Spring Plate Angles

[beamishnz]

Looking for a bit of advice on spring plate angles. Specifically how to measure the angle. The car is a '91 S2.

I've fitted Escort suspension with rear coil overs and kept the existing torsion bar. It is basically the same as the Turbo Cup Car set up or the 968 CS M030 which the workshop manual states should have spring plates set to 10 degrees and 9 degrees for Cup cars and 968 CS M030 respectively. The stock set up is 18 degrees which with the Escort rear suspension 'helper springs' gives me approx +30mm ride height (from where I want to be) with the springs just under tension.

If I go for the 968 CS M030 9 degrees spec I need to adjust spring plate approx 9 degrees which equates re indexing one inner spline. That sounds fairly straight forward but I was interested to know how I can check the final angle of the spring plate. I have a digital inclinometer which I can place on the top edge of the spring plate but is the work shop manual spec with the suspension loaded or unloaded? I'm guessing unloaded.

Head is spinning a bit on this. I'd appreciate any wisdom

Just for interest here is a pic of the front set up ...

[kdjones2000]

There are better ways to do this:

Torsion Bar Re-Indexing

Good luck, Keith

[beamishnz]

Hi Keith. Thanks for the link. I was planning to follow the Clarkes Garage methodology which allows re indexing without removal of whole assembly. I'm confident that 1 spline/9 degrees will give me the right result but was interested to understand how the factory spec measurement for spring plate angle is made.