The rear end on my 67 is sitting lower than the front, and it's really starting to get to me. It's not the shocks as we just put all new shocks all the way around. I've heard something about resetting / realigning the torsion bars or something like resetting to a Z-index or something?

Does any of this sound familiar or on the right track?

Will it all start to make sense if I just start getting in there, removing the wheel & brake housing, and just start diving in?

I've never messed with the Torsion bars or any rear axle-ish stuff before, but I'm feeling brave enough to give it a shot. I've worked on just about everything else (except trany stuff...).

Are there any tips or general play by play instruction anyone can offer.

Are there special tools I'm going to need to facilitate anything like pounds of pressure or torsion?

Any advice would be very much welcomed. Any direction to other sites that may have any DIY info would be great too. I'd even go as far as phone conversation if you think it would help.

thanks, let me know.

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The rear torsion bars are on a spline, and on the end it has a spring plate which is under tension so you need to be careful or you can injure yourself. There are plenty of people around who have lowered the rear ends of VW's, it sounds like you may need to do the opposite (although the process is the same).

Quite a few years ago was a hot VW's article which showed how to modify a VW jack into a tool for squeezing up the spring plate safely, I'll look to see if I can find anything.

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OK, I've found the article and scanned it:

raising_lowering.zip 

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WOW... You're awesome! Thanks for the very thorough help. I'll check it out this weekend & see if I get anywhere.

thanks again. 🙂 I'll keep you posted. - JR

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oh boy... Well, I attempted it this last weekend & I had a buddy with me who had done it before so I didn't bother printing out those pages, just gave them a good read through the prior day. Needless to say ... I've now printed them out for round 2 on Saturday.

Everything went like a charm though... really. The only thing is we adjusted the plate one click (yes only 1 large tooth click..) on the plate site of the splines... and that's way... way... to much. LOL I'll post pics later, cause I'm gong to take some photos before we taker back down... it's just way to funny not too, everyone's got to see this.

Anyway, so obviously all we need to do is make our adjustment using the inner set of splines on the torsion bars, then using a protractor just note the adjustment as to get it set the same for both sides. I'm guessing 1 or 2 clicks of the inner splines should it.

I'll keep you posted. The info you sent was great help though. Between that & my buddies help we really were able to work our way through most of it pretty easily (I don't even think cussed once... seriously... the process was cake)... just kind of over looked the minor detail. 🙂 LOL

thanks _ JR

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😃 Make sure you roll it backwards and forwards a bit before you attempt it all again, sometimes they sit really high after they've been in the air because the swing axles are tucked under.

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yeah... that was my hope initially too, but after we took her around the block & she was still way up in the air... well you know... it was back to the drawing board time. 🙂

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oh by the way... I had a Q for you... is my 67 supposed to have a sway-bar in the rear? We noticed an extra set of bolts mounted to each side of a large oval-ish shaped opening coming from under the wheel well. Just to the rear of the Shock mounts, or there abouts.

Wasn't sure if my 67 is missing a little something, or was this just an engineering thing, maybe they were gearing up for the 68 & later models.

- JR

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yes sway bar should be there on a 67, sounds like someone been in their before you. Its amazing the difference one spline can make to the height. is the back too low or is the front too high?

well, that explains a lot about the sway bar. I'll have to get on that next.

mmmm... the front is probably about right, at least for stock. The rear was only clearing about half inch from the fender, so it was definitely a sagg'n 67. Not that that's a bad thing, I'll probably end up lowering eventually anyway, but in the mean time I'd rather it sit proper as I'm probably a ways out from the lowering bit.

The sway-away bar is actually going to be a huge help. It's always sat inconsistent after driving. Especially when pulling into a parking stall. It always sort of sat slightly swayed this way or that, (hence, sway bar... ehy...) unless you were driving straight or pulling-in straight.

Makes much sense. Just hope they didn't remove it for any particular reason. 🙂 thanks

We're working on it tomorrow, I'll take pictures & post over the weekend, maybe on Monday at the latest. 🙂

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Mine is starting to do the same. They will do with age, the torsion bars can loose their springyness (bad grammer).

Try and replace the rubbers at the end of the orsion bar as well, this may help a little. That is what i am going to do.

p.s. be careful torsion bars are sided, so make sure you put them back the right way.

Andy

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