The spring plates are attached to the chassis through a torsion tube and cover plate. The removal of the spring plates is an easy job that sometimes can be confused with a complicated one. The main construction of the spring plates and the way they interconnect can be seen in the diagram left.
The reason I was removing the plates was to make way for my IRS conversion. The IRS spring plates are much shorter and have a different size torsion bars.
You will need to gather together the following tools: a jack,(bottle Jack; or trolley jack), 14mm socket, extension,ratchet and spanner, A large hammer, a crow bar. Firstly if you are going to refit the spring plates it is useful to use a chisel to mark the spring plate position on the torsion bar. You will notice when doing this that the torsion bars are marked left or right respectively. As I was not intending to replace the spring plates and also had a spirit level with a LCD readout this would never be a problem.
The four cover plate bolts need to be removed first and these can be troublesome to get out especially if you have replaced your covers with the cheap chrome ones. The best method is to use a socket with the large extension. You need to drive this onto the bolt head with a hammer or mallet. Once you have the socket attached you can use the ratchet to remove the bolt. This method usually works for all four bolts but sometimes you can only get in with a spanner. With the four bolts removed the cover plat can be removed and pulled off. This usually leaves a rubber or urethane bush on the spring plate. Remove this and put in a safe place. Position your jack underneath the end of the spring plate and jack up the plate so that it is no longer resting on the shoulder of the torsion tube bracket. Double check this is firm. The reason for placing a jack here is to ensure that if the spring plate kicks back under tension the jack will hold it and stop it forcibly slicing through any body parts. Obviously keep your feet and hands from under the spring plate for safety reasons. With the jack placed you can take your sledge hammer and start hitting the inside of the spring plate to ease the spring plate out of the torsion tube and off the ledge it is sitting on. You may need to get the crow bar on here to get leverage. If the spring plate is extremely stubborn it sometimes helps to tap the spring plate all around the outer casing enclosing the torsion bar. With all three of these procedures the spring plate should move out. Once the spring plate has moved out of the shoulder. You can let down the jack and take the pressure slowly of the spring plate. You should be then able to withdraw the spring plate and torsion bar by tapping the spring plate until it is able to be withdrawn.
This was then repeated for the other side. Surprisingly there was enough room in my small garage to get the torsion bars all the way out.
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