Lowering your front end... How to and how far would you go?

I have heard that lowering a VS is some what simple with their adjustable front end. I do not know the specific's. Could some one lead a newbie by the hand and give me some insight as to "How to" and what is a good level to lower it too. I do not what to "Dump-it" but I would like a lower look as it stands right now!

Regards,

Speedster D

lowered spindles

Hey Speedster Dave. If you have an adjustable front you will see 2 bolts, one on each beam in the middle. See pic of my new one on the Ghia, here. http://mikeandjosee.com/Avitars/images/DSCF0016.JPG

You see that bolt in the middle of the top and bottom beam with a serated washer? That is the adjust. To lower the front end you can simply hold the front end with a jack, unbolt the bolts and lower the car and bolt them back up. Should be able to get maybe 2inches of play here.

If you want to go even lower you should get lowered spindles and this requires quite a bit of mods but will lower another 3inches, where you can have the car rubbing on the ground...

Speedster D

I lowered mine last week.I used an adjustable beam.My car is pretty low now,but I like this look.You can go to my file for pictures.The above post explains on how to do it.

in addition to the adjustable front end you can add air shock w/ an onboard compressor. Then it'll be adjustable from the drivers seat. handy when going up a driveway or something.

Good stuff, Ben! Very cool!

I would go as "LOW" as I could as long you won't have any trouble going over Speed Bumps and Steep Driveways as long as you don't bottom out!

Stance is everything!!!!!

My Speedster is lowered using a Adjustable Beam in the front with Shorter KYB Shocks too! I have 145-15 tires mounted too which made my Speedster even lower! I plan to low the rear adjusting the teeth on the torsion bars behind the Spring Plate.


Kawika55

Ps. Lambros your Speedster ride height looks perfect!!! Your Speedster looks AWESOME!!!

David
Thank you.Your car looks awesome too with the new paint job.I looked at the before-after pictures and you did a great job with it.

Cool, thanks Mike , Dave for the information and Lambros you to you guys rock! I will look into that. Dave I've always liked your ride and I believe you are right.. the lower the better I say..

Speedster D

David; do yourself a favor and just install the adjustable spring plates; Serrano's has them for $85.00 per pair. You'll be able to dial in your ride height at the back with just an Allen wrench....This is the link:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=194572

certainly agree, adjustable spring plates are the way to go...

Ricardo
I know you just lowered the rear of yours. I've done a search and read all the tech articals about lowering the rear.One minute it seems really easy and the next minute I don't think I want to tackle the project.
I really want to lower the rear about an inch.
How difficult was it?
Is there anything special to watch out for?
I read Gordon Nichols artical and step by step directions, but I still don't feel comfortable doing it myself.
Can you walk me through any of it or give me a little advice so I can get my confidence up and do it myself.I don't want to leave the car in the garage in pieces and have to have it towed to be fixed because I wasn't able to do the job.
Thank's Eddie

Well; actually we've done it a few times. The first time we did it on my car just swapping the spring plates for the adjustable ones. I bought them from Serrano's for $85.00 for the pair (see link above). All you've got to do is replace your existing ones with the adjsutable ones as per the VW Service Manual appropriate for your year chassis and/or transmission type (swingaxle or IRS). If the car is an IRS and already has the body on you won't be able to replace the spring plates or the inner bushings because the spring plates are longer and won't clear the body to be able to take them out. You will need a $20.00 tool (EMPI and Bugpack as well as other vendors in Hot VW's mag offer it) which keeps the spring plate compressed so you can pry it out of the housing. While you're in there, if your car is old and hasn't been serviced in a while, it's a good idea to swap the bushings (inner and outer at each side; 4 total can be rubber stock replacement or urethane). In your case your car is a recent Vintage Speedster and Kirk replaces all those for new ones when he builds the car so you're covered there. Even though Gord's instructions tells you to use an extra floor jack to keep the spring plate compressed, it's a good idea to just get the tool. The manual gives you some readings on angles depending on the year. Just get a portable protractor with a level and line it up with the new spring plate and install it so that it gives you the reading for your car's year (should be around the 20 odd degree mark). Remember to keep your car level while you do this so you need to jack up the front too to get it to be totally horizontal for the protractor reading to be true. Pound the new spring plate it in with a rubber mallet while keeping it compressed with the tool until it's inserted enough to put the spring plate cover back on. Retorque as per factory's specs and the hard part is done. Re-attach the axle to the spring plate and you're done. After doing that on both sides use an Allen wrench to dial your car's desired height.

