Question on installing Neatrix spring plate bushings....

[hessel1974]

I am about to install Neatrix spring plate bushings, but have some questions. The instructions which came with the bushings are very basic:

- Do I need to glue the bushings to the springplate? Super glue is included in the pack.
- Any need for lubricant between the bushings and torsion tube/ torsion tube cover?
- Other things I need to know/watch for?

Thanks!

Hessel

[RSTarga]

Apart from installing the bushings check for cracks on the 4 bolt holes for your torsion bar support housing. This is a good time to reinforce this area if it is cracked. My 73 developed some cracks soon after I did my bushings.

[KTL]

Yes you glue the bushings to the spring plate. Clean the plate tube and flat surface very well to ensure the glue sticks.

The only lubricant needed is for assembly. Dish soap, synthetic grease, or slicone spray on the rubber surface allows you to push the plate back into the chassis torsion tube hole, as well as press the cover plate back onto the outer bushing. Don't use just any grease. I used plain non-synthetic grease on the bushings once and it made a sticky paste on the surface of the bushing- it broke down/"melted" the rubber

Use longer bolts to "pull" the cover plate back on. Once you get it started and partially seated, you can take out the long bolts and put the originals back in.

Be sure to set the spring plate at the proper angle depending on what size your torsion bars are. Be sure to thoroughly grease the torsion bars and their splines with axle/wheel bearing grease.

[rusnak]

I doubt the glue will hold. If I were to do mine again, knowing what I learned from doing mine w Neatrix, I would probably grease them well.

[KTL]

I thought the same thing. Super glue??? What the hey, that's not gonna hold! When I removed my Neatrix to install poly bushings for track duty, the Neatrix were still sticking strong. They were still well-glued on there even after seeing a good number of days on the track in my '87.

[Jdub]

+1 on using a rubber-friendly grease if you decide to. An old trick is hair spray (VO5) that stays slick for a bit of time, then holds in place. Used to slide tight foam over handlebars.

Take one bushing and push it into the cover plate - note the interference fit of the outside diameter. The idea is to pin the bushing - glue on the spindle (ID) and grip fit on the outside diameter. Deflection of the bushing becomes part of the action, rather than "spinning" around the outside. Stock A-arm bushings work this way.

[rusnak]

I'll be darned. Super glue holds I guess.

[porschenut]

I used JB Weld and it didn't hold. The bushing fits so tightly in the TB tube that I doubt it really matters if you use glue or not. Can't hurt though.

[88 Club Sport]

No glue for me.....just pressed them into the spring plate with my vice. Then I pulled em and went to poly's with zerks (so I could lube em) and I did spent many hours sanding/fitting them but it was worth it. Probably have 4k of DE miles on em and all is well.

Hey Dave....have not sen you at HPR in a while. Hope all is well.

[hessel1974]

Thanks for all your responses.

Reading through this, I started to wonder if the springplate is pretty secure in the torsion tube, how can you make sure that the angle of the spring plate is the same or a couple of degrees different than when you removed the old ones?

I need to lower the rear by changing the angle of the SP by roughly 2.5 degrees. But when I have to wrestle the stuff in place, I can't see how you could have enough feel in the assembly that you can estimate the 2.5 degrees difference.

Hope it makes sense. Thanks for your help!

[Wil Ferch]

Look at my spring plate angle calculator....we need to be *very* careful on terms and semantics.

When you say you want to change by 2.5 degrees....do you mean "with load at rest, car weight on top" will then be 2.5 degrees different?... OR....do you mean you are targeting a 2.5 degree free-hanging angle change to get to where you want to be....via the calculator?

[rusnak]

Free-hanging is much easier, which is why my reference scribe marks are baselined on the free-hanging radius arm.

[hessel1974]

I understood that a 1 degree difference in spring plate angle represents 8-9mm in ride height. I want to lower the car roughly 2.3 CM, so that comes down to the 2.5 degrees.

I thought that when the springplate is lowered, it will stop at the unsprung point where there is no tension on the TB. Take the angle in degrees here and add (or substract) the degrees you want it lowered. But when I read that with new bushings the fit is so tight, how do you get to that "unsprung" point????