Shortened shocks?

If you're using drop spindles then use regular shocks as the attachment point distance hasn't changed. Al

Not using dropped spindles -should I be?. My Fiberfab book says to cut and reweld to drop the front end but maybe I missed the spindle part.

Thanks!

Installing drop spindles is relatively simple and keeps your suspension travel and shock lengths the same, but will give you a fixed 2.5 inch drop. I would not do a cut and reweld, it's hard to get right in one shot and still only gives you a fixed drop height. If you're going to be cutting on the beam, there's no reason not to install adjusters. Same amount of work as the cut & turn, but you'll be able to tweak your ride height to where you want it afterwards. Do one tube at a time to keep the beam straight.

Either of these styles are for a balljoint beam, linkpin version is different (you'll need 2):

http://www.cbperformance.com/P...asp?ProductCode=6254

http://www.cbperformance.com/P...asp?ProductCode=6312

Great info! I can weld but I wasn't looking forward to cutting and dropping the beam. Spindles it is! Thanks a million!

Dropped spindle come in at least 2 versions. Modified stock assemblies have the spindle cut off, a plate welded on and the spindle reattached. They space out the wheels 1/2 or 5/8" a side, depending on the plate. CB Perf has new spindle assemblies that are castings

http://www.cbperformance.com/P...asp?ProductCode=4061 and they still add 1/4" track to each side of the car. The great thing about them is you can use factory shocks and steering geometry doesn't change. These both become issues when dropping with the beam only.

Start with spindles, and if more drop is needed then you can mess with the beam. Remember to factor tire size into the equation.  Al

 the reason for the fiberfab saying that is 1, there wasent droped spindles redaly avalible cheep back then, and 2 , the kitcar is much lighter than the std bug. just adding the droped spindles will drop it but the suspension will be higher than the ride hight it should be at due to the weight diff. I think the best thing would be to add an adjuster so the all the way up position is at std hight, so it can be lowered back to where it needs to be and you can taylor it to the weight of all your **** in the trunk.and add lowered spindles to get it lower. so now you have the corect ride hight in the suspension&the cutten the grass stance you want.

As always, you guys are the best. Thank you for your very valuable 2 cents. I will do as you say.

That's 2 1/2 cents (I'm Canadian)

Remember Al, we're on par now (or darn close). 

 so do we now have to pay to give addvice??? darn economy getten worse every day...and who would of ever thunk the IRS was going to screw somany people.

I know Ron, but it's been my tag line elsewhere for so long!

Adding to Marksbug's rap: Because the Speedster is way lighter than the donor Beetle, getting the front end lowered is only part of what you are doing--and not the important part. You also want to reduce the spring rate.

That's a tech way of saying "make the springs softer." You want to do this for comfort and safety: so the car will ride reasonably well and handle like it's supposed to.

If you do not remove some of the springs, chances are about 100 percent your car will be too stiff up front. It will ride like a buckboard and understeer way, way too much. Even if it's lowered and looks right, it will still be dangerous and uncomfortable, and you'll want to get rid of it in six months.

So take some springs out and be happy for many years.

You do this by loosening the grub screw in the center of each tube in the beam. Then you loosen the grub screws on each of your trailing arms and slide them off. The thing they come off of is a spring pack. It's a stack of leaf springs that twist in order to give your suspension its springiness.

Each pack has 10 leaves. In the middle are four wide leaves. Then, stacked on each side of it are two sets of three skinny leaves. If you separate them and look at them from the end, they look roughly like this:

     -

    --

    __

    __

    __

    __

     --

     -

The beam is made so that, starting from the top and bottom, any line of springs can be taken out, and when you reassemble the rest of the springs will still "lock" into the center housing and the trailing arm ends so the suspension will work as designed.

You can dial-in your spring rate this way so the car handles like it ought to.

In my car--a VW-based TD replica, I took out all the smaller leaves and reassembled the beam with adjusters. They're nearly all the way up in my case--meaning the center grub screws are about where they would be if I had no adjuster. The car rides about 1.5 inches lower than stock in front, which gives it a nice rake but shortens the suspension travel a bit. My stock shocks bottom out big bumps and hard turns (but the shorties give me no upward travel).

