reattaching trailing arm to spring plate

[wreckah]

hi guys,

i want to maximize the ride height on our 1969 911T for our trip to Beijing in a couple of months.

Front is easy.

Rear: how can you determine which angle of the spring plate is the maximum you can get? (stock torsion bars) I just took the whole thing apart, and reassembled it with the same angle just to get to know how the system works.

And if you go for a big angle, how on earth can you reattach the springplate to the trailing arm? The gap between the two is gigantic, and i don't really know how to match them up to get the bolts in. Are there any tricks for a suspension novice out there?

thanks a lot in advance!!

cheers,
jan

http://www.carreratochina.com

[911nut]

I'm not sure how high you can go but as for what that height really is will be determined by when you lose the ability to set toe and camber back to spec.
I would buy some spring plates from an SC and elongate the bolt slots at the very end of plates. Some experimentation on maximum ride may be required.
Don't expect great handling at ORV height though....

[burgermeister]

Put a jack underneath the spring plate and jack it up until it matches the banana arm. You can also disconnect the shock from the banana arm and it will hang a bit lower.

If you raise your ride height much above stock, you may overstress your torsion bars when you hit big bumps (as the bars will have to twist more before the jounce stop is engaged). This will reduce their life by some amount. Eventually they will break (could take a long time though).

[wreckah]

thanks for the replies guys!

a jack is a good idea. The shock was already disconnected from the banana arm. I'm gonna tackle it again on wednesday.

I'm hoping for some 5cms of lift from where it sits now (about 2"), here's a current picture of the car: i'm hoping i can still set camber and toe within reasonable specs...





we will be driving about 30.000kms in this configuration.

[wreckah]

OK!


i have just managed to gain 5cms on every corner of the car, couldn't have done it without the help of this forum! thanks alot guys!

The car is now on original steel wheels too, and we have mounted reinforced snowtires (used for vans mostly). This will give us the extra strength and load capacity we will need on our trip.

Went out for a testdrive too, and the car is super-responsive! I like it much more than before...OK, it wallows just a little bit because it is set so high, but we're not going to drive very fast on this trip, so no worries there.

now i'm gonna tackle camber and toe on all four wheels.

see ya later,
thanks again for all the help! pelican parts rules
cheers, jan