Cutting late dual spring plates down to single?

[Marc]

I like to maintain a "pinkie's width" of clearance (~½") to decrease the chances of the sidewall hitting anything in the event of a puncture before there's time to get to the shoulder. I figure it could make the difference between leaving the tire repairable or tearing it up.

[Piledriver]

That skid mark is from the trial fit with the 15mm wheel spacers, which prompted this thread.

Tire actually spun pretty easy, but a new tires glossy finish leaves a pretty good mark.
The tire also wasn't quite running square at first without the hats or rotors on.
With the Wilwood hats +15mm spacer it just barely touches, ~3-4mm gap with the 15mm spacer and 914 rotor.

I can easily slide a finger in that gap with the 1" spacer and the 914 rotors. (~13mm)
The ~50% cut down bump stops clear everything by 1"++ currently.
If it had single spring plates it would be 1" or more to the springplate.
I could probably simply fit adjustable springplates now and still leave sufficient gap with the 1" wheel spacers.
Who makes good ones? (or just go factory with 944 units? Non Turbo/wide type, right?)

Nothing else is remotely close on the inside, at least at any travel I could manage with the bars in.
When I mod the inner fenders I'll pull the bars and 4 ways and fully cycle the suspension to check.

Right now it would rub the inner fender drooping outer area pretty good at ~full compression, but with the ~400lb/in 4-way snubbers on there its wont go there unless I catch an awful lot of air on a jump, which isn't likely.

I actually did a decent 30MPH +WOT railroad crossing launch/landing with no evidence of contact as a first test.
(probably ~6 inches of "air" at most tho, out in the boondocks just down the road)

[Marc]

IIRC the common 924/944 spacers are closer to ¾" than 1", but they're pretty easy to find for cheap and are hub-centric. I suppose you could use those plus ~¼" pass-throughs if legit 1" are too spendy, but good deals do come up from time to time on eBay.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

'Pile, are you using "in-set" wheels vs. off-set wheels mit der spacers to be able to get a wider tire in the wheel well? (pictures do make a lot of difference in advice and clarity of the problem)

I will deny I ever told you this... I have seen people machine a tad off the head of a/the bolt to gain clearance. I wouldn't take too much off as you do sacrifice some strength the bolt head gives. Bolt heads are fairly standard in thickness for several reasons, one being the tools used; sockets being one example (one of the reasons for the taper on both sides of the hex part of the head). I have done some fasteners with custom heads a couple of times, early in my career but, as I remember, they were mostly shoulder bolts. I remember one being hollow through the head and down into the shoulder so that a special grease could be added to help compensate for the heat ranges the bolt would see (desert temps to something like minus 30 degrees in just minutes).

If that missing bolt is the one that goes into the threaded part of the trailing arm I think this could be done as the nut on the other side is going to make up some of the lost clamping ability than the shortened head of the bolt might lose. The nut is locking the second arm of the spring plate against the trailing arm as the bolt exits the threads of the trailing arm. Kind of like having bolts going into the same area from the different sides... if you please; e.g., the bolt head clamps and the nut clamps like two bolts would do. Are you using a washer under the head which extends the head of the bolt out a bit? Gotta be stronger than just not having the fastener there.

I wonder what using a stud with two nuts machined to fit the needed clearance would do.

Lee

[Steve Arndt]

IIRC the common 924/944 spacers are closer to ¾" than 1", but they're pretty easy to find for cheap and are hub-centric.

83 to 85.5 P944 came with 21mm wheel spacers.

[Piledriver]

Drove it to work today, goes great, nice and smooth, ~zero runout with the hubcentric setup.
Feels... Planted. Revs are down ~300+ RPM at 75 MPH.

CNC machined 6061T6 hubcentric spacers are pretty cheap when <1".
I think the factory 944 ones were cast?

Did get the front tires mounted on wheels today before work, need to decide what's happening there, was planning on going with Wilwood vented fronts on some cut down/5x130 studded 914 rotors,l but may just adapt to the existing front brakes for now and do the bigger brakes at my leisure, as it stops just fine.

Ii don't want to park the car at all again for long if I can help it, it drives too nice and has awesome heat with the BN4 in the frunck, and working in cold mud sucks. (working on that, too)

Of course it felt like 65 and sunny today.