My suspension is probably just a tiny bit too soft in front right now.

Chances are good your car is lighter still, so even with only the four big leaves an adjustable beam on your car will likely need to be set a little lower than mine to make the car look "right" with stock spindles. Or you could add dropped spindles and set the adjusters closer to stock height. That will give you the right shock and steering geometry, and the right spring rate.

You might even be able to get away without adjusters: the lowering spindles might bring you down just right after the right number of springs are removed. The problem there of course is it's a trial and error thing: you disassemble the beam, take out (or replace) leaves, put it together, drive it, rinse and repeat as needed to get the ride height right. The adjusters make it a one-shot operation.

Ed- I don't know about your car, but I was under the understanding that most speedsters are only a little lighter than a beetle (and with similar f/r weight bias); my '72 bug weighed 1850 lbs (sans bumpers and heater boxes but with cw crank, dual carbs, sway bars and wider rear wheels and tires) and my IM is supposed to weigh 1700(ish) lbs finished. With a less than 10% weight difference, I don't think it's wise to go crazy lowering the front spring rate, and I know some people have put slightly heavier rear torsion bars in their cars. IIrc, Intermeccanica installs 24mm bars (stock is 21? 22?mm) in the backs of at least some of their cars and they ride and handle very nicely.  Al

Very good point, ALB. I think my car weighs in the 1700-pound neighborhood, and I make that about 400 pounds less than the Beetle it was made from, and 300 of that is taken off the front beam. That's me, estimatating.

I've been told a lot of Speedsters are weighing in closer to 2000 pounds. I don't understand why this would be, except that a lot of y'all knuckleheads are running around with tons of luxury in your cars, carpets and padding, roll-up windows, air conditioning, etc. But if it's true you might not need to lose so much springage in front.

That said, you need to know that the kit direction to "cut and weld" the beam is precisely to lower the front of something like stock height--because the weight over it is, in fact, less than the stock Beetle had.

Bugs were made of metal and had roofs, after all.

Good news about the adjustable beam: you can take springs out, put them back, and crank the ride height up or down veritably at whim!

Ed, I cut the metal dustboots off my shocks, removed about half the rubber snubber inside, and then welded them back on and repainted. Easy peasy, about an hour to do both. No more bottoming out.

We weighed a bunch of cars a few years ago. A few were around 1700, but most were 1800-1900 so about the same as a stock Bug, no? Some were really heavy and some weren't, I would say 18-1900 was average

I think IMs are on the heavy side.  I'll have to get my weighed this summer.  I'm guessing it will be close to 2000 pounds.

Danny: I was hoping to scale mine this year at Carlisle. Thought you were bringing the scales!

If I'm wrong about the Speedster weights you guys would know. The other "luxury" a lot of you guys have is a steel frame.

Reason I think I'm lighter is, 1. The BCW book claims the car weighs 1650 all done. Chop gun glass on this body is pretty uniform at about 3/16th of an inch.

2. The beam in my car had been cut and welded (as instructions instructed). If the car weighed the same as the Bug there'd be no need to do this. But there is, and I know it's to lower the nose. Weight bias moves back with the TD kit: you're sitting in the back seat, basically. I would be very surprised to find more than 350 pounds over either front tire on the car--thinking we'll be in the 325 range. I think the Bug was closer to 450.

3. Time slips. My engine is a 100k+ mile 1500 single port with a 1 bbl carb and no kind of exhaust or cam work. Makes maybe 46 horse at the rear wheels. I ran only a second and a half behind Ascheman, and he's an experienced auto-crosser with a race-prepped car sporting about 140 horses. I beat the next VW TD--Schu--by a second or so. He's got a 1641 with dual carbs and a header--let's guess 70 horse--plus disc brakes up front, plus wide tires. I'm not a driver so I figure the only way I beat Schu is with lightness.

Thanks for the shock rebuild tip. One more reason for me to learn to weld already.

"Simplicate and add lightness."  Ed, you are the reincarnation of Colin Chapman.

Dang it - I forgot to remove the travel trunk from the back seat!