Bolt on A arm conversion....NICE!

Check it out. Just bolt this baby on and go!!!!


http://a-arm.com/_wsn/page3.html

Very cool. Nice find, Joe.

stay tuned as I am working on a similar thing

bolt on to what?

http://a-arm.com/db1/00021/a-arm.com/_uimages/P1010046.JPG

doesnt look like it would bolt on to a pan -based car.

Probably an unpopular question, but is this really needed?

I've owned and driven a succession of performance cars (front engined front wheel drive, front engined rear wheel drive, rear engined rear wheel drive, mid engined rear wheel drive. front engined 4 wheel drive) and now drive my speedy quite hard. I don't get any problems with the front end on my speedy in terms of balance or grip (though it could benefit from a bit more feel), and it looks like this solution is to provide more travel for the front end on off road cars.

So do we really benefit from it?

Not sure about the need for the A-arm suspension, but I'd LOVE to have rack and pinion steering. I'm told that fitting it to the standard suspension introduces some bump-steer issues that are hard to eliminate due to the suspension geometry.

An A arm suspension is far superior than the VW suspension. Yes you can eliminate bump steer and ackermen. Why do you think it's use on nearly all road coarse and oval track racing.
Paul... looking at the left side of the photo the bolting flanges bolt to the pan towards the windshield. The carriage sits over the center and bolts to the front axle mount area.
Bill you beat me to it!

"How does it bolt on to the frame?
The kit is supported by the stock frame head, firewall and underneath. Where the body to chassis mounts."

I'd love to see his instruction sheet!
The pic shows the front view. I'd like to see the rear view.
There's a pic on the home page that shows it bolted in place where the beam used to be.
Don't know if we could use it. He states you need a 3" lift to clear the stock gas tank.
For the rack and pinion I'd sure like to check it out.

Me thinks one of you Cali guys should cruise over to this guy's shop for him to check out a Speedster to see if it could work.

Someone say rack and Pinion steering?

Let me know how that works out for you, Barry. I may be interested in something like it.

Uh, Barry, will there be some gussets up under the bent brackets? I would. Don't all the IMs come with racks?

Not all of them do, but it is an option. A worthwhile option, IMHO (my car has it).

Somebody DID say rack and pinion.

It really wouldn't be hard to retrofit a later model Ford Pinto rack onto the front of the VW chassis. It will eliminate a few moving parts.

the VW rabbit or scirrocco unit from the 70's is another choice and the tie rod ends are a correct fit on the old bug spindles.

Boston Bob E

Which year(s) Beetle spindles are a direct fit to the RABBIT tie rod ends? I just picked up around 15 RABBIT rack and pinion units from a local parts stash.

Any more mix-'n-match info?

Lemme know!

Thanks !

TC

I'm with you Jon!

TC,

I use a ball joint front end with the rabbit rack,, , the mix and match is probably endless, , but another surprise that I've found recently was that a starter from a 928 P-car fits 100% correctly into a 12V VW bug transaxle, , and spins opposite a VW, or correctly for a Corvair.

Much nicer than using the corvair starter with offset adaptors and bushings.

Boston Bob E

Damn!

The stuff you learn on these sites!!

Where was this info back in 1970 when I needed it!

Oh, Wait.......were 928's even around back then??

and even if they were around, I probably couldn't have afforded a 928 starter.....

Here's another bolt on kit . Costly

http://www.red9design.co.uk/type1.htm

To Jon Reidy's comment, "Do we really need an A-arm front suspension"?

Somewhere it seems that I've read that some of the original 60s CAN-AM race cars - and perhaps other sports racing vehicles of that era - actualy used the VW trailing arm front suspension for its light weight and durable engineering. If this memory is correct (hey, I have my senior moments), I would suggest that maybe those light weight cars didn't need much suspension movement and cornered flat enough that camber change was not a big issue, much like our speedsters?

Does a speedster replica need an a-arm front suspension? Do you really "need" a speedster? Probably not. Do you "want" a speedster? Do you want an a-arm front suspension?

