I had heard that Porsche put out an adjustable rear suspension spring plate, does any body know if this is true and is a factory fit.

Spoke with my engineer about fitting similar to my beetle and he said he doesn't think the RTA wouldn't pass them, so I thought if Porsche had them from the factory it may change his views. He was concerned because if the adjusting block was to break off, you would loose your suspension and the car would drop on that side.

Engineer is John from Consulmotive in Sydney area and he is a signatory or similar of the RTA. I am not trying to prove John wrong or put him down (he would know better than me), just trying to find out for sure because I would like to fit them as it will make setting the car ride height up a lot easier.

Cheers, Kevin

no

Yes...

But I doubt John would pass the block-style jobbies

John who?

they are being used on Beetles...

I've seen them...

they seem to be legal in the UK..

Porsche did use wheel spacers on the 916
[same as VW 914 but with Porsche engine.]

but wheel spacers are illegal as far as i know... in NSW.

You could ring shannons insurance and see if they would
insure the car with the rear adjusters...??

Don't You like the idea of adjusting the rear with the torsion bar splines???

LEE

Porche used eccentric that adjusts height and camber one some models

those ones with blocks welded onto the spring plates are very dangerous

Porsche 944's had adjustable rear spring plates as standard - both on the normally aspirated and the Turbo's.

They're a pretty nifty setup actually, and much more solid than the welded on block sort - the idea of them was to allow fine-tuning of the height and camber without pulling the torsion bars out. More importantly the factory 944 NA ones will bolt straight into an IRS beetle. I've got a set down in the garage which I plan to stick on Jezebel - will get some photo's of them tonite if interested.

With the wheel spacers (where did that bit come from Lee?) it gets complicated - 944 NA's came with spacers on the rear as standard, 18mm I think they were... and the rego rules are usually along the lines "spacers between the wheel and hub are not allowed other than as fitted by the original manufacturer". It gets even more vague since a 944 NA has exactly the same trailing arm and bearings as an IRS beetle, just a different stub axle (same overall dimensions but uses 100mm CV's) and with discs and then spacers on top.

Mat:

Hi

I had a steel set of 944 arms set on my old 1302, I have another set of steel 944 arms on my daily 1303 and a set of alloy 944 arms on my other 1303.

All have height, toe & camber adjsutment.

Steve

I read in a book about Porsches

that the rear IRS swing arm was the same as used in Beetles

I can't remember what Porsche it was maybe a 924??

it said that the part number was even the same..???

apologies about the spacers... lol
just came to mind..

LEE


PS: Steve/Dave those swing arms would be very expensive
??

Forgot to take photo's last night, but never mind as my setup is pretty much identical to what Steve's posted.

Lee - that setup was factory on 924, 944NA and early 944 Turbo's, while later Turbo's had alloy arms that unfortunately need a bit of fiddling to make work on beetle.

Expensive depends I guess... they're all old cars now, so it depends on what you can find around the place, how reasonable the guy is etc.... I managed to get the whole rear end reasonably cheap out of a 944NA that had gone sideways into a tree.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and it has revealed a few different thoughts or beliefs from different people.

I have had 2 previous cars engineered by John at Consulmotive and I know if a car passes through there it is legit. He is a real nice bloke, very helpful, but firm and I guess he needs to be. When it comes down to it, i want my car to all be legal and not have any headaches.

Lee - As you know this is my first VW and I have had a few goes at adjusting via the torsion bars, but am either to high or to low. Have tried doing inner and outer, but must be doing something wrong.

Anyway, thanks again all and it looks as if I will be staying away from the aftermarket adjustable spring plates.

Kevin

P.S. Sorry for delay in replying, been away for work.

Hi

The 944 adjustable spring plates work really well.

I put then into a car that I was driving the next day to VW show up the North Coast, when I got it on the ground it was sitting just a bit too high, then all I needed to do was quick fiddle with the adjusters and it was done.

If your getting your car engineered, there is something you should be aware of.

You need to grind some clearance into chassis section behind the spring plate, the engineer may not like this.

You also need to slim the heads down on the 2 adjusting bolt heads, you can see a little in of what I'm talking about on the spring plate on the left of the picture I posted.

You need to weld the head on the bolt closest to the axle to stop it from spinning when you tighten it, the other bolt is the height adjustment.

To use the adjusting bolt, remove the large washer from behind the adjusting nut, then screw another non locking nut onto the protruding bolt thread, then fit another nut on the end of the thread and lock the 2 nuts together, then used these to adjust the height, then locked it all up when I was happy with it on bolt closet to the axle, then refitted the large washer.

You also need to have the weight off the suspension to make the adjustment.

Steve