The Cal-look Lounge

Well guys as the title says I need some help with an IRS rear end I am working on at the moment, I need to identify it and find out some more about it,

You see this is a TOP SECRET Volksworld show project car that we have imported and getting ready for March  ;)

The Car has had an IRS rear end grafted into it and it looks a little odd to me  :-\ You see it has 2 (two) spring plates on each side  :o and the spring plate covers and spaced away from the torsion tubes,

Now before you all start telling me "They're adjustable" they are NOT as BOTH spring plate are bolted to the A arms with 4 (four) nuts/bolts as aposed to the normal 3 (three)  :-\

I know this is a little hard with no pic's so I will get some tomorrow, But for now does anyone have any ideas on where this IRS rear end came from OR what these spring plates are all about  :-\ :)

I think they are off a type 3.. it's a factory vw item.  They are on a freinds dune buggy sitting in my back yard right now.  Drag racers also use these to stop the flexing of one spring plate, I was thinking of putting some on my drag car too..

Kevin

There's nothing unusual about that.  The IRS on that car is from a 68 autostick, or a 69-70 Beetle.  Or any IRS Type 3.

If its being raced its fairly common to swap out the two piece spring plates for a single Lee. There's abunch of info on shop talk about them.

I have one of those early pans being built up for this seasons new race car, if you need any other info drop me a line.

I have a 71 semi auto KG that's got the same spring plates, had a right nightmare trying to get the correct spring plate covers for them because of the 4 spacers that you mentioned

And now - single or dual springplates? I´m going to convert to IRS in spring 010 and I have a set of duals for the conversion. I believe that the covers are the same as for the single springplates, just longer bolts and spacers?

Jan

Bruce is correct, double plates where used on the Autostick due to the heavier gearbox!
Absolutely factory if you ask me!
I habve that set up on my IRS Pan which used to be Automatic!

Cheers Stephan

Cool cheers guys  :)

It looked to good to be a aftermarket kit/homemade - so now I need to know how to lower it???

Are Both plates SPLINED??? any tips on refitting/lowering them???

The 2 plates don't come apart...one unit...lowering is business as usual  ;)

(http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r301/David58Bug/New%20Stuff/405966.jpg)

Cheers...

Cheers bro ;D

The covers are not the same.  The early covers for dual spring plates have spacers that are integral to the cover.  If you try to use separate spacers, it's a PITA to get them in place while you try to put the cover on.
If you're converting to IRS, always use the late TAs and single spring plates.  Much simpler, and significantly lighter too.

Double plates are much stronger....
Lowering job is evil......

The stock single spring plates never break or bend.

Do you mean its harder to lower these double spring plate setups???

That's right.  It's a bit of a fight to get the spring plate away from the TA when you're ready to pull the spring plate off.  There's less bolts with the later TAs too.

It's only hard to lower it if you don't completely remove the IRS arm... I'm lowering a single plate IRS these days, and even that involves a lot of swearing if you don't remove/ disconnect the at least the drive shaft...

 :o  Something lost in translation maybe :D

Single plate is easy,never had to remove the d/shaft

cheers richie,uk

Yeah I know what you guys mean now - It can be tricky to lower a single plate type with the drivesharft still in place (it is on the "other chassis" I am doin)

I think it just depends on the car/chassis - I can imagine the doubles are alittle more tricky  :-\

 ;D

Hey,thats not right,it was much more fun before :D

cheers richie,uk

There's no need to remove the TA, and you don't need to remove the axle. Changing the ride height is easy with the later single spring plates.  Taking the axle off helps nothing, I don't understand why the Bentley says to do so.

What I find is that pulling the springplate of the edge is harder when the TA covers about 2 cm of the top of the springplate. I bet it could be done with a prying bar, but I wanted to get it of in a controlled fashion so getting it back to the right height without to much testing.
BTW I'm talking about doing it on a super.

Bottom line, can you convert double to single like on a 69'? And which is favorable for racing?

To convert to 71 and later single spring plates, change the spring plates, torsion grommet covers, and the TAs.
The later single spring plate system is prefered because it is lighter.

Note, all IRS torsion bars are the same length, regardless of the CRAP you read on every seller's web site.