Yeah, me too!

David things have changed since the old CanAm days. A arm suspensions are the optimum set up these days . What track car doesn't have them these day. New precision designs, high strength alloys , computor modeling what can I say . The resources weren't there . Porsche is using an A arm set up in all their cars now.

Talking with Simon of Red 9 Design over the weekend and placed my order for the A arm assembly. With the current exchange on the BPS versus Cdn $ its really not too bad.

Simon sent me a couple of pics of one of their A arm assemblies they recently installed in a speedster over there...in my photo file, for some reason couldn't pull them up to attach to this post.

Looking forward to installing it then my fully adjustable coil over front set up (also from Red 9) will be for sale if anyone is interested. (likely not for a couple of months though)

Wouldn't mind using some 911 hubs and rotors though instead of the VW and adpaters to 911 wheels. Anyone know of someone who could machine me up some sleeves to adapt the 911 hubs to the VW spindles?

Brian
Talk to Lanner at VDub Engineering in Mississauga

Thanks Robert...will do.

Here I am on short time at work and Joe"s got money to burn. Let me guess bank CEO!

Nope...Joe is happily employed by a major oil company. Unfortunately salary lock this year . Might have to change careers ... chassis builder.

Here s another ..

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=779294

My A arm conversion arrived from the UK earlier this week. It looks quite nice with the whole assembly zinc plated. It'll take some fiddling to get it into my tube frame I'm sure but I don't think it'll be that difficult. Unfortunately it arrived during the day and the driver got the wife to help him unload it from the truck so there's no squirrelling this away in the garage from her. To add to it she had to pay the tax and duty so she knows how much. Damn!

terrible slip up on your end. that's what a good neighbor is for.

Yes, my fault. She still thinks its part of the ignition system that broke and needs to be replaced in order to drive the car. ;-)

Mendeola had a pan based super beetle chassis with A-arm suspension at the front and rear showing at Knotts this year. They said they could easily put the same mods into a standard beetle pan. Their web site calls it a S2 chassis. They were talking something like $5k for the whole chassis - not sure what all that price included.

http://www.mendeolamotors.com/motors/index.php?option=com_content&id=137

David- Follow Joe's "Samba" link above, and see for yourself what it is, and how much it costs.

Hint: It's pretty cool.
Another Hint: The entire chassis is more than $5K....

The Red 9 A arm front end was about Cdn $2,700 including freight, duty and taxes. The UK Pound Sterling is not faring too well against the Cdn and US $ right now.

Kevin, here from Mendeola
Our front a-arm set up installed on your regualr or super beettle pan runs $3995 and includes everything from disc brake to disc brake, seals, bearings, rack, arms, balljoints, tie rods, sway bar, Fox Racing shocks, Eibach springs and is installed for you. Ours is a weld on unit and gives you true handling with adjustable camber, caster, toe, and ride higth. THe bolt on ones are ok, but we could not find one with the right amount of camber, caster, and scrub numbers (these are all very importain to acheive great not good handling)..... If you have any other questions about our product give us a call or e-mail me at kevin@mendeolamotors.com

Oh, the best part is that we are right here in San Diego.....

One last thing take a look at the back we've also made up a new true handling rear set up with camber and toe adjustments again with coil overs

Oh, you said camber toe! For a moment there I thought you said camel t...

Hey Kevin,

Have you done any conversion on the VW pan based 356 replica? It is very nice A arm set up for both front & back, I wonder how it affects handling and ride.....

Eddy

Eddy,
None on Porsches yet..... But after I drove it I want one. Now all I have to do is pull my car appart... Can you say winter project! (if I can wait that long)

After you drive something like this you can't wait to have it yourself...... Handles like a dream, as if it had tracks like a slot car.

Kevin,

Keep us posted. The price is rather steep, but the workmanship looks top notch (at least from the pictures). Might be an upgrade in the future especially for my back side as currently it has quite a limited wheel travel

Eddy