IDGAF 911: The story continues

[deankat]

Hi all,

Some may know the story behind our car (our being my Dad and mine) but if you'd like to read the story again the PFA thread is here and the Pelican thread of the here!

After having owned the car for three years now and learning more and more about it we've decided to start trying to tackle most of the problems that might've been concealed when we first bought it and are now starting to show and become issues. 

The first problem we decided to tackle was the uneven ride height (serious sag down to the rear right). A quick google and search on various forums helped to diagnose the problem as the spring plate bushings being heavily worn. So we ordered some new ones and proceeded to take apart the rear of the car after watching all the necessary videos and studying up on how the rear end all comes together to make sure the job is done properly.

Rear end mostly taken apart, only decided to take pics and document the process after we took most parts off but here it is after detaching rear shocks, spring plate and sway bar. Something that causes small concern for when it comes time to reassemble was that the spring plate was still under load on both sides until the final bolt was taken out.

New spring plate bushings vs the old (very old) ones that came out

Spring plates scrubbed of their years of grime

Pretty much every part came off the car caked like this so took some effort to clean them up to prep for repainting

All parts cleaned as much as possible ready to be repainted

That's where we are up to so far and hopefully can find some time to get them painted and ready to be put back on.

The more we take off the greater the shopping list gets!

Already on the list to be done next are:

• New Shocks
• New rear sway bar drop link bushings 
• +Heaps of other small things that we can learn a bit more about (with the help of PFA of course!) and get the car going as it should be.

Where we will take the build for our car is still very unknown, with dad's other projects needing attention first so they're finished off before we can focus all attention on the Pcar.

Hopefully more updates to come in the near future but for now... here's how she sits.

 

[Raven]

Nice work ,,,that looks like a great project yo have lookin forward to seeing more .........

[Shady Speedway]

Most of the small suspension components on my car, I had zinc plated. Along with the nuts and bolts. 

Cheap and very effective.

[deankat]

Work has been continuing slowly with other things outside of the garage inevitably getting in the way but any progress is good progress.

Laid out all of the suspension bits and bolts to ready them for reassembly (swaybar painted red for +22 horsepower)

Spring plates reassembled 

Aaaaaaannnd finally back on the car reset to the same position they were at....

But (there's always a but) we forgot that we had measured the 25.5^o having centred them at 0^o level on the door sills so they were around 7^o too low. Only realised this when we lowered the car back down to the ground so had to raise the car back up and disassemble everything, annoying but an easy fix...

...that will have to wait for later! Ran out of time to reassemble after taking everything off, but now that we (hopefully) know what we're doing, next time we get to work on the car It'll go straight back on its wheels and ready to drive again.

Couple of questions this time around:

1. Plan on doing everything hand tight until we know everything is assembled correctly but was wondering what are the specs are for torquing everything that has gone back on?

2. Despite the car being far off where it is supposed to, the spring plates aligned almost perfectly with the line that was drawn onto the inner wheel well so this left some confusion as to what else could've possibly been wrong?

Any ideas are of course welcome!

Cheers, Dean

[Shady Speedway]

I remember spending days getting the rear ride height settled with those spring plates.

You know how the spline system works?

It's loads of trial and error, but it's very satisfying when its settled.

It's best to do the final tension on the suspension when the car in on all 4s. So everything is nipped up in the home position.

[BlitzKonig]

Ill send you a photo of what my Haynes manual has for the suspension bits when I get home tonight. 

P.s. what size torsion bars did you go? 

[deankat]

Ill send you a photo of what my Haynes manual has for the suspension bits when I get home tonight. 

P.s. what size torsion bars did you go? 

Thanks that'd be much appreciated!

Not sure what size they are but I am assuming they are stock as no other suspension seems to be upgraded or changed by the last owner. Quick google tells me 23mm was the size for 1975 model year but is there a number on the bar that will say?

[BlitzKonig]

Sorry it took so long, life got in the way, never headed down to the shed.
Rear Suspension:

Front Suspension: 

Additional Specifications:

[deankat]

Sorry it took so long, life got in the way, never headed down to the shed.

Thanks alot for that Blitz!

Car was finished late Saturday night and could probably afford to sit abit lower but it is now at the same height as before and level! Also gone are any and all loud squeaks from the rear suspension we used to hear every time they compressed.

Went for a quick drive to fill up and check the car out on level ground and all is good! Feels good to get the first objective on the checklist ticked off ourselves, next on the agenda is hopefully same treatment for the front suspension and then fine tune ride height to get the perfect stance.

Cheers, Dean

[BlitzKonig]

Thats looking really nice. Im always amazed at how long it does take for the suspension to settle again.

[SeniorK]

Dam I love this car. 

Nice pic Dean. 

Like Dean said it's a massively improved ride.  The job itself was not overly difficult given I didn't remove the calipers and all the tutorials we watched online. It's just a matter of being patient. It was obvious when we sat it back on the ground after the first reassemble that I fu*#ed somewhere along the line. 

Pulling apart a freshly assembled rear end did not seem appealing at all but it had to be done. Funny enough the most difficult job of this entire project was separating the newly assembled torsion bar from the  spring plate. I had greased it up so well it actually created a Vacum. I'd pull it out 10mm, let it go and it would suck itself back in. Had me laughing at one stage. Anyway persitance pays and second times a charm and it all went well. I really wanted to do the trailing arm bushes too but looks like some specialised tools will be required for that job so it'll have to wait. Sitting perfectly level and oh so quiet. Haven't torqued any of the bolts yet. Thank you for the torque specs. And thanks to all for your comments and help. 

Regards Christos. 

[BlitzKonig]

Funny enough the most difficult job of this entire project was separating the newly assembled torsion bar from the  spring plate. 

How did you go about getting the Spring plate off of the torsion bar? I really had issue with this and needed to use a bearing puller to get it off. In the process, the end cap of the spring plate was pushed in and I could never press it back on. Might just have been me haha

[AC78]

How did you go about getting the Spring plate off of the torsion bar? I really had issue with this and needed to use a bearing puller to get it off. In the process, the end cap of the spring plate was pushed in and I could never press it back on. Might just have been me haha

When I did this job I drilled a smallish hole through the end caps then filled the space with WD40.  Let that stew for a bit then put a punch through the hole and give the torsion bar a good whack with a BFH - it slid right off.  I got some new end caps made up, but have heard that some people will weld a nut over top of the hole so you can use a bolt to separate the plate from the bar.  I figured I won't be doing this job for another 30 years so will worry about it then.