Front Axle Beam restoration - How do I un-tension springs to pull torsion arms?
 

I'm re-building an old VW sandrail and am starting at the front end. It had
been sitting for many, many years so all the rubber was toast. Things are
going ok so far but I can't figure out how to pull the front torsion arms as
they are tensioned by the spring in the beam. The bump stop won't allow the
torsion arm to go down far enough to release the pressure and let me pull it
out of the beam. The local VW shop won't give me any advice because they
want me to just give up and give it to them to do and pay 100/hour for (plus
parts). Is there a trick to getting these torsion arms out or what? I don't
want to cut off the bump stops, but I had thought about it. After replacing
the gaskets I would give the front end a bit more clearance by welding the
bump stops back on at a lower angle allowing the front end to sit higher, as
long as it didn't push the tie rods at all against the frame.... Help!

Front Axle Beam restoration - How do I un-tension springs to pull torsion arms?
 

On Apr 16, 1:50 am, "chicoik595" <u33377@uwe> wrote:
> I'm re-building an old VW sandrail and am starting at the front end. It had
> been sitting for many, many years so all the rubber was toast. Things are
> going ok so far but I can't figure out how to pull the front torsion arms as
> they are tensioned by the spring in the beam. The bump stop won't allow the
> torsion arm to go down far enough to release the pressure and let me pull it
> out of the beam. The local VW shop won't give me any advice because they
> want me to just give up and give it to them to do and pay 100/hour for (plus
> parts). Is there a trick to getting these torsion arms out or what? I don't
> want to cut off the bump stops, but I had thought about it. After replacing
> the gaskets I would give the front end a bit more clearance by welding the
> bump stops back on at a lower angle allowing the front end to sit higher, as
> long as it didn't push the tie rods at all against the frame.... Help!

It has been a while but did mine with the beam off the frame so maybe
that's different if your beam is still on.
Obviously first took all the other mess off (sway bars, ball joints,
etc).

There's this Allan bolt on the arm you have to loosen. Mine was
covered in gunk and wasn't even recognizable as a bolt.
After that bolt was loosened, the arms pulled out after some
persuading.

I don't remember there being much of a trick to it but it has been
about two years now..

If you take out the torsion springs, I've read someplace it is a good
idea to keep them in the same order.
I had to swap them into a new beam so tied mine up with zip ties.

Front Axle Beam restoration - How do I un-tension springs to pull torsion arms?
 

On Apr 16, 7:10 am, "Remco" > wrote:
> On Apr 16, 1:50 am, "chicoik595" <u33377@uwe> wrote:
>
> > I'm re-building an old VW sandrail and am starting at the front end. It had
> > been sitting for many, many years so all the rubber was toast. Things are
> > going ok so far but I can't figure out how to pull the front torsion arms as
> > they are tensioned by the spring in the beam. The bump stop won't allow the
> > torsion arm to go down far enough to release the pressure and let me pull it
> > out of the beam. The local VW shop won't give me any advice because they
> > want me to just give up and give it to them to do and pay 100/hour for (plus
> > parts). Is there a trick to getting these torsion arms out or what? I don't
> > want to cut off the bump stops, but I had thought about it. After replacing
> > the gaskets I would give the front end a bit more clearance by welding the
> > bump stops back on at a lower angle allowing the front end to sit higher, as
> > long as it didn't push the tie rods at all against the frame.... Help!
>
> It has been a while but did mine with the beam off the frame so maybe
> that's different if your beam is still on.
> Obviously first took all the other mess off (sway bars, ball joints,
> etc).
>
> There's this Allan bolt on the arm you have to loosen. Mine was
> covered in gunk and wasn't even recognizable as a bolt.
> After that bolt was loosened, the arms pulled out after some
> persuading.
>
> I don't remember there being much of a trick to it but it has been
> about two years now..
>
> If you take out the torsion springs, I've read someplace it is a good
> idea to keep them in the same order.
> I had to swap them into a new beam so tied mine up with zip ties.

BTW, I was talking about doing it on my bug.
Now that I think about it more, I may be falsely assuming it has a
similar front end.
If so, please scratch what I was babbling about. If so, It is clearly
still way too early for me. ;)

I think Shag here had/has a sandrail. On theSamba, I think USMCBug has
one, if that is of use to you.

Front Axle Beam restoration - How do I un-tension springs to pull torsion arms?
 

The beam is off the front of the tube chassis. I wish it were as easy as you
described but the problem i'm running into is the bump stop is holding the
upper torsion arm right where it is, fully embedded into the beam tube. I
need to find out how to either release the tension off the springs inside the
tube, or get around that bump stop holding up against the torsion arm... so
far no luck with hammering on it and trying to get it to budge... even if I
get it off, getting it back on with the springs under tension will be near
impossible...

--
Message posted via CarKB.com
http://www.carkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx...ooled/200704/1

Front Axle Beam restoration - How do I un-tension springs to pull torsion arms?
 

On Apr 16, 8:17 pm, "chicoik595 via CarKB.com" <u33377@uwe> wrote:
> The beam is off the front of the tube chassis. I wish it were as easy as you
> described but the problem i'm running into is the bump stop is holding the
> upper torsion arm right where it is, fully embedded into the beam tube. I
> need to find out how to either release the tension off the springs inside the
> tube, or get around that bump stop holding up against the torsion arm... so
> far no luck with hammering on it and trying to get it to budge... even if I
> get it off, getting it back on with the springs under tension will be near
> impossible...
>
> --
> Message posted via CarKB.comhttp://www.carkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/vw-air-cooled/200704/1

Not sure if your beam is different, but could you perhaps get a
scissor jack between the arms and pry the top arm up?
I'm not saying that's the way to do that but just guessing how I'd do
that. I don't remember a bump in mine that stopped it..