shock tower clearancing for 944 spring plates

[zen]

here are pics (one of inboard, one of outboard) of the 944 spring plate up against a stock shock tower. now to decide how to cut the least amount to allow fit and clearance.

thoughts? (because i bet this has been done many different ways)

doing this safely is my biggest concern since there will be some stress on there with this car.

You have to clearance about 2mm from the Beetle's chassis frame in the area behind the Porsche's eccentric bolt back. Unfortuately, the only way to do this is with the spring plates off the car.

[LOAF]

Zen, I am most curious too..

I am doing 78 vert, and have to wait for the weather to heat up a little.. but once it does I am sending my torsion bar housing to get dismantled by a local porshe guy, so that I a can transplant.. I figure I can do the ones on the car with the right tools..

When I do the swap I know I will encounter the same.. BTW are you using early or late rear trailing arms.. on yours. I can't remember but I have been following you build up..
Sincerely
Alex

Originally Posted by Superman

You have to clearance about 2mm from the Beetle's chassis frame in the area behind the Porsche's eccentric bolt back. Unfortuately, the only way to do this is with the spring plates off the car.

[boygenius]

Here's what I did.

There is enough room to turn the eccentric nut so I can raise and lower my suspension. I welded the front bolt to the inner plate so I don't have to hold the backside of the spring plate to adjust my suspension. Any possible weakening of the shock tower should be compensated by the kafer cup brace and the roll cage.

[zen]

super, is the 2mm you recommend just surfacing on the shock tower? seems like that is the way to go with the e-bolt. the forward bolt looks like it will go through the webbing as genius did. i was hoping to only follow the bolt path, but that is pretty surgical cutting.

loaf, they are early arms.

genius, thanks for the pics again. i have the tools to do it now and was hoping for last minute reassurance on what cuts everyone has done. tomorrow i start cutting.

btw, what has everyone done for the bump stop? i was thinking of hunting down a stop that has the bolt molded in and drilling the top stop for it and bolting it from the top.

[boygenius]

I'm going to cut the stock bump stop off my original trailing arms and drill a hole through it. Then I'm going to thread the top of my aluminum trailing arm and bolt it on. I'll take some pics when I get to that. Still have to put another coat of POR-15 on the bottom of my chassis.

Originally Posted by zen

super, is the 2mm you recommend just surfacing on the shock tower?

Yes.

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[zen]

here is what i came up with on clearancing (see attached). cutting to the outside of the marks. i widened the marks so they would show up better in the pics.

genius, did you check full travel to the top stop? because my measurements go much higher than yours on the e-bolt.

also, when looking at the spring plate i have mounted to an uncut shock tower, when the bolts start touching the shock tower there is about 8mm between the inside of the spring plate and the outside of the shock tower (measured at the trailing edge of the shock tower at the top of the spring plate). so is it correct to assume that since only needing to clearance 2mm that the spring plate to shock tower clearance at final mounting has 6mm gap? i assume this is set only by how much the torsion tube bushing pushes outboard on the spring plate after the torsion housing is buttoned down all of the way.

[boygenius]

[QUOTE=zen]
genius, did you check full travel to the top stop? because my measurements go much higher than yours on the e-bolt.

QUOTE]


Zen. With the top of the spring plate resting on the top spring plate stop the e-bolt has about 2mm of clearance. Don't forget your future bump stops will be there to stop those part from touching.

Cut off the metal in little steps to figure out exactly you need to remove and then make a cordboard cutout to transfer the design to the other side.

[NO_H2O]

Remember to round over all the edges you make but cutting, there sould be no sharp or unrounded edges when you are done. An part with an unrounded edge will crack much sooner than one with a rounded edge.

[zen]

well, no cutting today. home depot nor lowe's had the abor i needed for the angle grinder.

[zen]

bump on this part...

Originally Posted by zen

...also, when looking at the spring plate i have mounted to an uncut shock tower, when the bolts start touching the shock tower there is about 8mm between the inside of the spring plate and the outside of the shock tower (measured at the trailing edge of the shock tower at the top of the spring plate). so is it correct to assume that since only needing to clearance 2mm that the spring plate to shock tower clearance at final mounting has 6mm gap? i assume this is set only by how much the torsion tube bushing pushes outboard on the spring plate after the torsion housing is buttoned down all of the way.

hoping to only cut once.

[NO_H2O]

I found an extra cutting wheel arbor and some rotory files. I will call you so we can hook up. Then you can MAN-UP-N-GRIND.

[Maynard]

I'm doing the same thing and was wondering if you have to provide clearance for both bolts or just the e-bolt?

[zen]

Originally Posted by Maynard

I'm doing the same thing and was wondering if you have to provide clearance for both bolts or just the e-bolt?

see post #8 above. it will show you the path of the bolts. both have to be clearanced.