Rear axel

[Nicks306]

Hi guys
About a month ago i refurbed a gti6 rear axel and stuck it on my hdi d turbo, my local grease monkey helped me out with the swap over and lowered it for me. But because of a old mechanics standards the back wasn't low enough for me
I set about to lower it myself everything came apart smooth, set the measurements and put back together. Now for some unknown reason n/s sits perfect but d/s is slammed!!
Any ideas anyone whats gone wrong?

[bashbarnard]

You have lowerd the o/s to much. Measure the difference remove bar jack up that much Bar back in. Job done. I've made that mistake before.

[Ben]

Having not done it myself I'm afraid I can't suggest anything technical, but did you definitely get your measurements the same both sides?

[DeeTurbo]

By the sounds of it you haven't put the one torsion bar in correct.

[Nicks306]

This might be where I've gone wrong, for the measurements i set up 2 dummy dampers from pieces of wood with 300mm gap between bolt holes. Which was 20mm less than what the garage did..
Now even measuring from the arch to the hub its only saying about 5mm lower on the o/s but it seems a lot more than that for some reason.
Is the torsion bar for the o/s the One closer to the front?
Thanks for the reply's

[welshpug]

300 between dampers is excessive, on standard 20mm gti6 bars I would not go lower than 322, else you will be on the bump stops which is dangerous.

[Nicks306]

Thats where im properly confused as with those measurements the n/s sits perfect just tucked into the arch, but o/s is quite off.
Somethings gone wrong somewhere aha

[Nicks306]

Any ideas then chaps?

[Slam Wagon]

Have you moved the car since lowering? Might just be how its sat? If not then re do it.

[Nicks306]

Yeah but not far literally just up
And down the drive but seemed to be the same. Well im half way through it all now anyway, take it i wont need to fiddle with the n/s tb just the o/s tb which is the one at the back of the anti roll bar tube?

[daveylennon93]

Did the anti roll bar plates go on straight or did you have to pull one side up or down to get the 13mm bolt in?

[Nicks306]

No the loose anti roll bar end plate on the n/s wouldn't line up correctly had to jack the trailing arm up slightly.

[daveylennon93]

Plate should line up if there even. Just rise the side thats too low. If you used dummy dampers should be even tho, strange one. Let us know how ya get on.

[Nicks306]

Ok i might have a crack at it later today, i know its a bit strange really confused myself.
Will do thanks for the help

[Dom]

anyone with a good 306 reaar axle for me? that fits the 205 gti? i think that would be phase 1?

[welshpug]

Nope, a 205 neeeds a 205 axle

[bashbarnard]

Maybe he means 309?

[Nicks306]

Right just finished the axel, dropped it back down leaving the n/s alone with just adjusting the o/s now after the problem being o/s to low it is now slightly higher than n/s literally i can get my hand in the top of the wheel and n/s i can only get half of my hand under.
Should i just let it sit for a bit???

[bashbarnard]

If your having all these problems the easiest thing to do is pull both bars out and reset the whole lot with dummy shocks in place. That way your defiantly gonna be right

[Alan_M]

Silly question, but are the holes on your two pieces of wood the same? Put them against each other and check.

The ARB end plates should line up the same, should not need to adjust the arms to make the plates and hole line up. Did you leave a plate in place when removing the ARB?

[Nicks306]

Don't really want to resort to taking literally everything apart again unless I'm forced to. Everything comes away very easy just time consuming.
Yep both holes on the pieces of wood were correct measurements and against each other. Well this time round again i jacked the n/s arm about 5mm to line the separate ARB plate on.
No i took the whole bar out and removed the other end.

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This is the o/s

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This is the n/s

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May not be able to tell a difference in the photos.

[welshpug]

you should not need to jack the ARB up at all to line the hole up.

[Nicks306]

Any idea why i needed to raise the arm so slightly to line the hole up then?

[Alan_M]

If you disconnect the ARB, are the distances between shock centres the same? If yes, it looks like your ARB end plates are not lined up. If the shock distances are different, you haven't set up the torsion bars equally.

[Nicks306]

Well practically yeah the only difference is about 10mm on the o/s. How havent i set up the bars equally??

[Alan_M]

Well practically yeah the only difference is about 10mm on the o/s. How havent i set up the bars equally??

It's the torsion bars that set the height, not the ARB. By disconnecting the ARB end plates from the arms, they are 100% relying on the TBs to set the height rather than moving the arm up to line up with the hole. With the ARB disconnected, both sides should now be the same distance between shock centres.

So, now with the ARB (and shocks) disconnected there is a 10mm difference in the O/S? The TB will have to be removed and set again with the pieces of wood in place of the shocks, keep turning the TB until it slides into place.

[Nicks306]

Yeah i know its the torsion bars that set the height..
I literally had to raise the arm by 5mm maybe less to line the hole up tho with no force onto the ARB splines. But i have read on other guides that really you need to raise the arms slightly anyway to allow everything to be free rather than under pressure.
No thats what i done originally i set the pieces of wood in with both measurements correct between holes and found the spot for both torsion bars to fit in on the right splines, then put the wheels back on to find the o/s was well off for some reason yet n/s was perfect..
Now ive raised the o/s by literally one spline round and it seems higher now than the n/s

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But only higher by what the pictures show