Question on spring plate assembly after reindexing
 

Hi guys - now that the missing CV bolt has been dealt with it is time to button her back up. I'm a newbie here, so bear with me, but it appears that the bolts that secure the spring plate to the trailing arm have a range of adjustment. I'm not sure if they should be installed centered in their track or all the way forward or all the way back.

Pic with the trailing arm slid all the way towards the rear of the car in the plates;

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...thewayback.jpg

Pic with the trailing arm pulled all the way towards the front of the car in the plates;

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...wayforward.jpg

I had non-adjustable spring plates on her to start with if that makes a difference.

And coaching for me here?

Sorry - once I put the toe adjustment bolt (in the open hole in the pictures above) in it aligned everything properly. Like I said - newbie.

Pretty darn cool how adjustable these are - clever design.

Oh my, do you have a alignment rig set up while doing this?

Forward if toe in vs Back to out
Up is Negative Camber, down Positive.

The problem is PAG designed it so one effects the other.

You also need to remove the pre-load by bouncing and rolling the car forward and back to get the proper readings.

If you have not done so search the String Method Alignment rig setup, I found that to be the best way to align, but it takes time an patience. If you have OCD, it will take longer, ask me how I know. :D

The idea is to think diagonally as you adjust

Hi there - I am planning on getting her professionally aligned as soon as I get the ride height dialed in. Getting all of the alignment dialed-in myself seems to be an iffy proposition and I've changed enough stuff that she needs to be properly gone through.

At this point I'm just trying to learn about how she works by getting greasy and doing the work myself. No better way to really understand a car than to take it apart and put her back together right/upgraded.

What started all of this was that I had rubbing on the driver side rear fender to a point it was blistering the paint. That made me realize that the drivers side was set too low. And that made me realize height was different on both sides of the car (on the non-adjustable spring plates that were OEM to my 1974). Which led to the re-indexing, and then of course that made me realize that stock 23mm torsion bars weren't a good fit for how I'd be using her. Once looking at the trailing arms I realized she doesn't have a rear roll bar so that needs to get addressed. And so it goes.....

To answer your question about the 2 bolts that hold the spring plate to the trailing arm, they are there for clamping only. Their final position will be determined by the final alignment settings. As you have already seen by playing with the eccentric bolts, the net effect is that the trailing arm moves relative to the spring plate as you adjust for camber and toe, hence the need for the slots.

Hope that helps,

Got it - that makes sense.

Thanks Doug.

Hey guys,

Should be a "thread lock" on those bolts?

Thank you.
-Youri.

FWIW, when I disassembled my rear suspension to replace all the bushings, I left the camber bolt in place attached to the spring plate. When I went to reinstall everything, this bolt helped align the trailing arm exactly as it was before.
After getting the ride height set, the suspension was in almost perfect alignment.
The only adjustment needed was to reset right rear camber from -.50 degrees to -.68 degrees.

Good tip Graham, although in my case it I don't think it would have worked since I swapped arms and torsion bars and my hunch is the rear alignment was fubar anyway.

Huge time saver once I get her set up however - thanks!

Youri

No thread locker or special nuts for those bolts. Just tighten them down to at least the spec torque. They won't come loose.