TheSamba.com :: View topic

Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:38 pm

So ive completed my drop on my irs suspension, and now its like riding a roller coaster or actually feels more like i have hydraulics in the rear.
does anyone know why it's so bumpy?
im using stock boge shocks and replaced worn out bushings with urethane.

Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:58 pm

Is it sitting on the bumpstops?...if so that would give it a really rough "rollercoaster" feel to it. Raise it or cut the bump stops off.

Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:00 pm

ummmmmmm what kind of ride did you expect? :D

when there is less travel for the shock or springs for absorbing road irregularities, bumps and dips, the harsher the ride will be.

On most applications, the lower ur ride, the harsher it feels. If u leave ur suspension with very little or no travel at all, you get the "pogo stick" feel.

Raising your rears might help a bit.

Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:12 pm

That looks sweet, how many splines to you go? What did you use to drop the front? I lowered my super 4", time to drop the rear as well.

Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:29 pm

No, I cut the bumpstops about half way so they wouldn't hit anymore.
what i expected was a better feel and thats what i got, on the other hand my buddy has a 64 slammed to the floor and his is not as bumpy as mine, but that could be do to swingaxle vs. irs.

as for your comment rushr7: thanks, i lowered it about 3 or 4 splines, just enough. still waiting to get my 145's for the front tho. im running 185/65R15 on all 4. If you go any lower stay off the street haha well unless your riding on air ride suspension.

Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:42 pm

I still have 165's, hehe yeah, they rub.

Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:55 am

Nice ride,
You might look to see if the spring plates are hitting something with it lowered but I don't remember any one saying there was a problem with them.
You may need to go to shorter shocks. Your probably bottoming them out. With only weighing 2000 lbs soaking wet is probably why you haven't broken them yet. If you can see any oil on the shock then thats what's happened. That's the one thing about the IRS is you don't have to go broke lowering it. You get the same travel no matter where you set it, BUT it shortens the travel for the shock with stock mounts. That's why you need shorter shocks for the front for struts. Less travel. Thus stiffer springs to keep from hitting the bump stop and shorter shocks to keep from bottoming them out. It works in the opposite direction too, you can't use a short shock in a stock suspension as it will top out. That's what's nice about dropped spindles you keep the same amount of suspension travel.
For arguments sake, say you have a 12 inch tall shock, you have 6 inch's of suspension movement up and down. 6 going up and 6 going down. Drop the suspension 3 inch's and you now have 3 inch's going down and 9 inches going up because you will either hit the bump stop and or bottom out the shocks because the suspension still has 6 inch's if movement available all things being equal.
Hope this helps...

Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:16 pm

Im also trying to get my car just a bit smoother.....

The front has an adjustable beam it was set up to drop really low so it can not be raised back to stock...

the rear is stock ....

fronts a little rough,I lifted as much as i could ,made the ride less harsh but the polgo feeling still there...

my question is should i get shorter struts or air adjustable struts ?

and does anyone know the stock number for the shorter struts?????????? :?:

Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:07 pm

vespaboy200 wrote: Im also trying to get my car just a bit smoother.....

The front has an adjustable beam it was set up to drop really low so it can not be raised back to stock...

the rear is stock ....

fronts a little rough,I lifted as much as i could ,made the ride less harsh but the polgo feeling still there...

my question is should i get shorter struts or air adjustable struts ?

and does anyone know the stock number for the shorter struts?????????? :?:
You say beam, so I think you mean shocks not struts.
here is the help you are looking for, read the second post down:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=143095&highlight=shocks,
aw hell I'll post it now that I did the search for ya.
Glenn wrote: There's basically 2 ways to lower a ball joint beam. You can get "dropped" spindles that lower the front 2.5". Or you can get an adjustable beam.

Dropped spindles actually move the spindle up 2.5" which lowers the car. You simply replace the spindles and it's done. Some dropped spindles widen the track a 1/4" on each side, so it's 1/2" in total. You might have some tire clearance issues with these.

Adjustable beams need to be cut and have adjusters weld in. You can buy a new beam with adjusters already installed or you can buy the adjusters and install them yourself. There are 2 styles, Sway-A-Way and AVIS. I have AVIS and here are some pictures.

I lowered my car 3" in the front.

Before

After

Before

After

Things to watch out for:

If you lower the car more than a few inches it will alter the front end geometry. This can cause more difficult steering at low speed. To correct this you can buy Caster Shims. These are aluminum wedges that fit behind the lower torsion tube and the body and tilt the bottom tube out which restores the caster angle.

You might also need shorter shocks. If you use stock shocks, they will be precompressed and give a harsh ride. 1972 Opel GT front shocks are the same as the VW except that are 2" shorter.
KYB GR2 part# 343143 - VW Beetle front ball joint (stock)
KYB GR2 part# 344098 - Opel GT front (2” short)

You might also need a "lowered" sway bar. If you drop it more than a few inches the stock sway bar is very close to the ground. A "lowered" bar is just bend differently so it gives more ground clearance.

Ball joints are another issue. If you drop just a few inches, you're OK. But if you drop 4 or more, your ball joints will bind. Lowered ball joints are just modified so there's more travel in the joint so it can handle a more extreme angle of deflection.

When you drop the front you might have tire clearance problem. Narrower and lower tires might help. If it doesn't you can "narrow" the beam which pulls the wheels in a inch or two. But narrowing a beam is another topic.

You can also use and adjustable beam with dropped spindles so you can tune the height to exactly what you want or... drop it in the weeds and scrape the ground.

Remember Glenn's the man, and use the search Luke.

Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:07 pm

[/img]

Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:43 pm

3 or 4 splines?? don't know about that. i dropped mine 2 inner splines, and i have about 1 inch between the metal nub (where the bump stop goes) and the metal stop. maybe the car was raised in the rear before you got it. but even 3 splines would be like a 7 inch drop. you will need to do quite a bit of cutting to get a decent ride at all. plus if you haven't moved the metal brake lines, you probably have destroyed them already.

but if, maybe, it is only like 2 splines down you can get it to ride good. first thing is to measure those bump stops again. mine had to be completely removed. second is shocks. and there's tricks to those!!

Tue Oct 06, 2009 6:41 pm

:?: Where can I buy KYB GR2 part# 344098

Thanks...

Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:07 pm

I actually had a similar issue when i lowered my super. turns out when we lowered it we had the wrong coil springs on it. i needed to get the HD coil springs to keep it from slamming the struts while driving. i had sport springs with the lowering kit and it was wrong. the sport springs didn't have any "give" for the front end, it was just slammed on its nuts and bounced/slammed while driving it..... 2 sets of fenders later ;( i put new HD coils up front and it rides like champ now.