drop spindles yes or no

should I or not. I am building my pan right now and need to make a decision.

Yes, with the lighter body, lowered spindles position the body in a more stock height. Otherwise the whole car looks ridicously high.


Gclarke "The Vacaville Guy"

As I see it, the trouble with dropped spindles is you have a one time shot at getting the ride height you want. And the car ain't even built yet. Dropped spindles do give a slightly superior front end geometry.
An adjustable beam allows a range of adjustment. Adjusters in both beams allows you to "tune" your spring rates to the reduced front end weight and to your driving style. And you can re-tune the ride height later, after you have busted the front valance fiberglass on that steep driveway or speed bump.

I think the term "ridicously high" is a bit of an overstatement; I would think JPS and Vintage and IM would come standard with dropped spindles if that were the case. That said I like 'em! It enhances the look and also aids handling due to the lowered center of gravity.

The adjustable beam is good too but you can't adjust the car as low as you would imagine as it screws up the front shock travel, the front suspension gets stiff, etc. Dropped spindles maintain the stock shock travel, ditto suspension, and with an adjustable beam you can fine tune ground clearnace up a bit as needed.

the reason I asked is that today I called Kirk and he said not to use drop spindles, I can't figure out why he said that. My plan was to use drop spindles in addition to beam adjusters.

I take back "Ridicously high",,,,although that was the case with my car. Sorry "personal experience" is not absolute.

I also had recommended to me, not to use adjusters,( although I've used them with success on cal-bug builds in the past) that's why I went with spindles to get the optimum height for my car.

Gclarke "The vacaVille Guy"

Drop spindles are a good choice, they retain the stock "ride" comfort compared to a speedster that has only axle beam adjusters installed ....the spindles and addition of adjusters allows for fine tuning of ride and height.

thanks guys, drop spindles and adjusters it is.

Michael: Get the weld in kind with the screw adjusters. They are much easier to adjust than the Puma style with the toothed plate.

is everyone modifying the front end (cut and re-weld top torsion tube sleeve) besides the dropped spindles?

Steve .........that is the best way to go see my above post

Alan..
got it, thanks, what's a good source for good priced ds's?

CB performance, Farmersville, Ca. ( Near Visalia/fresno)
Listed with a 2 page ad in any "Hot VW magazine


Gclarke "The Vacavilie guy"

Use the dropped spindles AND the adjustable beam!
You will be able to set the ride height as low as you want and still have suspension travel.
If you go only with the adjustable beam, what ever amount lower than stock you set it, is how much travel you'll subtract or loose.
Adding the 2 or 21/2 dropped spindles allows you to regain that much travel.

The result is:
with only adjustable beam (used to set front end low) and no dropped spindles:
rough ride!

Greg B

My VS has an adjuster in the top beam only. This is an OK method of adjusting ride height and also can reduce spring rate by reducing the number of leafs that are preloaded. The lower five (or 6) leaves take the majority of the weight.

Now for real feedback. I found that to get the desired ride height(level) I had to lower the front quite a bit. This has reduced my front wheel travel and created a bad angle on the control arms.

I suggest the lowered spindles with minimal lowering and use spring adjusters to fine tune the spring rate and height. By having two adjusters you can lower the car and choose whether you are using both sets of springs equally or biasing to one set(top or bottom).

The possibilty of spring rate adjustment is greater with two adjusters. You can lower the upper adjuster to soften the spring rate then raise the lower adjuster to get the desired height.

This creates so much more suspension adjustment. A lot of people here have complained about light front ends. This technique of softening the front can eliminate the rough ride and help in handling.

One thing to remember about drop spindles is that they add about 1/2 inches to each side of the beam.
I don't know about you guys, but if I put drop spindles on my 84 IM I'd hit bottom every time I went over a speed bump.
Ron

One thing to keep in mind, neither Kirk at Vintage nor John at JPS recommends using dropped spindles on their cars. I wonder why? Shades of another discussion. Eddie

like this

I don't think all dropped spindles add the extra width. Check with your supplier if you are concerned with the width issue.

I have Jtech spindles that do add width, but I believe CBperformance sells dropped spindles that don't add width.

As far as Kirk at VS "not recommending" dropped spindles...
This may not be a recommendation but more of an opionion that
you don't need them.
example:
When I asked about rears Disk brakes, I was told that I didn't need them...
I have them.

Greg.

Don't know what this means regarding rear disk brakes, but when I assembled my FRONT disk brakes I stupidly installed the calipers on the opposite sides, putting the bleed valves on the bottom and making them impossible to bleed (found that air doesn't like to go DOWN!).

Took to the streets and the brakes were TERRIBLE! Stomp on the pedal with everything you had, pull on the steering wheel and pray a lot and it would sort-of slow down - pretty scarey.....all that was working were the rear drums (different circuit) and they didn't have hardly any stopping power.

Figured out what was wrong, re-installed the front calipers on the correct sides, bled them properly and tried another road test. Night and day difference! - stopped on a dime giving nine cents change.

I was amazed at how much stopping power was at the front - seems like over 80%, making me wonder just how much additional power you get for your money with rear disks. Now, let's not get into the disk vs drum fade discussion - been there, done that. I'm just wondering if you really get a lot of real added stopping power from rear disks.

Anybody done a Saturday conversion and able to compare?............gn

Greg, I'm not talking about an option, I'm saying when asked if it would work better to use dropped spindles or adjusters to lower the car, they both said adjusters, that was a year ago. Maybe things have changed by now, maybe someone should give them a call and post the answer. Eddie

I have read that VS prefers the adjusters to soften the suspension, due the light weight of the cars. Spindles only change height.

Eric, I just looked at the pictures you posted of your car.
It looks to be lowered very little if at all. If/When you attempt to lower it more than you've already lowered it, you'll see what I mean.

Greg.

Just remember, when you go low, you should also consider flipping the steering arms. Because the atachment point on the spindle is tapered, they have to be drilled out and bushings (readily available) added. This will get your steering arms roughly back to horizontal.

Greg, I haven't talked to CB, but I did talk to Franklins and he said that the drop spindles would add about 1/2" to each side. Granted that was for my type 2 single cab, but I've heard that any drop spindles will extend the beam width. Could be different for a beetle beam.
Ron

Greg,

I already agreed with you. I only lowered mine enough to level the body. Any lower will take away travel.

I lowered a beetle 20 years ago by removing a leaf from each front spring tube. This did a similar result of lowering through adjusters. The car lost too much travel. Go-cart suspension.

I immediately ordered the dropped spindles for my king/link pin front end and reinstalled my springs. I loved the ride height and suspension travel. Combined with my anti-sway bars, I had a great car that did a very controlled four wheel drift on highway exits.

I completely agree with you about the drop spindles "and" adjusters.

I have the CB dropped spindles. They are about 3/8