Spring plate bushing replacement

jhelgesen · 10-10-2010, 04:48 PM

Started spring plate bushing replacement today....since I'm waiting on the bug guy to come drill some holes in my floor, I had to keep everything on one side of the garage and do this on jack stands.

Came out with a little effort

Bushing cover is toast, as are the bushings...

Used a little heat to pop off the bushings

and just have to do some wire brushing to finish the job.

bfunke · bfunke's Garage

Nice photos. Wish I had seen earlier. I was in Charlotte yesterday making a run up to Trader Joes since we don't have in SC. Had I known I would have contacted you and stopped by to help and learn. I need to do the same with my 68.

I was going to also do the trailing arm bushings at the body but those look to be a bit more work.

How did you ensure that you'll align the torsion bars to same load. I've heard some scribe a mark on the undercoating and some use a protractor to measure the angles.

Did you have any difficulty getting the spring plates off the torsion bars?

Your photo says the bushing cover is toast. Hard to tell from the photo - looks like a little corrosion. Is there more damage? Who sells replacement covers?

Bryan

HarryD · 10-10-2010, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bfunke

Nice photos. Wish I had seen earlier. I was in Charlotte yesterday making a run up to Trader Joes since we don't have in SC. Had I known I would have contacted you and stopped by to help and learn. I need to do the same with my 68.

I was going to also do the trailing arm bushings at the body but those look to be a bit more work.

How did you ensure that you'll align the torsion bars to same load. I've heard some scribe a mark on the undercoating and some use a protractor to measure the angles.

Did you have any difficulty getting the spring plates off the torsion bars?

Your photo says the bushing cover is toast. Hard to tell from the photo - looks like a little corrosion. Is there more damage? Who sells replacement covers?

Bryan

Bryan,

When I did mine about 5 years ago, same story. Lots of prying and pulling. Burned the old bushes and wire brushed to clean up. I bought new covers. They are available from our host here:

Pelican Parts - Product Information: 901-333-153-00-M260

Be sitting down when you see the price.

You can read my story here: Rear Springplate Bushing Replacement

jhelgesen · 10-11-2010, 03:35 AM

The rust inside the plates caused them to expand. I'm afraid there won't be anything left if I grind them down to shape to fit the new bushings.

I used a digital protractor to measure the angle of the spring plates after they were unbolted from the arm. Gives me a starting point when I reassemble.

I got lucky this time and the torsion bars wiggled out of the spring plates with little fuss. I've had to drill holes in the spring plate caps before to drive them out.

jhelgesen · 10-12-2010, 03:49 AM

Spring plates cleaned up last night with a wire brush on an angle grinder...

Next is to fit the new bushings

MotoSook · 10-12-2010, 03:55 AM

Take a little off at a time with those bushings if you are going to do it right.

jhelgesen · 10-12-2010, 03:59 AM

I didn't get instructions with this particular set of bushings, trying to decide between gluing or greasing. These are only temporary till other options are available.

wildcat077 · wildcat077's Garage

John,

I did mine this Summer and the instructions that came from ER said to glue them...

Cheers !
Phil

na2ub · 07:03 AM

I am doing mine right now, too. Except my plates are being stubborn coming off of the Tbar. Looks like I might have to do the "drill a hole and punch" approach.

.

Edit: After some reading, I cut my t-bars with an grinder, as I was replacing them anyway. They still took a few good whacks with a hammer to get the bars out of the caps in the vice. Also, I removed the bushings by heating the inside of the cap / tube. Didn't take too long an after they were good an hot, I wrenched the rubber off with a big channel lock, twisting it loose. They came off really clean, and only needed a quick clean up with a wire wheel to finish them.

mike635 · mike635's Garage

I changed mine last spring and used an adhesive called "Black Max" from Loctite. It's essentially super glue that has increased shear strength. No problems so far.

jhelgesen · 10-12-2010, 08:56 AM

I've used black max before, got some in a sample pack. I'll have to see if I can score more samples as its not cheap down at the Fastenal store.

Thanks for the advice.

NutmegCarrera · NutmegCarrera's Garage

Anybody have any experience with what happens if the adhesive is "broken" between the tube and the ER bushing? I used a "better" adhesive as suggested and furnished by my company's machine shop. Was a loctite product, and is really expensive stuff.

I'm pretty confident that it would've held, but I had to pry off the covers to re-index - and at that point, the adhesive came away.

What's the point here? I guess if I had a chance to do it again - would use super glue.

I'm currently running with no adhesive between the spring plate tube and the i.d. of the ER bushings.

If it is a problem, I suspect that I'll be pulling these off at some point to go with ER Poly/bronze, and do the inners at the same time. Only put 1000-2000 on per year here in sunny WI.

rusnak · 10-12-2010, 10:16 AM

John, take a moment to loosen the ride height bolts now, and grease the springplate halves. Also, use a centerpunch and a dab of paint to mark the bolthead where the toe and camber lobes are. This will help you when it's time to do alignment.

Use longer bolts and clean the threads for the torsion cover.

I think it's probably better to grease the rubber bushings. Otherwise you can get some strange ride height/ stiction issues.

jhelgesen · 10-13-2010, 04:30 PM

This is a worn out bushing cover....waiting on new ones to show up

jhelgesen · 10-17-2010, 03:45 PM

Wrapped up the rear bushings this weekend. Duke gave me a hand with installation yesterday, and spent a few hours today with height adjustment and caster. Front bushings are next.

jhelgesen · 10-21-2010, 04:10 AM

Started next step of suspension refresh last night. Cleaning up a set of spare A arms to swap out on the carrera.

Torsion bars were good and stuck, had to drive them out of the front of the arms, clean out the gunk, then drive them back through.

Bars were a bit worn on the end....

Plus, shocks arrived and will be installed at the same time.

EarlyPorsche · 10-21-2010, 04:58 AM

Looking good. I did new rubber bushings on my old 66 to replace the poly and it is sooo much nicer. New Bilsteins added to the bunch never hurt either!

ben_in_austin · 10-21-2010, 05:28 AM

While you're going through the trouble of removing the vulcanized/pressed on rubber pieces its a great time to send your suspension arms to the powdercoater. Awesome work so far John.

oregonmon · oregonmon's Garage

Thanks for posting this. I'm trying to get time and mental game plan to do this job.

jhelgesen · 10-21-2010, 05:15 PM

Removed the bushings from the A arms tonight. Used some heat and they popped right off.

The looked pretty good, nice factory finish on the outside still. I found some rust under one of the front bushings, and ground it out. Maybe I'll weld this up? It doesn't go through to the inside of the tube.