type 1 torsion arms removal and replacement

[waynekarnes]

okay.

i type at 2 words a minute. so do me a favor and read this really slowly.

for me to make something work i have to understand it.

have a friend that tells me, i just want to know what time it is, not how to build a watch.

me, i want to build a watch, then i can understand how it tracks time.

there are reasons to remove the torsion arms. you know why u are doing it.

i did it to replace the ball joints.

i have 4 manuals and they all suck, even the factory manual.

anyway, what ever your reasons are, read the manual you have. it may suck but it will have pics and basic specs and such. seek out a friend or mechanic for a heads up before you start.

i visited with the Dave, Todd, Blue, Nick and Mike at Peninsula Auto in Campbell, Ca. been doing business with them for over 20 years. keep your local guy in business. mail order is fine but, where are we gonna be when the local guys are gone ? Blue gave me some pointers. he was busy so i did not get the whole show. offered to help me over the phone. Unfortunately, they are closed on saturday. I attempted installing the arms over the weekend.

removal is piece of cake.

reinstalling em is another story.



let's approach this as if we have never done this before. i know i had not done one on my own before.

the front beams are two tubes, upper and lower. inside each of these tubes are a set of bars. the bars are stacked in a pattern. i think are set of 9 stacked in a square. when looking from the wheel end of the beams ( tubes ) with the torsion ( control ) arms out of the beams, into the beams you will see the stack. on top of the square you will see 2 more bars stacked on top and the same under the stack of 9. on top of those 2 bars ( top and bottom ) are one more bar. so, sort of a triangle stack on the top of the square stack of bars and on the bottom of the square. these bars are around a third of an inch wide and 1/4 inch thick. give or take.

there are 2 large bolts in the center length of the beams ( center looking from the front ). those bolts, one in each beam, hold the bars in place inside the beams. the bars, grouped together like this make up a torsion spring.

look at the torsion arms. the cylinder looking part, looks like a can on its side, there is a notch on the inside of that part of the torsion arm. that notch ( now why don't the books tell anyone this ?? ) well those notches match up to the shape of the individual bars acting as a whole to make up the torsion spring.

put one arm on passenger end of beam, put the bars ( spring ) into the notch in the torsion arm and you can twist the spring. do the same on the driver's side and it too twists the spring.

this notch and spring thing is important to know when you go to put this all back together.

funny thing is, when you do it right, a hammer is only needed for a few gentle taps, if at all.

any one that tells you to grab a hammer and a block of wood so you can beat chunks of wood out of that block of wood as you hold it against the torsion arms as the arms slowly go back into place is not doing you any favors. ( voice of experience LOL ... ouch ).

the big well kept secret is knowing about the shape of the spring and matching the notches in the arms back up to the spring.

okay, getting back to the beams ( tubes ) ...

there are more than just springs in there. on either end of the beams, the ends near the wheels, the outer ends of the beams, top and bottom beams ( upper and lower ) are bearings.

imagine that some one pressed in a can into either end of the beam. inside the cans are roller bearings, sort of flat needles laying on their side. well actually on either end of the can are bearings. inner and outer bearings. the cans are more like open wall cages that hold the bearings.

you remember those torsion arms ?? there is a long cylinder on the other end of each of those arms. you can't see em from the outside. those cylinders slide into the beams and ride on those bearings. the end of the spring fits into the notches in the shoulder of the torsion arm. can you get a mental picture of all of this ???

okay, all you wanted to do was remove the torsion arms, and this fool is telling you nothing about that. we will get there. at 2 words a minute.

safety, safety, safety.

jack stands and wheel chocks. COUPLE ROLLS OF QUALITY PAPER TOWELS. peel maybe 20 sheets off a roll right now. who am i fooling, peel off 50 sheets. tear em into individual sheets. have em ready near the sides of the beams.

parking brake on, transmission in gear, rear wheels chocked. jack stands to support the front beam.

the manuals will give you basic instructions on how to remove the wheels, torsion arms. follow those instructions as a basic guide.

i will guess that you know how to jack up a bug, place jack stands and such.

please please be careful. think about what you are doing. wear eye protection.

before you jack the bug up, measure the distance between the top of the tire to the fender above the tire. do passenger side, do driver's side. will be different. write it down.

remove the front shock absorbers before you jack the bug up off the ground.



