:

It doesn't matter if the car is side-to-side level. What matters is the reference angle of the spring plate once the torsion bar is unloaded; that is, after the torsion bar cover is removed (4 bolts + spacer) and spring plate unbolted from the control arm. Use an inclinometer from Sears or hardware store (approx. $10) to measure the angle of the free-hanging spring plate, then record this angle. If you've tried to adjust this 3 times before, maybe you have some idea of the angle differences between your previous settings and the effect it has on vehicle height. If so, use this data to establish your next setting. Since the 28mm bar is way stiffer than the stock bar, set the angle accordingly (the thicker bar will not twist as easily). If you have not previously established a baseline, your first attempt will be by seat-of-pants, but record this new angle anyway.

Repeat on the opposite side, then button it up and see what affect the adjustment has on ride height. Knowing the before and after ride heights and the before and after spring plate angles will get you closer to the desired height as you repeat the above procedure. The splines on the bar end may need some "adjustment" to fit into the inner splines of the Sway-A-Way. The proper clearance should be a snug slip-fit. A hammer-fit is too tight.

The Sway-A-Ways don't provide a lot of gross adjustment. However they do provide a nice way of fine tuning side to side/front-to-rear height as well as providing a convenient method of fine-tuning the corner balance once the ride heights are where you want them to be.

I don't believe Neatrix bushings are available for the Sway-A-Ways. You may need to adjust (grind or machine) the O.D. of the supplied bushings to fit the torsion bar cover and the opening in the chassis. Some installations may result in squeaking from the bushings, even with the special lube they provide. To minimize the chance of noise, some create a groove in the I.D. to capture grease and/or install a zerk fitting into this bushing area for periodic maintenance. In addition, coat the torsion bar with grease (preferably waterproof) before installation. I fashioned some "rubbers" from an inner tube to fit over the end of the sort-of-exposed torsion bar cover to minimize water entry into the chassis.

Sherwood Lee
'69 911
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars/

Thanks for the tips. I installed the 28mm bars about five months ago. I have the car within 1/4 -1/2 inch of the height I want. It took me three tries to get the ride height to 25 1/4 (ground to fender lip). I just didn't want to do it a forth time and was hoping the adjustable swing plates would provide me with at least 1 inch of adjustment, 1/2 inch up and 1/2 inch down. I also wanted to have the ability to have the car easily corner balanced. It sounds like I will not be gaining the 1 inch in adjustment I was expecting. Am I wrong?

As to the grease nipple installation. I know this was in Excellence, but I don't have the issue. I would really appreciate it if someone with the article and scanner e-mail it to me or provide a simplified instruction. Thanks.

As to the Neatrix bushings, has anyone actually tried to use them with the Sway-Away swing plates? Thanks again.
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Paul
78SC Targa
pbs911@msn.com

I would say you have a realistic range of 1.5 to 2 inches of adjustability with the spring plates. You would like your car to be close to where you want it and have the adjusting screw midway in its threading. As far as the grease fittings, I did this also. It is only going to provided grease to the outer fitting and bushing. It actually is simple. Place grease nipple at the bottom of the outer cover, midway where the bushing seats. Remove it, fit and install polyurethane bushing. Drill through the hole where the nipple fitting is to the center. On the inner surface of the bushing, create a groove so that the grease will flow from the fitting through the bushing and spread on the inner side. How well it works is to be determined. You actually could dissassemble the outer plate, regrease, and replace without altering the spring plate setting. The inner bushing is not so simple, and Murphy's law says that is the one thats going to make noise. Good luck.

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8 9 9 1 1, The last of the line.

Paul,

No, I haven't tried to use the Neatrix bushings, but I am thinking about trying. I am quite sure there is a mismatch of at least 1/8" btween the ID of the Neatrix bushings and the OD of the sway-A-Way plates, though!

Apparently the Sway-A-Way folks are too busy to build a web site, yet!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa