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ÿÿÿÿ b‰.H Tue, 16 Mar 1999 18:35:09 GMT ¤ Mozilla/4.5 (compatible; HTTrack 3.0x; Windows 98) en, * bGÔJ
Spring plate swapping
Want bigger tires for your I.R.S. baja?
the round piece that is sticking out and a little to close to your tires is the torsion bar housing. the torsion bars on irs
cars are longer than those of the swing, so they stick out further. the longer bars make for a little smoother ride and if your tires don't rub on them then they never will because the bar is the pivot, the tire won't get closer to it. BUT if you want bigger tires for your irs car, bigger than 31's, then you can change the setup around.
here's what you do....get torsion bars, spring plates, spring plate bushings, spring plate/torsion bar covers and bolts from a swingaxle bug, year doesn't matter. then you take your irs spring plate and use that as a template, because you need to cut/machine the swing axle spring plate so that it is the same shape as the irs one. the swing spring plate is longer and the bolt holes won't line up, so you need to cut it fairly precisely and drill new bolt holes fairly precisely. with these all done up the wierd bar won't be there any more and you can probably squeeze some bigger tires under there.
disadvantages..... if your baja has dual spring plates, then you lose your dual spring plates. dual spring plates are stronger than singles. they only made bugs with duals for 2 years i believe, 69 and 70. i have them, i've taken some off of junkyard bugs to have another set lying around, my friends have gotten some off of junkyard bugs to put on there baja's.
dual spring plates are noticably better. you also lose the longer torsion bars, the swing axle torsion bars might not be as smooth riding.
advantages.....you can put bigger tires on. but, you might have to do something about tire rubbing. i can get my 30's to rub, and my 31's will rub fairly easily. you could take a sledge hammer to the places the tires rub, the inside, forward fender well (where the undercoating and paint is rubbed away). hammering will give more tire clearence and is easier and cheaper than a body lift.
some of use choose to go with the dual spring plates and face the limitations of 31" tires. but without a bus tranny you can't really turn tires that are much bigger than that anyway. some of us have done the swing axle spring plate swap and run bigger tires. actually only one guy i know has done this. but he can run 33's he also has a bus tranny and a 2.0 bus motor.
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