i removed the wheels, backed off the brake shoes, removed the drums. have a coat hanger wire ready to hang the backing plate on or remove the brake hose from the wheel cylinder. remove the 4 bolts holding the backing plate to the steering knuckle. do not remove the wheel cylinder or the brake shoes from the backing plate. slide the backing plate with the brake shoes on it over the spindle. get it out of the way.

do one side of car then the other.

i think is 19 mm wrench to remove the nuts that hold the ball joints to the steering knuckle.

the tie rod ends are 15 ( ? ). go to tool store, get a pickle fork. u will need it to pry the tie rods ends off of the steering knuckle.

before you do, take some white paint and paint around the threads of the tie rod end, let it dry.

remember, the threads on the driver's side are left hand threads. means what is normally tightening, is actually loosening. same with the nut holding the tie rod under the gas tank.

when you go to put things back together, you will need to thread the tie rod ends back in place. you adjust the toe in/toe out ( stand with your feet together. keep heels together. slide your feet apart in the front. toes go outward to the sides. that is toe out. bring big toes back to touching. straight ahead is zero toe in/out. if you cross toes over one another, is toe in. most cars like a bit of toe in ).

camber, sit in a chair, feet on the floor, side by side, touching one another. knees together touching. move knees apart until lift inside edge of feet off the ground. push knees together, feet still on ground until outside edge of feet lift.

that is camber. the angle of the tire as looked at from the very top. top of tire tilts in or tilts out under the fender.

look at fork on bicycle. see how there is an angle on the fork, moves the tire out a bit from straight down, that is caster. remember riding your old bike as a kid, taking hands off the handle bars and how easy it was to ride ? you try that now on your mountain bike and it is not so easy ?
take a look at the front fork on the mountain bike, is almost straight up and down, very little kick out. that kick out ... that is caster, same as on a shopping cart or your floor jack.

anyway, mark the threads on the tie rods, paint em, count em. how many threads on either end of the tie rod, both ends of tie rod on both passenger and driver's side.

when you put things back together, will give good starting point for the toe in/ toe out set up.

this is very important. make sure you count the threads and/or paint the exposed threads of the tie rod ends.



remove the tie rod ends before you attempt to remove the ball joint nuts at the steering knuckle.

do not hammer them out. the stud will spread and not pass through the hole. books show special machine to press em out. wedge the pickle fork in there and work at it. occasionally i find, running two nuts together at the end of the threaded stud on the tie rod end, so that they do not come loose. the bottom nut being a couple threads exposed below the stud. you can see the threads in the nut.

rap the bottom nut from under that nut with a large hammer. the nuts will protect the threads. pry with the pickle bar and rap from below. the tie rod end should come free of the steering knuckle.

it did not work for me. i was replacing the tie rod ends. i counted exposed threads, wrote it down.
grabbed the hack saw and cut the tie rods off at the part closest to the steering knuckle. you got it, cut em off.

once the tie rod end is free of the tie rod, i headed to the ball joint nuts.

i used a box end hand wrench to remove the nuts, check the books, i think are only 29 ft lb. i removed both nuts.

i was able to lift the upper torsion arm up at the ball joint end, up and above the hole in the steering knuckle, clearing the knuckle. i did this by hand. keep your fingers away from the hole in the steering knuckle. there is a large aluminum cone shaped spacer between the ball joint and the hole in the steering knuckle. that cone is how the camber is adjusted. do not pry on it, do not damage it.

if you can not free the joint from the spindle, you may need the use of a pry bar of sorts. use the plate under the master cylinder as a fulcrum point and using the pry bar ( could be a shovel handle ) lift the torsion arm. be careful. get help if possible.

once the upper is out, you should be able to use hammer to tap the knuckle free of the lower ball joint. again, do not hammer on the threads on the end of the stud.

did not work for me.

there are allen head socket screws with pointy ends screwed into v shaped bowls in the springs on the torsion arms. you may not see them because there are set/locking nuts around them securing them in place.

you will not be able to turn the socket screws until you back off the set nuts. you may find that when you back off the locking set nuts the socket screws come with them. this is fine.

clean the holes in the socket screws of grease and dirt. the allen wrench should sink into the socket around a third of an inch. check the book for specs but, i think are around 14 ft lb.

completely remove the socket screw. when you think about it, is kinda spooky that this is basically the only thing holding the wheels to the beams.

