About lowered front shocks- Calling Tac422!

Thanks ALB,

I've been searching the different forums, and there is a lot of confusing (to me) info out there. I've found suggestions using Dodge Dart, Opel-GT and Mini shocks. The consensus, as you advised, is to use oil only shocks.  I've got an adjustable beam, with 13" wheels and sit pretty low.  I don't have seem to very much (if at all) suspension travel. I'm hoping for someone with experience to chime in with specific reccomendations.

There are lowered VW-specific shocks available. Look for COFAP shocks or even EMPI.

I used KYB GR-2 for a stock height suspension on a Spyder, and they were OK.

The Dodge Dart shocks are WAY too stiff, think about how much the front of that car weighs and how stiff the damping needs to be to control that much weight. Then think how light a Speedster front end is.

The other shocks are valved for heavier cars as well.

An alternative to short shocks is lowered spindles. That way you can lower the car and have stock ride height in the suspension so it rides nice.

X2 what Danny said above- unless the shocks are VW front end specific they will be too stiff for the front of a Speedster or Spyder.  Shorter shocks for lowered front ends aren't all that hard to find these days so there's no need to suffer like we did 40 and 45 years ago- in '76 or '77 I put Konis for an Opel Kadett(?) on the front of my Cal Look bug and even adjusted on full soft they were too stiff but there wasn't anything else available.  All those options Tac422 and Danny mentioned do work- they just make the front end plow and ride like sh*t!

And so it's useful to anyone interested, this is what I said via pm to @Tac422-                  https://www.cip1.ca/search-res...lowered+front+shocks                                             "Unless you're either road racing of parking lot slaloming I suggest an oil shock- any of the gas assisted KYB's will probably ride too hard for the street.  Hope this helps.  Al"

And Danny's also right about lowered spindles- they are the better option for optimal ride, but if (for whatever reason) the front end is lowered solely by modifying the beam, shorter shocks specifically for vW's are the way to go.

Agreed Al. I tried those Mopar shocks on my Spyder, it made the front end almost solid, there wasn't any "give" there.

Just because a shock physically fits doesn't mean it will work.

@Tac422 posted:

Thanks ALB,

I've been searching the different forums, and there is a lot of confusing (to me) info out there. I've found suggestions using Dodge Dart, Opel-GT and Mini shocks. The consensus, as you advised, is to use oil only shocks.  I've got an adjustable beam, with 13" wheels and sit pretty low.  I don't have seem to very much (if at all) suspension travel. I'm hoping for someone with experience to chime in with specific reccomendations.

https://www.airkewld.com/Produ...asp?ProductCode=2600

I haven’t tried them. I found them after I realized my rear KYBs were bottoming out. I didn’t buy them because what I really need to do is replace my spring plates with adjustable ones and raise my car 1”-1.5”.

eta: I just saw your post in Classifieds. Those are rear shocks but Airkewld has front ones, too. I googled the company that makes them and they look pretty impressive, like all Airkewld stuff.

@dlearl476 posted:

https://www.airkewld.com/Produ...asp?ProductCode=2600

I haven’t tried them. I found them after I realized my rear KYBs were bottoming out. I didn’t buy them because what I really need to do is replace my spring plates with adjustable ones and raise my car 1”-1.5”.

Adjustable spring plates are costly, take up space (5/8- 3/4"), and add weight to the suspension which makes it harder to control.  You'll probably never use the adjustment feature again so raise your car up 1 click with your existing spring plates (which you already have), put the money you saved towards widening the rear wheels 1" (to the inside), put slightly wider tires on the back, enjoy the slightly better handling and revel in how badass it looks!

I originally bought irs adjustable spring plates and decided not to use them after I weighed them and figured out how much room they actually took up.  The Sway-a-way spring plates I bought weighed 2530 and 2598 grams (I thought it strange that 'precision' racing parts would differ by almost 70 grams), a stock double irs spring plate weighed 2514 g, , a stock irs single was 1779 g, an aftermarket swingaxle torsion bar to irs spring plate 1600 g and the units I made from stock swingaxle spring plates (to go with the shorter/lighter swingaxle torsion bars and end caps I used) were 996 and 997 g.  On my Speedster that's a total weight saving of 3135 grams or 6lbs 14.5 oz on the just the spring plates- a couple more holes (21 grams, or ¾ oz on each spring plate- that shouldn't be hard!) and I'd be at 7 lbs !  _{(oh, I do my best work when I have goals!)}

Even going from stock irs single to the adjustable spring plates adds almost 1600 grams (over 3 ½ pounds)- all because you don't want to have to do the torsion bar adjustment again?  Al

@ALB posted:

all because you don't want to have to do the torsion bar adjustment again?  Al

No. All because I want adjustable rear end so I can corner balance my car.

But you make perfect sense. Originally, I didn’t want to just change my ride height because AFAIK, 1 spline is 2” and I didn’t want to raise it 2”. Rick helped me fool around with a floor jack to get an idea of what it would look like and, as low as my car is now, 2” isn’t that bad. I may just do it as it’s the quickest, easiest solution.

I’d leave it as is and buy the lowered shocks, but it wears tires out too quickly with the camber it has now. Love the look. Hate everything else.

I had a 66 Chevelle that I bought where the previous owner had installed HDuty rear shocks.  What a harsh ride that was!

@dlearl476 Do you know the inner and outer splines are different? Gordon put up some chart years ago that tells the degree difference if you move the torsion bar inner X splines and the outer Y splines. All this information is listed as angles.

Don't forget the height change per spline in a Spyder is MORE than a Speedster or Bug because the spring plates are longer. Also explains why Spyders don't ride hard in torsion bar cars(at least in the back). The longer spring plates effectively lower the spring rate.

I'm 100% with you on the adjustable spring plates, corner balancing a Spyder is an improvement, especially since you don't have individual ride height adjustment in the front. You adjust the diagonal weighting and can get the car perfect.

@dlearl476,

   You could weld one of these into the rear torsion housing, then you have all the adjustability without all the unstrung weight.

And that would be right smack in the middle of:

the crank pulley.

@DannyP posted:

And that would be right smack in the middle of:

the crank pulley.

Flip it around and mount it with the fingers facing forward? I’m not sure what is in front of the torsion, if it’s just the aluminum floor, clearance could probably be made.