Aircooled VW South Africa

Hi calooker,

Can you help me with two questions:

What shocks do you use in the front of your lowered bug ?

Second do you know what oil/grease is used in the steering box ?

Thanks a million.

I have standard shocks, painted to look like Koni's I checked to see when I fitted them if they would bottom out but no way, they still have about 50 mm travel, but the rubber stopper only allows for about 25mm max. travel before the trailing arm hits the rubber stopper hard. I think as long as you are nor running on your rubber stoppers a standard shock will not bottom out. My front is quite stiff at the moment so I have on problem running the standard shock. I have seen rides with more extreme drops and they use the std. shock, but I would not recommend it. I have tried all sorts of shit in the steering box, but I find that normal wheel bearing grease works just fine.

Rick,

When next you are you in my part of the world, Sandton, drop me a line and drop by and you can check out my setup. I am not running standard shocks, but as I sit here, I can't tell you what they are. Old age you know...

N.

Thanks for the reply. I think I did a stupid thing by cutting off the stoppers.
I think I must weld them back.

Merlin, I will take you up on your offer when I am in the Larny northern Suburbs.

Hehe...

Drop the 'cent, show the bling, and spread the word on your Moto, dahl - you'll be jus' fine around these parts.

N.

Nick your ball-joint suspension has a totally different shock to the king & link-pin setup that 99% of SA bugs run, not the same ball game, BTW you are going to shit in your pants if you ever need to replace them, firstly they are hard to get and secondly they cost $$$, I paid R80 per shock the last time I replaced the 4 on my Spyder. Some 4 years ago a buddy of mine with a BJ Ghia paid R600 for 2 local, only VS had them.

Rick... you have lowered your bug and cut off the stoppers. Well, with the bug lowered nd in the height you like it, weld the stoppers back in so that they fit between the arms in the same way they would have as stock.

Are you lowering using 1 or 2 adjusters?? or playing with fire by removing springs?

Tony Z, I actually cut and rewelded the beams (Both of them). I did not have adjusters at that stage.
The Floorpan is not complete yet and currently it is sitting on a dolly so I am not sure what the final drop will be. You have given me a good idea though. I will wait until the bug is standing on the ground and then weld the stoppers in place to prevent the shocks bottoming out.
Thanks
By the way I also replaced the trailing arm bearings and Bakelite bushings with urethane bushings.

How much did you turn the Grub screws? On my beam I only cut and welded the top of the beam for a total turn of about 20deg. The total drop worked out to about 70mm. I have stuffed up a beam before by cutting & welding both top & bott, I had to cut the stopper out as well, but the tyre touched the fender the moment I took the car off the jack, so it was scraped, not even driven, I had turned both top & bott. grub screws about 15deg each. I also tried lowering a baja by turning the top trailing arm up an hoped it would twist the leafs inside, which at the time I thought was a brilliant idea, well it didn't work, I even did both sides, well you learn as you go along, this was long before I even knew the Internet existed.

Hey Rui,

The cost of playing the game.

I know the setup on there now is all imported from the UK, shocks included, and is all new, so hopefully I can save for a while.

I went to see a '67 last year, which had been lowered by cutting the springs.

It was too low and was scraping the fenders.

How on Earth do you fix something like that?

N.

I do not know how many degrees. I just used a bit of backyard mechanic geometry and worked out how much the grub screws must be turned to move the trailing arm up about 50mm. I can't recall but I dont think it was as much as 15degs. I did the same on both beams though.
I hope I have not created a tar plough.
I have in the meanwhile bought some adjusters and if it doesn't work out I will weld them in.

I am not sure I understand the principle of only twisting one set of leaves. Won't this cause the springs to work against each other. Or is this the idea?

Rick wrote: I am not sure I understand the principle of only twisting one set of leaves. Won't this cause the springs to work against each other. Or is this the idea?

yes it will. My car I got the adjusters top and bottom, then the top one I lowered slightly more, while raising the bottom one the same amount (not much, 25% of a turn or so - cant remember). It may not be the best thing to do, but I am happy with it, the suspension is a lot stiffer now and the handling is also better.

Never remove the springs, makes the car very unsafe - have you ever driven a big car with completely worn shocks??? Plus the beams can come apart