Suspension tuning

All

I have just recently put my Speedster on the road, so bear with me if this topic has been discussed too many times previously.
I am attempting to set up my suspension to provide good all around performance and especially reduce the oversteer. I came across an article from aircooled.net that discusses suspension tuning. The article can be accessed by going to : www.aircooled.net/gnrlsite/resource/articles/handling.htm. Since most of you have had more experience with Speedsters, I would appreciate any comment that you may have regarding the article.

Richard S.

Richard, first question; do you have IRS axle or swing axle?
Ron

I suggest asking John Steele at JPS for his suspension setup specs. He offered them to forum members about a year ago. He knows his suspensions pretty well and it will give you a good baseline to fine tune from. Remember, some settings for a flared speedster with 255/50 x 18 rubber out back won't necessaarily relate to some stock 165 x 15 rubber. Gotta know what'cha drivin?

Hey David, 165s just mean you 'drift' more. We all know how much fun it is to 'drift' a rear engined car through a corner.....until the back end passes you!
Merry Christmas
Ron

Ron
I have a VS with a swing axle that was purchased by me as a rolling chassis (from VS). I have no idea how much it was lowered in the front (how can the amount of lowering be determined?)or what size torsion rods are installed. The chassis is a 69 but not a super beetle. It has the earlier ball joint (68?)front end and a swing axle in the rear. So far my only change to the stock set-up has been a sway bar in the front. The engine is about 1950 ccs or so with Gene Berg ported heads plus a number of other mods. I installed dual 40 Webers. I just ordered Sway A Way adjstable spring plates.

Richard S

With a Swing axle add a camber compensator. Takes about an hour.

Richard - The torsion bars are the same size as stock VW - the front is a bunch of flat metal strips (ten of them?) set together in a kind of diamond pattern which then fit into the center "puck" in the torsion tubes (which holds the center end from turning and is usually adjustable on most speedsters) and also into the suspension trailing arm (which holds the steering knuckle and moves up and down). The size and number of "leaves" is set as that is what fits correctly into the puck and arm. Fewer would fit loose, more won't fit, period. There is no real "standard" setting for speedster height - play with the adjusters until you get the body fitting around the wheels and off the ground the way you like it to look. If you want it to be low, you'll know if it's too low when the wheels rub against the fender tops on heavy bumps or dips, or the exhaust scrapes on the road (neither of which are good, causing you to head back to the garage and raise that sucker up!).

I think you'll like those swing plates, as the adjustment of the rear torsion bars can be time consuming and a bit trial-and-error to get them set right both front-to-back and left-to-right.

Follow the directions that come with the adjustable spring plates (DON'T mess with the torsion bars!!) and then the height adjustment, both front-to-back and left-to-right, is as simple as dialing it in by turning a couple of bolts. Sheer bliss! OH! And I agree - put a camber compensator on the rear (if it is a swing-arm). That'll help a lot!

You might have a 1968 pan there, though......a 1969 VW pan should have ball joints up front and IRS in the rear with exposed drive shafts and CV joints, not enclosed swing arms. '69 was the first year they went with the IRS. 1968 models had ball joints and swing arms, so maybe yours is a '68.

Anyway, hope this helps........Gordon

I wonder if VS got the pan from Mexico. I think that they were still using swing axle in 1969 and probably a lot later.
Ron

Ron,
VS uses IRS pans for Swing Axle Speedsters. They just retrofit the torsion bars and spring plates from an earlier(pre-69)VW.

My Speedster uses a 69 pan setup that way (retrofited with a SwingAxle)
If I ever decide to go IRS, at least the IRS Trailing arm pick up points are already there.

Greg B

That's good if you ever decide to go with a Porsche 911/914 tranny.

Now that you're talking about this; is adjusting an IRS set up more complicated? Second question: on a car I'm being offered, I notice no round cover plates on the sides (in front of the back wheel arches) as on the original Porsches, Karmann Ghias, VS and Intermeccanica replicas, etc. What's up with this? From a thread in the Vendor Specific forum I was told that the car was probably a CMC replica. Does the fact that it's missing those cover plates mean that the quality of the body is not as good? Happy New Year and thanks to all!

Well, Ricardo, you're probably looking at a CMC, as they didn't have cover plates on the body just ahead of the rear wheels. Those plates allow you to get the torsion bars completely out of the car, but you'll probably never need to remove them completely, the spring plates can be removed with the torsion bar left in there, and the bar can be slid out enough to change the inner spline settings without needing covers to be removed.

The body itself is probably as good, although they are certainly a good service feature (although I had a "real" '64 356 C for 6 years and never had to touch the torsion bars) and if you really wanted the plugs in there they could certainly be retrofitted easily - they're just hole plugs, after all, but they'd have to be painted the same as the body.

IMHO, there's no difference in adjusting either swing arm or IRS rear ends - the mechanics are identical and both require the same tools and about the same amount of patience to get it done right.

gn

Thanks! What's the diameter of those covers and where are they located relative to the rear wheel arch and bottom of the body? I'm asking this to be able to reproduce it when the car gets to the body shop.