Rear suspension work

[GH85Carrera]

I have searched and read lot of old post about rear suspension work.

I will be replacing my rear torsion bars with new 27 mm bars and replacing the rubber spring plate bushings with new Elephant racing rubber bushings. "While I am in there" the rear shocks will get replaced to match the new front shocks.

The front end work is done except for final alignment, and that will be done once the rear suspension work is all done.

My main question is what posts on this board have the best instructions for doing the rear suspension work. I have done a lot of searching but I always seem to miss the best posts. What parts of the job are the most difficult?

One final question, my car has the rear stone guards. I will have to remove those to replace the torsion bars. I have a heat gun to help loosen the adhesive but what temperature should I use to remove the old stone guards? I am guessing the lowest setting on the heat gun.

[pete3799]

If you have searched then you should already know what has to be done.
I put this off until recently as i was a little intimidated by what i read.
My advice is to jump in and do it. Mine where a worst case scenario,stuck spring plates,rusted torsion tube etc..
Your car is 6 years newer so things my slide apart easier.
I say let the wrenches fly. Help is just a click away.
Best of luck.

[tonythetarga]

What you can do is search and print info from a number of posts that you determine will help. Make sure you have an angle finder and you use the chart for torsion bar sizes to get the new angle after the bigger bars are put in.
As far as the stone guards go, just cut the guard with a razor around the bit you need to remove. You do not have to peel them off.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by tonythetarga

What you can do is search and print info from a number of posts that you determine will help. Make sure you have an angle finder and you use the chart for torsion bar sizes to get the new angle after the bigger bars are put in.
As far as the stone guards go, just cut the guard with a razor around the bit you need to remove. You do not have to peel them off.

I was wondering about just cutting the rock guards. I will replace them after everything is sorted aligned & working.

Now I just need to find that bar size chart!

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by pete3799

If you have searched then you should already know what has to be done.
I put this off until recently as i was a little intimidated by what i read.
My advice is to jump in and do it. Mine where a worst case scenario,stuck spring plates,rusted torsion tube etc..
Your car is 6 years newer so things my slide apart easier.
I say let the wrenches fly. Help is just a click away.
Best of luck.

I was just wondering, you had a worst case scenario, how long did it take you?

[tonythetarga]

Spring Plate and Torsion Bar Installation - Indexing

The chart is a link in this thread.

I had time when I did mine and the reinstall took about a day and a half because I had to reindex after my first try. The whole job was spead out over two weekends.

[RWebb]

hose down all the fasteners with Kroil while you are reading - do it 3x a day and tap each fastener with a small metal hammer in between each screen full of stuff to read

[GH85Carrera]

Tony & RWebb, thanks for both suggestions. I will get the 911 into position and start with the penetrating oil.

[pete3799]

Glen,
It took me 1(long) day to strip it down and clean everything up and paint the spring plates.
1 day to grind out the rusty tube, weld in some patches (both sides)and reassemble.
Hopefully yours will look better than these.

[GH85Carrera]

Wow, I hope mine are not rusty like that. The front end came apart with no problems at all. The only rust I encountered was on the old torsion bars. That is why they were replaced. I will get started this weekend. I suspect I will have to work on it some each evening next week. I have to get everything finished, corner balanced & aligned and new tires before the last week of June. I am driving to Porsche Parade the first week of July.

[RWebb]

whenever one replaces the torsion bars, the torque tube should be inspected from the inside

run an endoscope down the tube if you can rent one (or have a buddy who is a proctologist); they are now down to about $300 for a decent one

at the minimum, use a flashlight & mirror on a pole to inspect

[burgermeister]

The torsion tubes are galvanized after 78; they generally only rust where the spring plate rubber bushing wears the zinc plating off. I greased my bushings up with silicone grease per something I read in an old up-fixin', which many folks say is a no-no. Hasn't caused me any headache yet, and the spring plates come out easy now .... and it prevents corrosion. Mine were still rust free .. phew!

[tcar]

Originally Posted by RWebb

hose down all the fasteners with Kroil while you are reading - do it 3x a day and tap each fastener with a small metal hammer in between each screen full of stuff to read

In a big test, Liquid Wrench was significantly better (almost twice as effective) than Kroil, BTW. A LOT better than PB Blaster. WD-40 didn't do very well, was near the bottom.

Liquid Wrench was actually better than ALL commercial grade liquids.

A homemade mixtue of Acetone and ATF was hands down the best. However, acetone is nasty stuff.

Sorry, back on topic.

Don't need to remove the gravel guard, just cut around the access plate with an x-acto knife.

[RWebb]

avoid using acetone

I am also not too impressed with the methodology used in that study. As a scientist, I read the methods section of published articles first. I then know if I want to bother reading the Results & Discussion sections...

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

What parts of the job are the most difficult?

If one of the bars stays in the tube, you may have to drive it out from the opposite side. If both bars stay in the tube, well you now will know the most difficult part of rear suspension work.

There are actually some humorous threads about this problem. One guy in AL had his car chained to a utility pole on one side, IIRC.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by milt

If one of the bars stays in the tube, you may have to drive it out from the opposite side. If both bars stay in the tube, well you now will know the most difficult part of rear suspension work.

There are actually some humorous threads about this problem. One guy in AL had his car chained to a utility pole on one side, IIRC.

Wow, I have no utility poles in my garage to use as an anchor

I really hope the front end was an indicator and the rear will come apart without drama. Saturday afternoon I will attack the rear end. I keep searching for that perfect thread that has every step. I will try to record my adventure with pictures and comments.

[pete3799]

Glen,
The hardest part of my rebuild was getting the spring plates to let go of the TB's.
A 3 jaw puller and lots of heat did the trick. After i got those seperated i figured the TB's were going to put up a fight too but i got one out by hand after a lot of wiggling up and down and to and fro. The other one i'm sure i could have gotten by hand too but it's a lot easier to just slide a steel bar in and drive the other one out.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by milt

...

There are actually some humorous threads about this problem. One guy in AL had his car chained to a utility pole on one side, IIRC.

don't forget the fence puller (Come Along)...

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by RWebb

don't forget the fence puller (Come Along)...

Yeah, what happened to that kid?

[GH85Carrera]

I got everything apart with no problems. With everything jacked up, marked and ready to take apart it was less than one hour to get the shock bolts out, stabilizer bar removed and the spring plates off and the torsion bars out. It was not that difficult.

I have the bulk of the rubber bushings removed and just have one side left to finish cleaning up. Then I get to put it all back together.

I guess I will need to buy some super glue. With some luck I hope to have the car on the ground by this weekend.

I did not mess with the trailing arm bushings. From what I read they are usually just fine.