I'm going to install new adjustable spring plates in my swing axle this weekend. I would like some help for a good starting point "degrees of the plates" so the rear of the car is nice and low without to much tire tilt in. Currently my spring plates are at 10 degrees on both sides.
Thanks so much for the help
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Are the rear tires straight or is there negative camber now? As Ted said, with a swingaxle, if you lower the car, you will introduce negative camber. The lower you go, the more it will be an issue. You can go an outer spline or 2 lower than stock (neutral camber or the the wheel is straight up and down), but much past that and it tears up the half round spacer plates that sit on each side of the axle spade that fits into the differential. If you want to seriously lower the car, there are rear transaxle yokes (the piece that's bolted to the ends of the frame horns and held on by the 2 27mm bolts) that raise the engine/trans assembly up 1-2 inches, but then you may end up with the top of the shroud hitting the engine lid and air cleaners hitting the sides of the engine lid or body. They also solid mount the engine/trans to the pan (they don't use the stock rear rubber mounts) and so transmit a lot of noise into the car.
Just a basic swing axle question. When I owned my swing axle Spyders a bit of negative camber was desirable so when you went around a corner the outer tire would flatten out for more traction. I'm assuming that Speedsters are set up in a similar fashion. I guess you could go for neutral camber if the car is a low hp cruiser.
It all depends on the ride height/handling/comfort you're looking for, Phil. Lowering the rear does make it handle better, as it lowers the center of gravity and allows the outer tire to flatten out going around the corner, as you say, but unless you install larger torsion bars the rear suspension will bottom out more often, giving a harsher ride. A little negative camber is desirable (again, as you said) and won't hurt parts. Most guys don't think these cars look right when the car is raised up enough that the rear wheels/tires are straight up and down.
Phil:
1. Start by measuring from the ground to the top, center of the rear wheel well arch on both sides as a point of reference.
2. Decide where you want it to be when finished (up or down on each side and by how much on each side - they will probably be different to start with by up to 1/4" or more.
3. Once you know what you want to do with each rear side (and you should know how far you want to move them within 1/4"), then go to this page to see how you would do it without the adjustable plates:
https://www.speedsterowners.com...rear-ride-height--vw
Everything will be the same all the way up to removing/replacing the spring plates, but the IMPORTANT thing is, when you get the stock plates down off of their stops in the lower part of the mount casting they will hang down toward the floor (be careful getting them off the stops, too - there's a lot of Kinetic energy built up in the torsion bar which can injure you).
Scribe or mark that angle of the spring plate where it crosses the plate stop in the casting. If you want to duplicate the body height you currently have, THAT is where you want the adjustable plates to be when they are at rest (not yet up on the stops) and "centered" up and down on the adjuster bolt.
4. If you want to end up with a different body height when the adjuster bolt is centered, then consult the table in the height adjust article and figure out how many inner and outer splines you have to move from the stock plate setting (above) to get there.
It's not difficult to do, but it's also not difficult to get it wrong. Don't despair - everyone has to do this a few times until you get it "right" by trial-and-error. The adjustable spring plates were invented to help you by not having to mess with spline logic (at least after the initial install) but you have to at least have a baseline angle to install them at and THAT is different for each car, depending on what height they're sitting at to begin with.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
Gordon
Gordon is a wizare on those axle splines but thst's something I'd not want to tackle.
My VS came with adjustable spring plates---all it takes is a 1/4" hex wrench to adjust them. Maybe someone will chime in here but I remember reading about the distance between the edge of the wheel opening and the tire to get both sides even.
My car's rear end is not all that low because I want to avoid the pipes scraping but it's right where I like it.
Jack,
I jacked up the adj spring plates on my VS with a hex wrench like you said when I installed the phat boy muffler. That with the 24 inch+ tall Vredstein Sprint Classics just give enough ground clearance and the car still sits right. Can't drive it now because of 4 in snow Sat, 2in so far today with a lot more predicted. Hope you and Alice are well and looking forward to seeing you at Carlisle.
Joel
Doc, Hpapy that the adjustment worked out for you. I hated the occasional muffler scrape I used to have and although I'd like the car to be a tad lower I'd rather not ever hear another muffoer scrape. One thing I did was to heat the pipes cherry red and actually bend them up some for more clearance, and that was as effective as doing the spring plate adjustment.
We miss our days living in beautiful New Canaan CT but not the part that they will be experiencing tomorrow. We had 62 degrees and I took the Speedster over to I-30 and made a run down and back to Texarkana, Texas, Excellent.
