Ahhhhh...Raised the Front. Much better!

Did you measure before and after?

I didn't measure it before and after, but I raised it about 1.5" which made a huge difference.  I know it's a matter of taste, but I like this look better.

Here's a before and after shot.

Looks GOOD, Cole! Great job! 

raise  

hmmm, learn a new word every day

Mango- I hadn't used the word for a long time, but I did recall it's meaning.... Al

Thanks Jim!

I take it you had drop spindles?

Yes, I had dropped spindles and a single adjuster on the beam.

It was just a bit hard finding standard spindles for disc brakes, surprisingly.

did it rub on the outside?

the one-adjuster beam causes a stiffer ride too.

maybe keep your eyes out for a 2" narrowed beam.  you can find them for a pretty reasonable price and swap over your stuff.  you will nee dto shorten the tie rods and torsion stack - both of which can be done with a vice, tape measure and saw.

Mango, I'm not sure where it rubbed, but it rubs no more!

I always assumed that Vintage Speedster's had a narrowed beam, is this not so?

This is not so.

The only reason to narrow is to drop the car into the weeds. My '64 panel bus has flipped spindles and a narrowed beam, but the IM is stock-width. Almost every replica will be the same.

I'm about ready to remove my drop spindles.

I thought they would be good because they maintain the stock geometry but they just drop it too low. My sway bar frequently hits the pavement and I get rubbing.

If I lower it with the beam adjusters I am wondering it I should get shorter shocks.

Mike I do the drop spindles with.... an adustable beam, yes retains the stock ride but you still can dial in the height.  Alan

I have an adjustable beam and I have it adjusted all the way up. I even notched the bracket on top of the beam that holds the piece that attaches to the body so I could crank it up a little more. I bought the beam with the adjusters already installed. I don't know if stock height is in the middle or all the way up

It is still too low. The center of the front bumper is up 8" and the center of the back bumper is up 10.5".

I thought about replacing my adjustable beam with a stock beam but I don't know if I would gain anything.

What rubs? Can you take a look at the sway bar on the car; could it be bent so it doesn't hang down so low? The reason I'm asking is because lowering the car with adjusters more than 1" or so will put the tie rods out of alignment and create noticeable bump steer (the nice part of drop spindles- they keep every thing in closer alignment). What about using the adjustable spindles and fine tuning the height with an adjustable beam (and keeping the tie rod alignment closer to stock)? Al

I have tried to "fine tune" with the adjusters to try to get it higher.

It rubs when I turn, the tire hits the fender cutout I think. That is what happened recently when I had a loose connection at the starter motor and people were pushing me backwards.

It would be nice if there were 2" or even 1.5" drop spindles.

I considered something like coil overs to raise it up a bit.

To alter the sway bar I would have to modify the bumper brackets again.

With the front bumper 2.5" lower than the rear maybe I wouldn't have to lower it at all with the adjustable beam and stock spindles.

I do like the way it handles now with the drop spindles and caster shims.

Michael- Remember that lowering with the beam will also change caster (it goes down and in extreme cases the car now can get almost uncontrollable at higher highway speeds), and will need more shims behind the lower tube. The plusses of drop spindles far outweigh the minuses; I would do everything I can to make the drop spindles work. One thing no one's mentioned is that with the drop spindle's offsetting the wheel/tire 5/8" further outside, maybe your car would benefit from the beam narrowed 1"/side? More mucking around I know, but so worth it in the end. Al  

If you (can) lower the back a bit - it will cause the front end to raise a bit.  Maybe 9.5" in back would result in front raising to 9.5"?

If it seems like I'm pushing harder than I should for you to keep the drop spindles, there's a reason; I've run a beetle dropped some 4 1/2 or 5" in the front, all done by modifying the beam. It was the late '70's-early '80's; when I built the car I didn't know about offset spindles. Front tires were 135's; they're an evil entity I won't get into here. The back was lowered about 1 1/2" (I re-indexed the springplates 1 notch). I never did put caster shims behind the bottom tube, as I only found out about their existence shortly before I sold the car. There was so little caster, at 60mph you had to pay attention or the thing would want to wander into the next lane, and at 100mph (I only spent a very short time that fast; it scared the bejesus out of me!) was almost uncontrollable. A side wind would probably blown the car off the road or into opposing traffic, and I wouldn't have been able to stop it. I'm only interested in you being as safe in your car as possible, and doing it by only twisting the beams doesn't accomplish that.

We're working off the beetle platform, and they came with minimum caster from the factory so the car was safe at freeway speeds and the steering was still light enough at parking lot speeds that any one could handle the car easily. Even a totally stock car driven above 75 or 80mph would often feel a little "loose". The early drag racers were the first to discover the effects of not enough caster at the far end of the track; it took a few crashes before they figured out what was going on. To read what Gene Berg had to say about caster and it's effect on lowered cars- http://www.geneberg.com/cat.php?cPath=12_384_2917 

I hope this helps. Al 

Michael- Does your beam have one adjuster installed or 2?

Michael, it sounds like we suffered the exact same two symptoms.  

Im no expert, but since I went to dtock spindles, the car rides great and the two problems are gone.

Al, I appreciate your interest and concern.

I have two adjusters and they are both adjusted all the way up.

It seems like the 2 1/2" "dropped" spindles were developed in the late 70's for VWs when the prevalent tire profile was 80 (165x15) or 75.  Both very tall tires by today's often seen 40,45,50 series.  I had old mid '80's Yota PU that took now hard to find 195/70x14 tires.  With the low profile cars you don't need/want to lower the vehicle by 2 1/2 inches.  (Exception. of course, is Mango Smoothie).

According to http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

165/80x15 has a 12.6" radius

185/65x15 has a 12.2" radius (so you sit 1/2" lower)

205/50x15 has a 11.5" radius (so you sit 1" lower than stock VW settings)

So with the 205/50 and dropped spindles you are 3 1/2" lower than the stock ~6" road clearance - that's manhole cover collision low with an obese American on board. I remember as a young adult the torture of navigating McDonald's speed bumps with my MG - and it's Peco twin tip exhaust.

I have 175/70 tires which I think are close to the original diameter.

Yup - 12.3" vs 12.6 so 1/3" lower.  185/70x15 is exact same height (12.6") as the original (albeit optional) 165 radials.

One nice thing about having my 914 instruments refaced was that I could have them calibrate my speedometer for my tire size.

FWIW, North Hollywood Speedometer did this for me with my speedster gauge.

Me too.  I have yet to drive the car to find out how accurate it is.