On the Road Again

A Speedster owner should correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to recall some posts about VW specs having too little caster up front for a Speedster. There’s a spacer they use on the bottom beam to get another degree or two to prevent wandering.

eta: Lo and behold, there’s a thread about them right under yours.
https://www.speedsterowners.co...-ain-t-right-part-ii

What shape are your trans mounts in?

How old are tires?  Have you rotated back to front.  Does it have caster shims already?  If not I'd buy a pair at least - to get 5 degrees vs vw spec 2.5 caster.  Does it have H beam adjusters.  Tires flat spot if setting for a long time - it does eventually go away after driving.

Nice looking car.

To heck with the car.

I want that cottage!

@Marshall check out that other link that Dave Lear mentioned up above - All you need to know about caster shims and why you need them.

So tell the alignment tech to set it up as a 1970 - 1972 front beam/non-Macpherson-strut VW Sedan front end and use the caster shims for 5º - 7º of front caster and you'll be fine.  You may have the shims in the car already, but I'll guarantee that he won't have any at the shop if you need them.  Get them from CB Performance, or small lengths of the right ID pipe will do in a pinch.

Get two sets to be safe, and a pair of longer mounting bolts, too (they're cheap).

https://www.cbperformance.com/...ter+shim&Submit=

@Gordon Nichols posted:

@Marshall check out that other link that Dave Lear mentioned up above - All you need to know about caster shims and why you need them.

Had I known the confusion it would cause, I wouldn’t have picked my name plus my inmate number on the first* (and subsequently every) forum I joined. But it D. L. Earl + 476.

David among friends.

*www.f650.com aka The Chain Gang.

60MPH "vibration" is the tell tale speed for wheel imbalance, which can be due to imbalanced weights or a bent wheel.  

Slow speed "bump" is usually a broken belt in the tire or an alignment that is extremely out of spec.

Several other possibilities, but in my experience these are the most common...

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@dlearl476 , you can retain your account here but change the displayed screen name.

'David among friends' would be a great screen name.

Anyone reading one of your posts for the first time would know how to address you and they would know right off that you aren't an axe murderer, a used car salesman, or an attorney.

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@Sacto Mitch posted:

.@dlearl476 , you can retain your account here but change the displayed screen name.

'David among friends' would be a great screen name.

Anyone reading one of your posts for the first time would know how to address you and they would know right off that you aren't an axe murderer, a used car salesman, or an attorney.

... even better would be your name. If you like "D. L. Earl", that works. "Dave Earl" works. "David Earl" works. "David L. Earl" works.

In the unlikely event that my name was Mitch Toll, and I looked like this:

I'd sign off "Mitchell Toll, esq."

Thanks everyone for your advice.  Got a nice handle on what I am going to ask the mechanic to do.

Marshall

I had a balancing issue once that looked like alignment etc etc, in the end new front tires cured the whole problem but not before every thing else was done.

Your advice is noted. I am willing to change the cheap tires I have on the car now with the better ones that start with V. Can’t remember the name. Before I do that I need to check that the rims aren’t bent and the balance is good. Thanks. Forget the shims they seem like they are more for track racers which I am far from.

Here’s where I’ll be Sunday!

32nd Annual All VW Car Show Acton Fairgrounds, Rt 109 in ACTON • 9AM to 3PM. Starts 8AM; show car entrance ends @ 11:30AM; voting ends 12:30; awards at/before 3PM.

Got to spiff up the car first.  Sand underfoot, mud on the tires, and, God forbid, bugs on the windshield.

Speedster hates a wash. We lean in a more plebeian direction. A night spent in a garage is an opium induced nightmare. A working man’s VW.

No - the shims are really to aid the car going straight down the road on normal driving - without them it will be dangerously twitchy.  I'm sure your car has an adjustable lowered beam.

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@Marshall posted:

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...Forget the shims they seem like they are more for track racers which I am far from...

Marshall, on our cars, the extra caster shims are not some kandy kolored tangerine flake racer Dan hot dog option.

They might save your life some day.

The Speedster front end is lowered somewhat from the standard Beetle setup and this lowering reduces some of the natural self-centering that was designed into the Beetle's stock steering geometry.

The result is that, without the shims, Speedster steering doesn't self-center as well as most cars and is easily knocked off-course by sharp bumps (the dreaded 'bump steer').

Shims are a good thing and perfectly respectable. You can discuss them openly in mixed company without fear of embarrassment.

