Yet another front end lowering question

You've pretty much got it covered in your bullet points.

Beam adjusters do very little to the spring rate. No matter what angle you put either one at, the combined spring rate of the two torsion bars stays about the same. The only thing to really soften the spring rate is to remove or cut leaves in the spring pack. Always do one at a time, start with the smallest ones first, and try to keep the number of cut leaves balanced top and bottom. That is, if you cut 2 leaves, do one in the top tube and one on bottom, not both in the same tube. I would test the ride after each one is cut, though others may have a better ballpark on the total number to cut for the vehicle weight. But cutting leaves will also lower the car, you need to take that into account. Depending on how low you go, you may need extended travel ball joints with beam adjusters.

Drop spindles are of course a fixed drop distance, but they retain the stock suspension geometry and shocks. You do not need different ball joints because the geometry is the same. You would still have to cut springs to change the spring rates. Stock geometry provides a better ride than the geometry you get with beam adjusters, even with uncut springs.

You can easily do both too, but you would want to install the adjusters taking into account the extra drop of the spindles. If you install the adjusters with their own drop, you may end up with a ride height that is way too low.

Stick with stock oil shocks for drop spindles. Others may have good recommendations for shorter oil shocks for beam adjuster or combined use.

I would do both so you could fine tune the hight, the drop spindles may be too much or may not be enough,so if you position the adjusters in the corect position for lowering&raising you get the best of both so you can go up Or down. also the fuel tank is still up front, and the batter has been moved up front from behind the pasender seat(under the rear seat) so yes the car is lighter but not as much as one might think, there there is the 12.5 gallon fuel tank that is avalible, thats another consideration.and as justin said shocks can have an affect on it also. if you go to low with std shocks you can get some gass shocks and they might just pull(push) it back up where you want it. and dont forget all the crap you will have in the front when your done with it, bumpers?? spair?? tools?? dodads? BBQ grill?blankets???jack???jacks uncle,grandmaw&his horse? so befor you go to a final dissission ...do some thinken some math (no not meth)and use some weight bags to see what you will need to do. if you have the time you can tack the adjusters and use the weight bags& see if there in the right position or if you need to move them or just 1 to get what you want. I personaly do not like the look of a 356 with the nose higher than the rear, not at all. but some guys like them that way and want them that way.

Thanks guys appreciate the input.

As always it generates more questions :-)

1. Does the steering need to be relocated after drop?
2. Do you need different length steering rods?
3. Any recommendations on where to gets drop spindle disk brake kits?

Thank you

Jim

Kart45, I personally would not recommend dropped spindles.  I put a set on my IM and found it dropped the front end too much (2.5") and caused tire clearance issues.

I put them on my '64 bus, and I'd agree-- I've got my beam adjusters fully up, and still VERY low.

I'm not a big fan of them, either.  I had a set that I tried on the last Speedster I built and didn't like the way everything sat so I replaced them with a set of stock-height disk brake (Karmann Ghia) spindles and ran dual (upper/lower) Avis adjusters and dialed in the height with a combination of both.

BTW:  the original 1970 Beetle sedan had a curb weight of 1850 lbs.  That's about 150 lbs. lighter than my Speedster.  (Yeah, I don't know why it's so heavy....it just is.)   The Beetle had a bit more weight in the front with a spare and all, but, seemingly not that much more, so I tend to use stock parts and settings as much as I can.

Thanks guys appreciate the input.

As always it generates more questions :-)

1. Does the steering need to be relocated after drop?

No...use stock - and I don't feel any bump steer with stock spindles and rods, either

2.   Do you need different length steering rods?

No.....just use stock length, but I would get new ends

3.    Any recommendations on where to get drop spindle disk brake kits?

CB Performance has decent ones.  They're basically 1971 Karmann Ghia caliper knock-offs so brake pads are available all over.

Thank you

Jim

All of these are simple bolt on modifications.  Why not get car done with what is there now and decide on wheels and tires you plan to use - and go from there.  Back in 1990 75 series tires were the norm on 15 or 14" rims.  Now its 40/50/60 series on 16 or 17" rims.

most of the later irs bugs had the heaver bumpers and some had the bumper shocks witch were pretty dang heavy too.I dont know if they ever changed the springs, I do have some beams that have the pinch bolts in diferent locations, but they look to be just rotated about 90 degrees so that dosent change it, just makes getting to the grub screw easyer. my bug has adjusters that somebody installed an there aimed upward so I cant hardly get tp the top one, what a pain. I have another beamIm in the proses of lowering&narrowing 4" or so, buit it seems something always gets in the way of working on it, that was 3 years and 4 other peoples motors ago.and house remodel thats not quite done. Aint life great when you finish your cart too late.(better dig a biger hole)

Good point Wolfgang. I think at this point since I am pulling the body off I will go ahead and weld in the adjusters and wait on the rest. Original thought  was since the body was already going to be off why not make it easy. Thanks for the input.

Ron, i see your reply is in english, but the words don't seem to make sense to me. 

Kart45, another option is to remove a few of the torsion leaves in the fron t beam to smooth things up front.  i did that after my first beam build.  it was rock hard when dropped.  if you want more info - see my website.  i documented the whole process in pictures.

Mango, air makes all the difference!