Ricardo,thanks alot you make it sound so easy. How long does it take you to drive from Puerto Rico to California to give me a hand (he he)
I'm still not sure if I'm going to do it or not. When my wife and I are in the car it sets perfect. The rear wheel arch is at the top of the rear wheel rim. Maybe it's because we are a couple fat a--'s. After the drive and I park it in the garage it's still setting good. The wheel arch is maybe a 1/4" above the top of the rim. But the next time I take it out for a drive by myself. Backing out of the garage as with all swing axle rear ends the rear of the car raises up. I go for a drive and pull back into the garage and now the rear wheel arch is about a inch or 1-1/4" above the top of the rear wheel arch.Maybe I need to put a hundred pound bag of sand in the seat when I go by myself( he he).Thank's again.
Eddie

Believe me if I lived near you I'd help you do it as I do with Jjr (he lives close by and we help each other out in tinkering with our cars). From all the photos I've seen; the sort of "correct" (if you can call it that) stance for the Speedster happens when the rear wheel arch lines up with the top of the rim. The thing is that it's fairly low and when you have an extra sump and/or camber compensator (as I do) you need to watch out for bumps and steep driveways to keep them from hitting....I've already learned how to drive around those obstacles to minimize that but the price to pay was a new oil strainer plate which will hopefully be less mistreated. That's the price to pay for looking cool but I prefer it to the "Baja Bug Look"; as Jjr would say.

Ricardo
I totally agree with you regarding the correct look. I also have a camber compensater and front sway bar. I used the sway-away stock sway bar and turned it upside down to clear the bumper brackets. I only have 4" of ground clearance in the front at the sway bar.I shoud have installed the sway bar you installed, but I didn't have anyone to do the cutting and welding.I haven't bottomed out or hit anything yet.I may add the extra oil sump one of these days. I only live about 10 miles from C.B.Performance.They have everything. There's a guy that works there that does all their machine and engine work that has a baja bug with a VW motor he built using all of C.B. parts. It has a turbo and nitros. 450hp out of a VW motor.
He can't keep clutches in though. How would you like to have that engine in your speedster?
Eddie

Wow!!! Talk about muscle car-like HP to weight ratios!!!!

Hey Mike, you said you just put a new adj.front axle on your Ghia, Who did you get it from? I am in the market and am just starting to see that there are a lot of different vendors and brands, are you happy with the quality, and fit? I live in Michigan so shipping is a costly thing, but as long as it is of good quality I'm fine. Thanks

Hi Chuck I got the kit, sway bar, upper and lower leaves and upper torsion arms and bushings from CIP1.com. The quality is good I am satisfied. Everything went in as planned and no issues. Total cost for all of that about $500.00.

Installation cost was about $400.00 CDN since it is quite a bit of work and definately needs a 4 wheel (although in a Ghia that's 2) alignment. I hung around with the mechanic for the 6 hours it took him to do it. I opted for the 2 inch narrower which meant that I should have bought shorter tie-rod arms as well. A cheap part. But since I didn't we had to take the arms off from the steering assembly and cut about a 1/2 inch from the inside and a 1/2 inch from the actual tie rod because the narrower beam and stock tie-rod length will not work. As I was told it would.

Thank goodness we could cut a little with plenty to spare.

Chuck, also check the Brazilian made Pumas offered by CB Performance. If I recall correctly, they're new units with the adjusters already installed so it's just a matter of swapping all your existing components over to it. That way you can also keep your stock unit intact. I believe Puma is or was the OEM supplier for VW Brazil.

Here's my 2 cents:
Don't rely on the adjustable beam as the ONLY method of lowering.
Every inch you drop your front end with beam adjusters is an inch of (down)suspension travel you no longer have. (read: the ride will become harsh)

USE DROPPED SPINDLES! They don't change the way the front end rides. (except for the extra weight from the front being lower) and you don't have to change to short shocks!
If the dropped spindles (usually 2.5 in.) don't put your ride height where you want it, THEN go to the adjuster(s) on the beam to tweak the height to your ideal height.

Oh yeah,
On ball joint front beams;
While you've got it apart, replace the camber adjusters (top arm) for the aftermarket ones that allow you to crank more towards 0 or negative camber.

Greg B

Greg

I lowered mine with adjustable beam (only) and my car rides great.I do not like the ride to be too soft,so my car rides perfect for now.If it gets to rough for me I will lift the front a bit.

I would sure like to hear more about the camber adjusters, If I'm goung to take this thing all apart I might as well do it right and get all the information I can from you guys that have had good and bad experiences. Pictures????

This page has a short explanation.

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=C12%2D6612%2D10

Look in a VW manual to find these adjusters assembled in your ball joint front end. Then look at how to align the front end and how to adjust front camber.
These pieces let you adjust camber to the stock (positive camber) settings OR... adjust beyond that to 0 or negative camber.

Greg B

I had the adjustable beam but switched to the Red9Design coil over unit. It was not cheap at about 400 pounds sterling from the UK but it gets rid of the front torsion bars and uses Spax fully adjustable coil overs. So now in addition to adjusting the height with the adustable spring perches I can adjust the shocks with the 20 some odd adjustments. And I can adjust the spring rate by getting different spring rates if I ever decide I want to try that.

I really like the set up...

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

Brian