Lee, I have the 3 rearmost spring plate bolts/nuts in place, the 4th one is the only one with any issues, it may be T3 specific?
Aftermarket T1 springplates aren't even drilled for it.

I flipped the most forward bolt of the std 3, the lip of the wheels is far beyond there but the end of the bolt was originally just catching a wheel weight when test fitting. Zero issues with it reversed.

The actual tires closes spot is forward of even the now missing 4th bolt, and the single spring plate will deal with the spacing.

I have a set of 944 springplates inbound, $75, with priority mail shipping.

It drives and even looks great, but I'd like that 10mm back just for insurance and perhaps not having to mod the inner fenders. The rear end only needs a ~1" or so drop to level things out again, the front 205/55s seems to be the ~same height as the old 205/60-15s.

I'll cut down some 944 torsion ends I have laying around to fit the square, and may spin up some delrin springplate bushings... We'll see how the ~4-5 year old black urethanes look after 80K miles, they have yet to squeak, and everything is still centered. I'm not sure if the factory bushings on the 944 plates would fit the VW torsion properly, or vice versa, will know the coming weekend.

I might as well eyeball making up a boring tool to get a properly centered machined bearing seat in the torsion.
(idea from another thread)

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Good to hear the issue is fixed. For some reason I thought that Type III had double arm spring plates and they were the same as Type I. Sorry for the bad posts.

Lee

[Steve Arndt]

http://www.racersedge-inc.com/racersedg ... &id=9.3.18
http://www.racersedge-inc.com/racersedg ... &id=9.3.17

Precision inner and outer 944 torsion bar delrin bushings. I would just go this route. Racers edge also has some trick inner trailing arm pivot spherical bushings for alloy arms. can those be fitted to steel arms?

I also meant to follow up with knobby vs smooth on the inner bushings. They are smooth as shown, not knobby like VW torsion.

[Bruce.m]

Regarding the front. This is my hubs. Still to fit the studs though.



Tapping for retaining screw

[Piledriver]

Where are the hubs from?
Is that the CSP setup?

That's turned down to Porsche hubcentric size? (71.3mm)

[Bruce.m]

Home made, with minor lathe finishing farmed out. Still to finalise the rest of the "kit" so I can't confirm all the dimensions but you get the general idea.

Source of the hubs:


Leftovers:


Cut the bell / disc off with an angle grinder. The outer edge was then machined down to 154mm diameter to fit inside the larger disc. Drilled & tapped for disc screws. Also thinned the flange to 10mm to reduce the hub weight (which requires studs instead of wheel bolts). The centre is the standard centric size (matches the rear 944 hubs).
Will post the full spec when it's all finished.

[Piledriver]

I used a plasma cutter on some old discs, starting with a made-as 5 lug setup was a good idea.

[Bruce.m]

They are quality German discs so a brave first cut
The larger rotors are boxster 2.7 so an "off the shelf" service part.
Rear set up is the usual 944 pre-86 hub & disc.
Front & rear calipers are again boxster 2.7 with home made brackets (T6 1 1/2" square bar, drilled and helicoiled to m12x1.5 for the caliper bolts & cross drilled with 12mm bores).

Rear mock up:


Not the lightest set up admittedly but I'll never need more stopping power..

[Bruce2]

Regarding the front. This is my hubs. Still to fit the studs though.

Id get those made out of 6061.
Then cloverleaf the OD.

[Piledriver]

Regarding the front. This is my hubs. Still to fit the studs though.

I'd get those made out of 6061.
Then cloverleaf the OD.

I'm trying, either 6060T6 or 7075T6.
7075 would probably even work fine for the rear hubs.
Rattle Devs cage if you want a set too.

CB Perf sells 5x130 CrMo rear hubs, T3 clone for $120.
They are part of a kit they sell, not listed separately, but email is an awesome thing.

I'm going down a ~similar path on the brakes, probably using late model Mustang 2.3L aluminum rears with Wilwood 8x7 steel hats and .810 rotors.
Very light, good quality, available anywhere (in the US anyway) and ~dirt cheap.
They can center on a 3.055" hub, drilling the 5" pattern out to 3/4" and they go on 5x130 studs.
Not sure if the fronts will get Dynalites w/1.75 pistons or Superlights with 1.25 pistons, have both.

Similar on the fronts, still need to mod those time permitting, its a driver in the meantime.

The 944 trailing arms i ordered seem to have been an inventory glitch so I'm looking for another set.