[T3] 1970 Fastback front torsion issue!

[Jim Adney]

On 2 Mar 2013 at 18:32, jaredkohler at gmail.com wrote:

> When turning the steering wheel to the left or right the upper torsion arm
> pulls out by 1/2 inch! Both passenger and driver. Both torsion arms arm
> still securely bolted / clamped. The movement seems to happen from within
> the upper beam area.

This is a rather common problem, and it's not too hard to fix if you 
haven't let it go on too long.

The torsion bar is not broken, it's just come loose from the LU 
trailing arm. It appears to be still tight in there because what you 
are seeing is not actually the end of the torsion bar, but rather a 
thin metal cap that VW put in there after the torsion bar was 
installed.  Here's what you need to do to fix this:

Start by pushing both sides in, so that everything's in the correct 
position for when you put it all back together.

Jack the car up so you can work on the front end. Do this somewhere 
with about 4' of clearance on the left side. Remove both front 
wheels. Remove the torsion bar clamp bolts from both upper arms. Bend 
back the lock plate on the right side and loosen that bolt a couple 
of turns, then tap the head of that bolt until you can see that the 
torsion bar has moved. Then loosen a couple more turns and tap it out 
some more. Remove that bolt and find a rod of some kind that you can 
use to drive the upper torsion bar another few inches out toward the 
left side of the car. If you do this slowly, you should be able to 
find the torsion bar end cap on the floor on the other side.

Once the torsion bar is out a few inches, you should be able grab it 
from there and pull it all the way out.

Now look at the left end of the bar. When new, there was a dimple 
there where the clamp bolt seated. Given your symptoms, there is now 
a groove. You need to drill a new dimple, either deeper on that side, 
or flip the torsion bar over and drill a new one on the fresh side. 
It MUST be in the right place, and must be sized to accept the tip of 
the clamp bolt.

If you can't tell where the right place was, let me know and I'll 
measure a good one and get back to you.

Assembly is the reverse of this. Clamp the L end first, then adjust 
the right side for a very tiny amount of play. Make sure both clamp 
bolts are as tight as you can safely make them. Bentley gives the 
torque specs, but they need to be really tight, so this doesn't 
happen again.


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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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