Rear wheel travel

What is the wheel travel on the rear wheels when the car is "normal" (not lowered). My coupe has the rear wheel opening about 1 1/2"- 2" above the wheels, however, I am bottoming quite often going into dips. It has a KYB shocks. My travel between the top bump stop to the rubber stop (which I already cut down) is only about 2", so I imagine the wheel travel will be only a bit over 2" which seems to be kind short.

Eddy

Remove the bumpers, go for a ride. I don't think you'll ever "hit" again. But keep the bumpers just in case.

Sorry I don't think removing the bumper stop will work. It will still bottom out. What is the normal rear wheel travel anyway?

Eddy - Your photo's look like they lowered the rear 2 inches or so -- you'd have lots of air above the tire if they didn't. Your's is a coupe though so might looks different. Guess you could use a coil over (dune buggy) shocks - especially if you have a powerful engine.

Wolfgang, as you can see the opening of the fender is only about 2" from the wheel (not the top of the tire). You can also see the approximate distance between the rubber stop and the top bump stop. It is only about 2". It seems to me to be a very short travel. Is there a way to lengthened the wheel travel?

John Steele used to completely remove the bumper-stops on speedsters, and use them for door-stops for the doors (he glued them in the door jam toward the front of the car).

It's hard to see from the picture, but I think you'd have about three inches of travel if you did that. I have no idea if that's enough, but it's the only thing you can (easily) do in the rear to get more travel, short of raising the rear end back up, and it already looks pretty high to me (relatively speaking).

First, I'd take out the bumper stops as Bruce suggested. It can't hurt anything. If it still bottoms out, you can try putting in some adjustable shocks (Koni's) and dialing up some compression dampening, or installing the overload shock somebody suggested (although I'd recommend against it). Anything you do with shocks may be a bit of a band-aid, but stuff starts to go up from there.

The really slammed cars you see pictures of have some pretty fancy stuff done suspension-wise. Jim Dubois' pictures (just posted) show an air-bag suspension he's installing during the build process. KCW in Colorado is famous for slammed buses and Type 1's and 3's to a lesser extent. They will do stuff like raise the torsion tube in relation to the mounts on the pan to drop the car down, while maintaining some suspension travel. I've even seen them install Type 2 gear reduction boxes upside down to drop the back end of a bus in the weeds.

hey Eddy,
Obviously there was more travel originally than what ur getting now. Depending on what was done, you might be able to correct it. JPS might have taken a torsion bar or two out or notched your swing arm to lower ur suspension. I would call JPS to see if they did any of those. You have a swing axle or IRS? BTW, I think most shocks dampen the ride not raise it, unless ur goin baja. Are ur tires rubbing in the well or are you just scraping ur exhaust?

bc

I think we're missing the point here--he's want to know the travel.
Sorry, don't know that but you say "bottoming" which implies that it is compressing the suspension to max which is limited by the bumper stop. The 3/4-1" that's there might just "fix" your bump.

Bruce said - "JPS might have taken a torsion bar or two out or notched your swing arm to lower ur suspension." Unlike the front beam which uses individual torsion bars the rear uses a single (either side) splined bar about 3/4" in diameter. Sway-a-way makes replacement torsion bars that are larger diameter and, hence, stiffer. They range from 23-30mm diameter. Put one of those 30mm ones in and your'll feel every road pebble, I bet, --- but it won't bottom out. These are probably more designed for off road flying leaps but would solve your problem. Could be your old ones are rusted partially thru or just fatigued (remember they were designed for a torque-less 40 HP engine and skinny bias ply tires). I don't know if VW made different ones - say for the heavier Ghia. The extra pair I have are orange color - not sure if that is rust proofing or a rating identifier.

Three thoughts:
1) Remove the bumpers. Go for a ride. If no bottoming, you are on the right track. If you still want the potential protection of bumpers, can you cut them in half and re-install?
2) Worn out or ineffective shock?
3) Is it really bottoming - can you feel the car actually hitting something solid - or is it more of a "sound" than a feel? There was a previous thread here where we explored a "clunking sound" from the rear suspension (I have that occassional problem).

Wolfgang-

I've got stiffer bars and Konis in my IM. It's "firm", but not overly so.

I'm still with Bruce on this- I'd take the bumper-stops out- if it works, then I wouldn't do anything else. If it didn't, I'd start to look at Konis or some other shock with stiffer compression dampening.

I have talked to JPS and he is trying to figure out what to do. I am not sure what he did when he built the car and I have no experience with torsion bar suspension to even start to guess.

It looks like the upper bump stop was welded back on, I am not sure if this is a factor on this limited travel.

It is definitely hitting the bump stop as I can feel it on the seat and I put some chalk on the rubber stop and I can see the chalk on the upper bump stop. At this point the rubber bumper stop is only about 1 3/4" thick, even if I take it out, there is still a round metal that is used to hold the rubber (I think it is about 1" high), so by taking the rubber bumper I might gain max 3/4"-1". I will try it out this weekend, I just don't like the idea of metal hitting metal. As far as worn out shocks, I hope not, the car is only 1 year old, but I might take it off also on the weekend just to be sure.

Stan, what kind of Koni did you get. Since yours is an IM, do you think it is the same set up as the VW IRS (pan based) which is in my car?

Eddy

You know--I thought that was rewelded from your pic. I visited
"thesamba.com" and searched bumper stops, shock tower and all the pictures show that your tower is a little shorter. I didn't post the info because I didn't have the info to compare year to year.
Take a look, it at least may contribute to your troubles. Take the bump stop off and secure a blob of clay or other as a squish indicator.