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@Sacto Mitch posted:

.Marshall, on our cars, the extra caster shims are not some kandy kolored tangerine flake racer Dan hot dog option.

They might save your life some day.

The Speedster front end is lowered somewhat from the standard Beetle setup and this lowering reduces some of the natural self-centering that was designed into the Beetle's stock steering geometry.

The result is that, without the shims, Speedster steering doesn't self-center as well as most cars and is easily knocked off-course by sharp bumps (the dreaded 'bump steer').

Shims are a good thing and perfectly respectable. You can discuss them openly in mixed company without fear of embarrassment..

... and as a matter of fact, if you were Dan the Hot Dog Racer Man, you'd probably run less caster than in a GT car meant for cruising.

I understand. One of the first things that we did was raise the front end of the car. Looks fine and drives better. Need to find out about that bump. I’m hoping that I have a bent rim or imbalanced tires.

I’m happy running caster-free. More should try it. Very liberating for a man. Less-so for a woman.

Hi Wolfgang. Yes. We raised it back up. The car actually tracts very well with the exception of those bumps and tire wear on the rear right tire.

Currently the biggest issue I’m dealing with is all these hummingbirds that are fighting over their feeder. I left DC for this?  Will try to attach a video.

There are 4 or 5 prepubescent teens on some floats two hundred yards offshore raising Kane and just enjoying being stupid. And together. Everything is funny. Not a care in the world. To be young again.

Rims:  Can be checked for run out on, the car.

"Bump"  Possible bad belt in tire or recent bent rim

Tire(s) worn: ( Alignment issue and or suspension part)

Replace with new tires then....Get an alignment done

22lbs front tire pressure

OK. Got it. Passing on everything to th mechanic next Wednesday. Thanks.

@Marshall posted:

... Forget the shims they seem like they are more for track racers which I am far from.

Those extra shims are for your safety and may save your life.  Depending on how the car is lowered the front could have so little caster that it isn't safe even at highway speeds.  I wrote this in another thread just a few days ago-

  "As previously said, caster should be 5° or a little more.  We can learn a little from Porsche here- 356 front beams are welded in with 5° caster, which gives predictable handling at higher speeds.  VW specced about 2½° caster, which made parking lot maneuvering easy for 100 lb ladies and gave acceptable handling at 60 mph, but pushing it any higher can get you into real trouble.  Mishaps at these speeds can be kind of final, hence the shims under the front beam."

Please give this the attention it deserves- we're all concerned for a very good reason.

Thanks for the concern ALB. I’ll mention this to the mechanic. Does the urgency of doing this lessen some if the front end has been raised?

Using the beam adjuster(s) to raise up the front end changes the angle of the trailing arms and does add back caster @Marshall, but how much (per inch raised) I don't know.  How much higher is the front now?

When I first built my Cal Look bug back in 1976/'77 I knew nothing about caster, and lowered the front of the car with a Select-a-drop (same idea as a beam adjuster- it twists the center collar of the top beam so it's adjustable) and 135-15's (23¼" tall).  With the centers of the headlights measuring 19½" off the ground (stock is 24") the steering was 'somewhat darty or twitchy' at 55-60 mph (you were constantly over-correcting as the front end just wanted to 'wander' on it's own) and at 87-89 mph (trap speed through the lights- I bracket raced the car 3-4 times a season for 4 or 5 years) it was truly a handful to keep in the lane.  Being young and foolish, one time coming back home alone from skiing from Whistler, let it all out down this long hill- I wanted to see how fast my beast would actually go.  At over 100 mph (was only there for a few seconds) it felt pretty uncontrollable, the car got hit by a side gust and before I could react I was in the middle of the opposing lane.  Fortunately there was no opposing traffic and I'm still alive to tell the story.

Anyway- got the car back in the proper lane, pulled over, cleaned off the seat and took a walk around the car to settle down and wondered the rest of the way home why something I had so lovingly built would try to kill me.  I started asking questions and not long after had a pair of Berg's thicker caster wedges under the bottom beam.

Why we're so concerned- depending on how your Speedster is set up it could be outright dangerous at only a few mph over legal highway speeds, and it can all go wrong in the blink of an eye.

@Marshall posted:

I am willing to change the cheap tires I have on the car now with the better ones that start with V.

Those would be Vredesteins. My Speedster wore Vredestein Sprint Classics and I ran 18020psi in the front and 22-24psi in the rears. It really helped soften the ride in the front, improved grip, and the rears were firmly planted without being too soft.