Is there a nifty trick for removing the rear torsion bars?.
 

Hey all,
I am replacing the 911T rear suspension with the SC's suspesion and running into a little "bind". The rear torion bar is stuck onto the torsion plate and I can't get it off. Yup!, I tried licking it also, but no luck. Do you have a nifty dorki trick to remove the torsion bar?. I am getting very close to breaking out my zawall. Thanks dorkies, Andy

Heat the sides on the end of socket with a torch and bang away to start. Heat and reheat a time or two while soaking with L.R.

If that is a no go you can drill a hole in the end of the T bar socket and drive it out with a punch or press. Thread and install a bolt in the hole when you are done to keep water out of the end. Grease the crap out of the new bars when you put them in.

Let me know if you can't get them out. I have the hardware to make it happen.

I did this job last week and had a sticky one too. I clamped a big vise grip on the t-bar and used a wood block and small pry bar to wedge in between and wiggle it. Took a while, but it worked.

Andy, you can put the torsion bars in a vice to get some leverage. Then wiggle the spring plate back and forth(up and down) with alot of force. If that doesn't work, clamp the spring plate into the vice and use a pickle fork(ball joint tool) to get leverage on the torsion bar, then just hammer away at the pickle fork until it pops out. I have one that I can bring over to your place this weekend. I told you that you needed to get violent with it :twisted: .

Stuck in the spring plate, not the car, right? If the wiggling and pickle fork methods don't work, try this: Put the spring plate in a vice, with the torsion bar sticking straight up. Beat the torsion bar down INTO the spring plate with a BFH. The cap on the end of the spring plate should just pop right off, and you can pull the torsion bar out. Clean everything up, and epoxy the cap back on, and you're done.

The end piece on the torsion bar cap is just pressed in and is a stock freeze plug size. If you knock it out clean you can just replace, if you damage it just size a freeze plug replacement. Or you can use one of those nifty red or black pipe thread protectors on the end. Don’t forget the inner mount goes all the way through so you can drive out one bar using the other or a suitably sized pipe.

Try not to clamp onto or nick up a T bar that you plan to reuse. Knock them out from the ends if you can. Even small nicks and scratches on the surface have a profound effect on metal under torsion and act as stress risers and then entry ways for corrosion. This will cause the bar to snap eventually. Ask Chopper dropper. He had on fail while the car was just sitting. If you don't plan to reuse or sell clamp away. Coat the bar with a real THICK slobber of grease from one end to the other when reinstalling to help protect from corrosion.

OK, I'm puzzeled :? If you can't get the bar out of the spring plate end how do you get it out of the car?

I would have if I could have.I think.
I clamped one of those huge wooden clamps (like in shop class) onto the t-bar and pried between the clamp and the spring plate.

Kurt, how about using your idea and screwing in a grease fitting?

One of the difficult things in re-indexing my bars was the suction created with all the grease arroind the splines. The little hole in the end would have been a great "releif"!

Just pull the spring plate with the t-bar out as far as you can, then twist it so the arm of the spring plate points upward, and wiggle the bar until it pops out of the torsion bar tube. This is how I removed my torsion bars with the spring plate still on them.

Andy, you're getting new torsion bars, right? If I was you I would go with 21mm or 22mm front and 28mm in the rear.

Yeah Kurt, that was a real surprise. Car was "88 targa Autocrossed a lot and tracked pretty heavily with stock suspension. Had about 90,000 miles on it about 12 years old. Broke sitting in the garage all on its lonesome. Did not look rusty/corroded at all.
Dirk