with the screw out, and upper ball joint removed from steering knuckle, you can remove the upper torsion arm. in theory, it will slide right out, towards the outside of the car.

mine did not.

i used a hammer (small sledge ) protected the arm with small piece of wood and tap, tap, tap, tapped the upper torsion arm outward until could feel it moving freely.

remember that cylinder i spoke of so, so long ago ? cylinder on inside portion of torsion arm's shoulder ( part at the beam ) how it slides into the beam and rides on the bearings ?

well that cylinder is longer than you might think it is. around 10 inches long. there will be a little suction fighting against you as you pull outward. once free of the 1st half inch or so, the arm will pull out freely.

if you have real trouble getting the arm out, the arm may be bent, the beam bent or someone destroyed the bearings either by not greasing the front beams or when replaced the torsion arms.

remember those paper towels ( if you did not get any, soon you will regret it. if you bought cheap ones, well, you will regret that more. oh, rags are not recommended ), you are about to find out why you need em. lay maybe 8 of em on the ground near you. if it is windy, weight em down with something. but leave most of the towel clear because you will want to lay the arm on the towel.

pull the upper torsion arm all the way out of the beam. the cylinder will be covered with lube grease.

lay it on the paper towels. use other towels to clean your self and everything else.

now remove the lower arm the same way. in my case the lower ball joint was still attached to the steering knuckle.

i have helped friends pull torsion arms. sometimes, removed the socket screws and pulled both upper and lower arms with the steering knuckle attached.

do not even try and put the arms back in place this way. it can be done. have helped do it.

guy i was helping usually has luck on his side and things just work for him. so, yes, it can be done.

is it worth your time to try and put the arms back in place with em attached to the steering knuckle ? not mine LOL



now go to other side of the car and do same thing on that side.

i ended up taking both steering knuckles with the lower torsion arms attached via the lower ball joints to the shop. Blue got the lower ball joint free of the steering knuckle. he also removed the tie rod ends that i hack sawed off.

cost me around 275 for labor, new seals, 4 german ball joints, and two tie rod ends. dropped em after work on monday, picked em up after work on tuesday.

on saturday, i attempted to put things back together.

see on saturday, i had some knowledge of what i was doing. though it was over 25 yrs ago when i last did this, and i was helping a friend with his baja bug, and had scoped out info here and other websites, no one had shared with me all the secrets.

i wasted 6 hours on a saturday trying to get the arms back on.

and no, the guys that told me to use hammers were not right. when they suggested a larger hammer they were even more wrong.

remember the bars and the notches ?

well all those have to line up.

i have no idea how the factory did it. magic i guess.

on sunday after a late saturday night gathering info and using advice from this forum and several websites, i pieced things together.

the stack of bars, the spring, does not want to stay stacked up nice and neat.

the notches in the cylinder portion of the arm, well they seem to have shrunk.

one thing to note is, the notches in the cylinder are way up at the shoulder of the arm, not at the end that 1st slides into the beam. the notched part that has to slide over the spring is maybe 2 inches long.

when you look at the shoulder of the torsion arm, you will see a circle, smaller than a dime.

slide a long bar or screwdriver into the cylinder, through the notched area and to the disc. note the curved dish shape of the disc, which way the disc is facing, bowed in or out. how deep in the groove the disc is into the arm. u will want to replace it the same way.

with the cylinder end of the arm facing towards the ground, long screwdriver in the cylinder.

tap the screwdriver handle on the ground. the disc will easily pop free of the arm. do not lose the discs. you will need to put them back in.

oh, remember the paper towels ?? are you on your second roll yet ??

when you remove the discs, you can look into the cylinder from the shoulder side. you can now see the notches that the spring ( bars ) slide into.

put the arms aside in a clean place.

use a couple small tie wraps or if you are good at tying knots, dental tape ( not floss ).

square the bars to match the notches in the arm. secure the bars with the tie wraps or the dental tape ( string is usually too weak ).

no matter how well you secure the bars, expect em to move a bit. do your best, may take several attempts to get em square. use pliers to pull the tie wraps. grease gets everywhere, have paper towels at ready.

remember those pointy socket screws you removed ???

look at the spring ( all those bars are the spring ). you should see the dish in the spring where the point of the the socket screw will go into.

on the arm is a hole that that pointy socket screw goes through.

