Is there no room to slacken the plates with the wheels fitted, allowing the articulation required to remove the wheels?
Somebody must have fitted the wheels so it must be possible to remove them. Try letting the air out of the tyres or prising the spring plate down.
some helpful ideas thanks. yes new tyres were fitted 4 years ago when the van was restored by the previous owner, I have the invoice to prove. access is not good with the wheels still in place, so may have to go for the pry bar option. I will get some help on this one as I am a bit old now and I think levering the spring plate down and pulling the wheel at the same time may be too challenging for me. Interestingly, the rear shocks are stock with cut down bump stops, fronts are short shocks and no bump stops.
You'd be safe enough forcing between the bump stop and the stop on the knuckle - levering or wooden wedge.
they are stock spring plates. I am also wondering how they got the wheels off and put new tyres on 4 years ago. the PO got a garage to do it for him. I bought the van knowing it was a little lowered, but didn't expect this problem. I have jacked the van up on the rear beam so both wheels well off the ground and both rear shocks unbolted at the bottom bolts and hanging free. I removed the lug nuts and was surprised there isn't enough clearance to pull the wheels off as the spring plate sits too high. The spring plate is not down to the bottom stop, presumably where it should be. Both sides are the same of course.
So you have no preload at all in the torsion bar........or in another view zero suspension at all. You must be riding full time hard on the bump stops as the torsion bars should be trying to push hard against the lower stop with the wheels off the ground. It sounds like you need to remove the spring plates and preload them. That will involve disconecting the hub assembly / drive shaft from the end of the plate, which will then allow you to get the wheel off.
Rear suspension is hard with bumps and bangs, the shocks are stock length. Its not a comfortable ride. I found when I had the van in the air with shocks free, I could push the hanging wheel down with my muscle power but not down enough to pull the wheel off. The plates sat between the upper and lower stop and the plates didn't have any tension in them. Thanks for your explanation, I want to understand what is going on there. Sounds like the PO didn't do the lowering correctly. So when I get the wheels off, where do I go from there. Would I need new torsion bars.
Take the torsion bars out and make sure they look visibly serviceable. Otherwise it sounds like they will be fine and someone has just fitted the spring plates without preload. This link may help: http://www.vw-resource.com/rearaxle.html I will be having this fun soon as I try and reset my sagging rear end......then potentially have to find a way to lower it while retaining suspension travel due to my garage height.
Thanks for the link, it all helps. Yes its all good fun. A few weeks back I bought a pair of green torsion bars with plates attached off ebay, and off a late Bay. The pair are in very good condition and the splines look perfect. I got them just in case I found my old ones weren't serviceable. Only thing with the 'new' set is folks on here reckon they are handed and have to be installed on the correct sides. One bar has an E stamped on it and the other an I . So more confusion for me.
Your torsion bars are set without preload. Like mine which are 7mm above the lower stops when the wheel is off the ground. Because of that there is no tension on the suspension apart from the weight of the wheels when it is jacked up. With 185/65R15 on my empi clone alloys I have about 10 mm clearance. A fiddle but the wheels come off. You might have to unbolt the hub carrier from the spring plate to get at the wheel. Then you can readjust angle with the splines on the torsion bar to raise it a bit then reassemble.
Thanks for the helpful advice. I now understand what the problem is and how to fix it. The PO got a garage to put new Marshall car tyres on it (185/65 R14) about 6 years ago and I suppose they must have ignored the problem or didn't know how or want to adjust the spring plates at the time. I have new stock steel wheels and proper 185/65 R14 van rated tyres waiting to go on to match the new fronts (fronts came off with plenty of clearance). And I will be renewing the rear brakes while I'm at it. I have new cover plates, bushes, talcum powder, new stock shocks and bump stops so I'm ready to go. I will probably get some help with the bolts and presumably the spring plates should come out without any tension risks. Is there a method of freeing the plate from the torsion bar splines (hammer?) or could I just pull it out with the torsion bar attached.
