Narrowing Irs Trailing Arms

[HeliMike]

I was just reading over an old article on Germanlook.com about how to narrow the stock IRS trailing arms by relocating the bearing carrier. I just might tackle this mod to broaden my wheel choices on the wagon but I'm wondering if I'm going to need shorter custom axles afterward?

[Chris]

well it would seem that way, if you narrow the width of the irs trailing arms, you would also have to narrow the width of the torsion housing and then you would either have to narrow your transmission, which I think is next to impossible, or you will have to run shortened axles.

correct me if I am wrong, but just remember to check your torsion housing oil levels before cutting and measure three or four times.

[Matt]

There is one side of Automatic type 3's that has a shorter axle than the other. Find 2 of those and I think your set.

[Jeremy]

I'm in the process of doing this myself. I've converted my l/p pan to IRS and have started to narrow the trailing arms. I've got one side done so far. I narrowed it an inch by cutting out the bearing housing, trimming the trailing arm along the seem and fabbing a new outer mounting plate. Yes you will need narrowed axles. I bought some SAW 15-5/8 axles off samba. These are what Aircooled.net recomends for there 1-1/2 narrowed trailing arms. Talk to Jim at Airspeed. He's done this in his \"Klaatu\" oval. You won't need to cut the torsion housing like 1976 Bus said so you shouldn't have to worry about the torsion housing oil level. Good luck.

Jeremy

[Tom H.]

WoW, I better go check the oil level in my torsion housing!  

My TAs are narrowed 26mm each (both cars), which is the same as the right side automatic T3 axle is shorter. I do run SAW axles though.

[HeliMike]

Right on. That's what I wanted to hear!
Thanks guys