take a hand ful of bearing grease and pack it into the the cylinder of the lower torsion arm.

slide the lower cylinder/arm into the beam. line the hole in the arm up with the dish in the spring. make mental note of the clock face and where on the clock the hole in the arm and the dish in the spring line up. write it down if you have to, just to be sure you remember.

now when the cylinder slides in, remember those bearings in the beam. well, they will sort of be in the way. the cylinder will only slide in so far until it encounters the inner bearings. the cylinder will stop. the bearings are installed at the factory. most of us will not be able to replace em. there is a bushing kit that replaces the bearings. a royal pain to replace.

do not be caviler when sliding the cylinders of the arms in place, you do not want to damage these bearings.

there are seals on the ends of the beams. most of the time you can reuse the factory seals.

there are the urethane seals. they rest over the cylinder and as the cylinder moves into the beam the rings/seals go between the arm and the beam. i bought em, did not use em. factory seals work better.

again when sliding the cylinder back into the beam ... do NOT be tempted to use a hammer. and after 10 minutes or so, it is oh so tempting.

instead, rotate the arm, wiggle and work at it. the cylinder will slide past the inner bearing in the beam.

line the hole in the arm up with the dish in the bars/spring. attempt to push the arm into the beam.

again, the notches that travel over the spring or bars are in the last 2 inches closest to the shoulder of the arm. the dental tape or small tie wraps should have held the bars in the stack.

we removed that plug in the shoulder. use a good bright flash light, look into that hole in the shoulder. u can see the bars/spring. using a long thin screw driver or an awl, line the individual bars up with the notches in the arm.

i got lucky, on driver's side, the upper slid on as easy as pushing it through water. lower arm on passenger side was almost as easy.

the other arms i had use the holes in the arms where the plugs were to pass a screw driver to manipulate/line up the bars a bit to fit through the notches in the arm. was a pain in the rump, but i got it done.

pack some bearing grease in the hole in the arm. put the discs/plugs back into the holes in the shoulders of the torsion arms. be gentle. make sure the plugs seat as they did before.

i can tell you, which ever side you pick to do 1st will be the easiest to do.

when you do the other side, there will be tension on the spring, the cylinder part of the arm will not slide in the beam as easy. you may have to lift the spring a bit with the hollow of the cylinder. this also makes it harder to slide past the inner bearings inside the beam.

use gentle pressure and patience. remember to line the hole up with the dish in the spring.

i was able to get the steering knuckle back in place without using a pry bar. tighten the ball joints in place. don't forget that large thick washer or the upper ball joint will pull right back through the hole in the steering knuckle. notch in the cone should face forward.

the nut on the lower ball joint will tighten up no problem. the upper will most likely just free wheel.

don't worry is normal. let the weight of the steering knuckle and such fall earthward. that is usually enough to bind the upper ball joint and stop the threaded stud from spinning, allowing you to tighten the upper ball joint nut.

if not, use a c clamp to hold things in place, c clamp does not need to grunt tight. just enough to put friction on the ball joint stud.

put the tie rod ends back in place and adjust to your marks. follow instructions in book do a good enough toe in/toe out adjustment.

put the rest of the parts back on.

once all is back together, grab grease gun and load up those zerk fittings on the beams this is very IMPORTANT. lubricate the beams.

if you don't have one, do not drive except to the alignment shop.

if doing your own alignment, buy a grease gun, grease and lube those beams.

saturday i spent over 6 hours just trying to get the arms back on. that was just the arms. nothing else. i did not get em on.

on sunday, all of the above, took less than 2 and half hours.

once i figured out how this worked ( remember me and the watch ??? ) it was fairly simple. was sure less frustrating. thank you to all that posted a bit here and a bit there.

remember you took measurements as to how far the body set above the tires, see where sets now. should be about the same.

unless you are certain of your alignment skills, take bug to alignment shop and have an alignment done. ask them how they will torque the nuts on ball joints to specs.

i would take your manual to copy machine and copy the alignment specs and instructions, give to the alignment shop. may keep a dishonest shop or one that does not know how to work on bugs from ripping you off.

i am sure there are people here who know more about this than i do.



it is late at night/early in the morning, after 1 am. again, at two words a minute, i may have gotten tired or forgotten something.

please feel free to please correct or add advice as you see fit.

hope this helps answer some questions about removing and replacing front torsion arms.

wayne