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Mon May 24, 2010 9:39 pm

cage66 wrote: 5.5" narrowed beam, piecut front end, drop spindles, 2" tranny raise,3 splines

PieCut Front End?? That Sounds Interesting. How Does That Work? What Does It Do?

Tue May 25, 2010 7:52 am

Just helps get the caster angle back a little closer to normal, so it tracks a little better and helps center the wheel in the fender a little more.

Tue May 25, 2010 12:32 pm

This might be a dumb question but I'm new to the whole narrow adjustable beam thing. this is a pic of my beam

Do I already have an adjustable beam?

Tue May 25, 2010 1:03 pm

Tue May 25, 2010 2:45 pm

Thanks
Why would someone put adjusters on a beam and not narrow it? The tires fit even with the fenders outer edge so if you lower it they will rub.

with that said how would I go about narrowing the beam?
Do I need new adjusters or just reweld the ones on there?

Also how wide is a stock beam?

I got 31 inches from shock tower centers.

Tue May 25, 2010 5:11 pm

Its stock width.
Adjustable beams have been around for damn near ever. So its just an older beam.
Narrowing a BJ beam SUCKS. You have to narrow it from the middle and cut the uprights off and re weld them back on in the correct location.
Heres a write up, since you already have the adjusters just cut on the sides of them.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=338179&highlight=narrow

Tue May 25, 2010 7:17 pm

Thanks again for the help. I'm trying to get as much info before i start cutting up my beam.

When you cut the beam do I cut 4 inches total out of the middle, or do i need to allow for the adjuster? The way i am looking at it is if I want to narrow my beam 4 inches and I only cut 4" out of the beam when I put the 1 inch wide or more adjuster in it will not be narrowed 4inches.
I hope Im not talking in circles but I am uncertain on this part.

Tue May 25, 2010 8:39 pm

You will be cutting the width of the new adjusters, I am assuming that you are installing new ones, plus 2" more on each side of the adjuster.

Wed May 26, 2010 9:17 am

This is the style adjusters that are on it now
I plan to just cut them off and reuse them.

Wed May 26, 2010 9:26 am

If you're going to use the Avis style adjusters that you have, you only need to cut out the 2" on each side of a carefully measured centerline. Personally, for the cost of the parts I would lean towards buying new adjusters vs cutting the old ones off and reusing them.

Fri May 28, 2010 10:17 am

ok so ive been reading through this sticky for a little while now and still have having trouble understanding most of this. i have never messed with suspension on any car and dont really understand some of the lingo. especially with tires is where im having questions.

this is not my car but im looking to achieve this stance. i pm the owner, he said its got a 4" narrow beam, i was probably going to go with a 3" beam. he said 2 splines in the rear but thats without a motor so ill go with only 1 im assuming.

so if i get a 3" narrow beam (adjustable?), 2.5" dropped spindles to bring the front down about 3". drop the back 1 spline (the chart on splines is confusing me too, moving the outer spline +1 gives 5.5cm?) so can i use stock rims and tires? i think i have 165/15 on all 4 right now ill have to check that.
thanks andrew

oh and its a 1970

Fri May 28, 2010 1:14 pm

Most likely yes. It really depends on the car. The adjustable beam will allow you to pop the front up slightly if it's too low with just the drop spindles. The back will be fine unless you've got some major sag problems.

Tue Jun 08, 2010 1:51 pm

I cant get any replies from the oval window crowd. I mounted this 1957 bug on a 1975 chassis. It has a 4" narrowed beam lowering spindles and air shocks up front. Look at the tires in the front, its rubbing, like the beam is too far forward. I need to get the wheels back further. Any suggestions.

Thanks

Nick

Sat Jun 19, 2010 10:22 am

I have been reviving a 73 standard over the last couple months, dropped the rear a few splines so for the front I emailed airkewld about their 5" shockless BJ. Not a bad price but of course the nice product has a wait period to get it. So I decided I would try the current beam and if it didn't work out I would hit them up for one. So I read read this thread (Plus about 19 others) about two weeks ago and decided to drop the beam out and narrow 4 inches. Spent all day yesterday getting this done, everything measures up perfectly after all said and done.. with one exception.. before I decide to paint it I wanted to try throwing it in and the shock towers dont allow it to be installed all the way up into the seat. I see two ways I can solve this, one being cutting out the body to make room for the shock towers or just deleting the shock towers. The weird thing is how many articles I read about 4" narrow not requiring body mods?

So I am leaning towards the deleting of the shock towers cause in the future for whatever reason its decided to go back to a stock setup just replace the beam but if you cut the body... that's pretty much it... Looking for feedback on what others have done, recommend or what I am missing on mounting this beam.

Stock beam inside width before being narrowed at the bottom of the shock tower was 31" now 27" as I just measured the body where it mounts and see its 28".

thanks..

Sat Jun 19, 2010 11:22 am

You cannot run the shock towers on a 4" beam without modifying the shock towers
If you look at the 4" beams with shock towers they are doglegged to move the mounts out toward the wheels so that you dont have to cut the body.

ncochrane

Get rid of the huge balloon tires (165s?) and get some 135s or 165/45s or something a little taller depending on how low you want to go.

165s are great for stock height, but thats about it.

Sat Jun 19, 2010 1:04 pm

You can make a 4" beam fit with stock towers if you massage the body a little. Install the beam as far as it will go and measure the amount of space left until the top torsion seats. Mark the shock tower where it touches the body--Add the first measurement to that mark and dimple the body at that point. Take your time and don't go too far. It only needs about 1/2 to 3/4 " of dimple and the beam will fall in.If you do it right the shock tower hides the dimpled area
I just installed a Ron Lummus 4" beam in a 70 Std about a month ago
:)

Sun Jun 20, 2010 7:27 pm

When you narrow a beam 4 inches do you even need the shock towers and shocks? Some people say you don't need them, then some people say it is unsafe to run without shocks. I am doing a 4" beam and I want to know if I need to move the towers.

Tue Jun 22, 2010 4:43 pm

my buddy is running a 6 inch narrowed beam with out shocks and it rides great. but the spings are going to be a bit stiffer alson in his.

Tue Jun 22, 2010 7:35 pm

The springs get stiffer with ANY amount of narrowing. Shocks keep the wheel in contact with the ground. I suppose if you stiffened the front up so much through narrowing and urethane bushings that the wheel didn't move at all, then you could argue that "shocks don't do anything."

Tue Jun 29, 2010 3:07 pm

Hey guys, I'm a total newbie with cars, just got my first car as a '73 SB, so bear with me. I've been doing a little work on it here and there, and just barely getting familiar with the terms. Anyways, I've been wanting to lower the front end of it.

My tire size is P185/60R15 all around, and 15x5 4-130 Smoothies. It looks to me like there's a whole lot of room to lower the front end, the combo is much smaller than the stock.

So, my question is: is there anything in the way of me getting 2.5" drop spindles? Would there be any rubbing, or anything? As I said I'm a total newbie, but it looks to me like I have plenty of room.