AirSpeed VW Community Forums
General Forums => Air Speed Lounge => Topic started by: RickyG on July 27, 2010, 11:47:37 PM
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Hey guys,
We are building an electric VW capable of 400km on a charge.Our goal is to finish the car in a week and drive across Canada some times in August. It'll be the first electric vehicle that will drive across Canada in less than 2 weeks without a single drop of gasoline. We will be making history and you can be part of it too!
Since we are not really VW mechanics, adjusting rear torsion bar to increase the ride height has been rather difficult for us. We've been trying to do this for the last 3 weeks but we kept on bump into parts that we can't take off because we didn't have the right tool. We bought the spring plate removal tool, but we don't have a hex wrench to remove the trailing arm and a snap ring plier to remove the circlip. I heard it was suppose to be easy from VW guys but it's giving us quite a bit of trouble.
Because of this tight time frame and most of our team members have coop jobs during the day, I was wondering if any of you is willing to come out to give us a hand. We can buy a 6 pack or two and offer lunch at our sponsor's restaurant (Awesome Thai food). The car is located in Steveston in Richmond.
Thanks in advance.
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come on guys help these guys out!! 44 views and not one offer of help? I would but I am as clued out as they are with Beetles (and most other things).
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special tools are: 1 floor jack, 1 4' length of chain, and 1 strong back and 5 hours of time
maybe someone can donate these guys a pair of coil over shocks and save them the grief?
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... we don't have a hex wrench to remove the trailing arm and a snap ring plier to remove the circlip.
You don't need to remove the trailing arm pivot bolt to change the ride height. Same goes for the big circlip holding the bearing in the TA.
You can make your own circlip pliers by grinding the tips of a pair of cheap needle-nose pliers.
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How about some adjustable spring plates? What year of car is it? Unfortunately CIP is listing out of stock on both.
http://www.cip1.ca/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ACC%2DC10%2D4011
http://www.cip1.ca/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ACC%2DC10%2D4010
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The reason we are taking out the circlips is to replace the bearings.
as for adjustable spring plate, we still need to do the same procedure.
We got the spring plate off finally yesterday, but weren't able to put it back onto the frame stop. Now I know why torsion bar design went obsolete, it's such a pain in the ass to work with.
and the best part is, we still have the other side to do.
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You can also notch the bottom of the spring plate to make it go on easier
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We got the spring plate off finally yesterday, but weren't able to put it back onto the frame stop. Now I know why torsion bar design went obsolete, it's such a pain in the ass to work with.
It's only tough to do when you don't know what you're doing, and don't have any equipment. All of us have done this adjustment, it's not hard.
Do you have a floor jack? If so, you're most of the way there. Now find a 4-5' length of chain. Wrap the chain around the bottom of the jack and bolt it onto the top shock mount. Now you can use the power of the jack to easily twist the torsion bar.
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It's only tough to do when you don't know what you're doing, and don't have any equipment.
Well that's the problem, they weren't sure what they were doing. ::)
Anyways, how'd it go the rest of the afternoon Ricky? Get the other side done? Get wheel bearings in? The push is on! I wanna see this thing do a 1/4 pass in a week!
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Try youtube, i am not saying people at UBC are not smart but.................... just well qualified
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I have always wanted to do this, did they make it across Canada? This would be a great project for a Squareaback. I'd love to try and help you guys out but I really don't know a whole lot about that rear suspension.
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Have we come so far that now university students don't even have the common sense to refer to a manual? Are these guys future engineers? oooooh that's scarry stuff!
Gary.
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The other day the guys dropped off the tool they borrowed in the Electric. Very Cool! PDT_Armataz_01_37
So weird not hearing a beetle pull in or out of the driveway :D
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I saw a story on this beetle on the Weather Network this morning, pretty cool!
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Well, they made it to the East Coast and all for about $64 in electricity. Not bad!!
http://news.sympatico.cbc.ca/local/bc/electric_car_ends_coast-to-coast_trip/af26f22c
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awesome !!
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PDT_Armataz_01_37 WTG Ricky!
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Awsome!
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That's pretty cool. :O0:
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Congrats to the UBC team. Here's an article on their cross Canada journey
http://evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=23925