Torsion Bar Housing Installation Woes

[Chunkerz]

The time has come to reinstall the torsion bar housing in my 88 944 NA and I am having a really hard time getting it in there. I was able to get the housing into the slots behind the doors, but I can't get the mounts at the top of the wheel wells for the banana arms to line up. The ends of the banana arms extend past the mounts and won't fit down inside the slots Anyone have any advice? I'll try to get pictures of what I'm talking about tonight.

Also, I installed new bushings for the spring plates and I cannot move them at all. I will need to turn them down a little bit to get the rear trailing arms in, but they won't budge. I do not have torsion bars installed, so I assume they should be able to move up/down freely. Are they supposed to be this tight?

Thanks,
Jeff

Edit- Here's some pictures of what I'm talking about. In the first picture you can see that I finally got the banana arm to fit down inside the slot in the mount. The second picture shows that the hole in the mount doesn't line up with the hole in the body with the banana arm in the slot. I am completely out of ideas for getting this thing back in there... If I trim the ends of the banana arms I might be able to get the mount to line up, but I don't want to ghetto rig it or anything...

[Tervuren]

What did you use for bushings? What did you do for prep work with the bushings if you didn't use stock rubber?

[Chunkerz]

I used Elephant Racing rubber bushings for the spring plates. I greased the holes in the housing/end caps to make getting the spring plates in easier, but they were still a bear to get in there. Is there any special preparation that has to be done before installing them?

[9FF]

I can see some coilovers back there, did you remove the torsion bars?

[Chunkerz]

Yes I did. Since there's no torsion bars the spring plates should be able to move up and down freely, right? The spring plate bushings I installed seemed about twice as large as the holes in the housing/end caps.

[9FF]

First, you can just cut off those banana arms from the torsion bar housing, you don't need them anymore.

Second, you need to "fit" the bushes on the spring plates. I think elephant racing tells you this. It means removing metal and smoothing the areas where they fit so they rotate easily, without taking off too much. All the spring plates and torsion bars on our cars are different, the tolerances and casting imperfections mean that there is no stock spring plate bush, they are oversized and you make them fit.

[Chunkerz]

I guess I'll break out my Dremel tool and start sanding. How tight do they need to be? Are the bushings supposed to be greased?

[9FF]

I guess I'll break out my Dremel tool and start sanding. How tight do they need to be? Are the bushings supposed to be greased?

They need to fit nice & tight, they mustn't just slide in. What you will find is the inside of the metal where the outside of the bush contacts is very rough with casing imperfections. Smooth them down until the bush is a tight fit with a coating of bushing (silicone) grease.

[Chunkerz]

Alright, so I polished all metal surfaces to a mirror finish, lathered everything with silicone grease, and bolted it all back together. The spring plates are nice and tight, but I can still move them without too much effort.

Next step is installing the whole assembly.... I'm a little weary of cutting the banana arms completely off, so I think I'll just trim half an inch or so off the arms by the top mounts where it kept getting stuck.

[Chunkerz]

I got that bastard in!

[Gawernator]

That looks hella legit. Come do mine. Not joking

[flash968]

i noticed that the shocks are upside down. many shocks cannot run that way. not sure about those. i'd make sure before having a failure.

[Chunkerz]

Originally Posted by Gawernator

That looks hella legit. Come do mine. Not joking

No way. I am never ever doing this again.

Originally Posted by flash968

i noticed that the shocks are upside down. many shocks cannot run that way. not sure about those. i'd make sure before having a failure.

They're supposed to be mounted upside down according to Ground Control. If I mount them the other way the springs hit the body and they don't fit. When I received them the special bolts that go into the trailing arms were preinstalled at what's usually the top of the shock, so I am 100% sure they are installed correctly.

[9FF]

i noticed that the shocks are upside down. many shocks cannot run that way. not sure about those. i'd make sure before having a failure.

I confirm GC's are designed to fit inverted and they need the extended bottom mount to clear the 2.5in spring. Generally the other coilovers on the market use 2.25in springs and clear mounted the non-inverted way and without the bottom mount.

[flash968]

i understand about the springs and interference. that's why i had to install spacers on my setup. the issue with mounting inverted on many shocks is the vents and the hydraulic portion of the valving.

FWIW after speaking with ground control a few times, i was not impressed with their lack of specific knowledge. granted, this was a couple of years ago, but i would not be surprised if they didn't even know if those shocks can be mounted upside down or not.

[Litesonic]

That is the correct way to mount the rear shocks. Make sure you torque the adapters to 150#.

I am installing tender springs for mine though.
I still have the torsion bars and currently the clunk from them reseating is annoying.
I have a ride height of 25.25" in the rear sitting on 205 50 r15.
This is perfectly inline with the front 25.25".

I may try raising the back .5"/.75" to preload the helpers...

[flash968]

i would not trust what ground control says. as an example, they are selling a coilover kit and telling people it will work on a torsion bar car. it won't. it jacks up the rear end because they aren't using a helper spring to hold the spring in place during wheel drop, so you have to add preload to the spring to hold it in place, which raises the car. this is pretty basic stuff to miss.

again, i'd contact koni on whether or not it is correct. they make shocks that cannot be installed upside down. i don't know if those can or not, as i don't know what model they are, but i'm betting that koni does. hydraulic shocks cannot be mounted upside down. some gas shocks can. some can't. it all depends on the venting and the oil in the shocks (yes, gas shocks have oil).

bilsteins can be mounted upside down, as can the higher end konis, but the lower end ones cannot. i'm not sure about these.

if they cannot be installed upside down, the valving will be all wrong and cavitation or aeration are some of the problems. leaks are another problem.

[Eric_Oz_S2]

Flash - From Koni:

This design offers a wide rage of valving options to fit a variety of applications at an economical price. The 30 series dampers are available with a variety of valvings to meet your specific damping requirements and can be utilized with a coil-over kit if necessary. Attachments are 1/2" ID bearing on both ends. The 30 Series can be run inverted to reduce unsprung weight.

[flash968]

cool. like i said, i didn't know if those were the 30 series or what. hard to tell from the shots

it says a 1/2" ID bearing on both ends. that means either drilling out the upper mount, or having a lot of slop of a 12mm bolt in there.

[9FF]

Originally Posted by flash968

cool. like i said, i didn't know if those were the 30 series or what. hard to tell from the shots

it says a 1/2" ID bearing on both ends. that means either drilling out the upper mount, or having a lot of slop of a 12mm bolt in there.

flash: the 944 GC shocks come with everything to mount including the correct spacer for 12mm top bolt and bottom mount extender - GC Rear Coilover Kit