Front end alignment, pan-based Speedsters

Reminds me, I gotta get my pan based done.

It pulls right and steering wheel off center (probably one in the same)

Glad to hear ya got it squared away

Your off-center steering wheel is from the last time your car had the toe in adjusted, I bet.

Just ask on the site who has had good luck in your area with alignment of their speedster.  Or else ask on The Samba who has had their bug aligned---tell 'em what year your pan is. 

Good luck!

They all pull a bit right because of road crown. On many cars this is compensated for with caster--a bit more on the outside (right) side. With VW beams the caster has to be equal all across, so you end up with just a little drift.

My reading of the toe was 1/8 in on the front and 1/8 out on the back for IRS cars, give or take 1/16th, and that should work. Camber on the originals was 0 or a little positive. That looked insane to me so I specced mine at .5 degree negative. It really does seem to make it better.

Ed---glad you are happy with your alignment.  Isn't it nice to know that as you roll down the road you aren't eating up your tires because of mis-alignment!

Yes indeed. Or, even more important, not squirming all over the road. My car's suspension took a bit of tweaking just to make is reasonably acceptable, and new tires were just one small part of it. I was lucky, too, to stumble into an alignment shop (Atlantic Tire in Baltimore) whose people were willing to listen and think about the car they were working on, instead of just reading the book. (There is no book for the BCW Model 52 and, anyway, the build instructions made for a really hard riding and bad-handling car).

Only thing the alignment guys did wrong was pump up all the tires to like 34 lbs. That made the ride home less than awesome but was easily fixed.

Would the specs you listed be the same for my Vintage Speedster with a 1962 pan as the donor?

Yes, those specs are for VW bugs 1960-1968.

Be aware of the fact that those specs were for bias ply tires---not today's modern steel belted radials. 

Find a  shop that knows how to align the 60's bugs.  I had a bad experience with a young mechanic who had no idea about what you adjust to bring the front end in alignment.  The last guy a couple of weeks ago was terriffic and has done a LOT of these front ends. 

Good luck with it!

Sure could use some advice on this one.  I had my pan based towed because I got stranded after a gas hose fiasco (had a kink)

Now suddenly my car steering wobbles horribly when I accelerate past 55 or so.

Could the alignment be out of whack?  Could a tow hooked up in the wrong location cause a bent axle or something?  I got the car as a hobby so I want to do the work myself if possible (not alignment)  I changed out the steering damper which seemed to help a little.  The car is a VS build.

Good on ya' for doing work yourself.  In this instance, however, unless you have alignment experience, you really need to take it to a good alignment shop near you, explain the symptoms, and have them fix it.  You really don't want a dangerous steering wobble at highway speed.  That's how bad accidents occur.  Good luck and let others know what you find.

look at your wheels and see if you maybe dropped a balancing weight. If not, alignment shoppe.

I will do the alignment shop.  Thanks!

wait!  I just jacked it up again and can see a lot of leakage from the steering from the steering gear box?? any insight?  (still going for the alignment)