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Torsion Housing Modification and IRS Suspension
Assembly
Modified torsion housing end casting
Just like the 5/1600 car, we modified the torsion housing end
casting to eliminate the lower travel stop (to the lower, rear
spring plate cap bolt hole) and the "bump stop"; the SCORE rule set
for 5/1600 cars allows both these modifications and while we're not
going to race this car, we want as much suspension travel as
possible. Removing the lower travel stop gives us several
inches more "down" travel and the bump stop is just unnecessary
extra weight.......
Spring Plate and torsion bar installed
This photo shows the final installation of the spring plate with a
heavy duty "Race" spring plate cap and "long" torsion bar.
Except for the new spring plate cap, all these parts are race
"spares" that we've inspected, refurbished and painted.
Passenger side rear trailing arm "final"
installed
Here, you can see how the trailing arm pivots around the inner pivot
bolt and the torsion bar. The torsion bar and inner pivot
don't share the same "axis of rotation" so there is some
camber/caster change with suspension travel inherent in the basic
design. We could fix that but we're trying to keep this as
much like a "retro" 5 unlimited car as possible. This is
essentially identical to our 5/1600 car with a little less
"tweaking" for maximum suspension travel (we have over 12" of travel
as configured now and more is available if we want to work for
it).....
Another view of the trailing arm installation
Micro Stub and Brake assemblies installed
The Micro Stub assembly allows us more suspension travel than a
stock VW IRS would otherwise permit, has disk brakes and is much
stronger as well. We'll be using specially prepped "930" CV
joints to ensure that we can use all the travel available without
binding the axles and CV joints. Yes, we know that the axle
nut cotter pin is not installed yet.....
It's a "roller" again!
It was a satisfying end to our day at the shop when we bolted the
wheels/tires on and rolled it out of the shop. With the engine
and transaxle removed, there is little weight on the back end of the
car and the suspension is sitting on the bottom stops. Once
everything is back in place, the rear suspension will sit a bit
lower - about like our 5/1600 car which retains some "rake" at ride
height (front a little lower than the rear). We did a quick
and dirty 4-wheel "alignment" and found everything exactly as we
wanted - the IRS "pivot jigs" helped us get their locations correct
for perfect alignment.
Holding up one of the rear shocks for
motivational purposes......
Now that the basic IRS conversion/installation is complete, we'll
fabricate and install an internal "roll cage" structure
similar to the 5/1600 car structure. The
roll cage serves several purposes: enhanced occupant safety,
increased chassis rigidity, it serves as the upper shock mount and
distributes the shock loads throughout the chassis.
We'll cut holes in the wheel wells so that the shocks can pass
through and be secured to the cage structure inside the
passenger area. That's probably the next phase of this project.....
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