Spring plate torsion tension when removing

[logicred]

When I removed my spring plates I stuck a trolley jack underneath and as I pulled them over the lip I expected there to be massive tension. When I let my jack down the plate only moved down about 20mm just over the lip! I thought these would move about 45degrees or something!? My only thought was that I may have pulled the whole torsion bar out by accident. I did try and hammer it back in slowly as I was pulling the spring plate off.

Is this the normal amount of tension on a stock setup?

The photo below shows what the new adjustable plate looks like before I put it back over the lip. This is where the original sat when I pulled it over the lip and took the jack down.

Thanks for any pointers!

 

[*Sam*]

My ones had about the same amount of tension as yours.
My assumption was the torsion bars were just going week.

 

[logicred]

I have managed to find some other posts which suggests this is normal. Just a small amount lower than the height of the lip is normal tension.

 

[sparkywig]

Yes, but even twisting a steel bar this amount is a lot of tension.

 

[bluenose]

yea I was disappointed to, the way people made it out it would by an arm breaker not a finger pincher!

You would be no where near pulling the middle spline out if you had only just cleared the lip.

I had to take mine out of the centre spline and remove the spring plate in a vice as it was stuck good. In fact it was so stuck I had to get the angle grinder out :shock:

I think it's best to put some reference points on with a paint pen or scribe before you remove the original spring plate as reference

 

[sparkywig]

Use a punch and mark it, paint and scribe marks can wear off.

 

[logicred]

Thanks for your reassurance everyone ;-)

 

[Whistler]

When we did mine I dont know if it was A)im weak, B) the punch was crap or C)the metal is hard as so I ended up using nail polish(not mine!) to mark it. Worked fine.

Oh and mine only dropped just below the lip as well.

 

[logicred]

Hmm, I have removed ONE section of the bump stop, put adjustable spring plate on (rotated 1 spline from original as per transporterhaus suggestion) and it looks like this before any tension:

http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww61/logicred/20140617_121437.jpg

As you can see it's nowhere near the original lip anymore. I have then put the hub/wheel back on and took it off the jack. It looks fine but the hub is now resting on the bump stop and my spring plate adjusting screw is at it's highest travel which doesn't seem right to me.

I think I need to fit the spring plate as per the original one without spline rotation perhaps.

 

[sparkywig]

Which way did you rotate the spring plate?
On the nearside it's anti clockwise to lower and clockwise to raise the ride height, and obviously the opposite directions for the offside.

I've got CE/T2D springplates and they've been fitted one spline lower than stock.

 

[logicred]

Thanks for the photo Sparkywig. I rotated it correctly and it looks similar to yours. Basically when the car is jacked up and there is no tension in the spring plates they should not touch the bottom lip, is this correct (which is what yours looks like). With the wheel back on and off the axle stands the rear height looks fine, but there is just no clearance on the bump stop (I cut the bottom stop off so there are two large blobs left).

So whilst it looks great, this is what it looks like underneath when on the wheels:

I refitted without the spline adjustment and then lowered a bit with the spring plate screw adjuster and the bump stop clearance is still the same.

 

[sparkywig]

I haven't any bump stops.

 

[logicred]

Superb. Basically, that's my question LOL! Can I remove them all as everything else looks ok ;-) Everyone else seems to suggest removing one bump stop so I assumed I had done something wrong.

 

[sparkywig]

Try removing one more section before taking the lot off, otherwise your driveshafts may catch the chassis legs on big bumps.

 

[logicred]

Will do. Thanks again for all your help.