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Fri Nov 28, 2014 6:26 pm

So I'm in the process of installing beam adjusters in my bj front end. I followed the instructions that came with them to a T.
In the instructions it says to mark a horiz line thru grub screw and then another 1 9/16 above it. Set the adjuster for either lowering, raising, or neutral. Then place adjuster in place with upper line centered on locking set screw and weld in place. Because the instructions don't address matching stock grub screw location with set screw on inner adjusting disc, I'm nervous about its location. Obviously the upper line measurement accounts for this? When I look at the uninstalled adjuster and mock it up as it would be installed, it looks like the new set screw lines up with stock grub screw location.
Just looking for a little peace of mind I guess. Would hate to have to undo everything.
Thanks, John

Sat Nov 29, 2014 2:38 am

Note that with a Ball Joint adjuster, there is a short grub screw which holds the leaf pack in the adjuster disc. There is another longer screw at 90 degrees from the short one that sticks out of the beam tube for the adjusting screw to push against. This confuses a great many offroaders.

Sat Nov 29, 2014 4:07 am

This is a little trick that I do when installing adjusters. I semi reassemble the beam before I start welding. I run the torsion leaves through the adjusters and slip the trailing arms on. I then tack the adjusters in four places, then disassemble and weld away. The reason that I do this is to make sure that the adjusters are not welded in crooked, but they are aligned with the beam. I friend of mine welded in his adjusters crooked, and it was next to impossible to get the trailing arms on.

Sat Nov 29, 2014 6:50 am

Thanks for the replies. I too semi assembled the one tube I did so far. No trailing arms but put torsionbars in. I can't imagine not at least doing this since it was difficult enough getting them through adj disc with it disassembled.
I'm more worried about the orientation of the "new" grub screw vs. stock screw location. I have visions of having to take everything back out and apart a second time.

Sat Nov 29, 2014 2:06 pm

This may help. I had some of the same worries

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=497478

Maybe something here too

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=532495

Sat Nov 29, 2014 4:58 pm

Thank you for those links. I find it puzzling that they don't provide better instructions with these adjusters. If you Google the swayaway ones, the PDF instructions actually leave out the part about scribing another horizontal line 1 9/16ths above original grub screw for bj beam.
Anyway. I'm going to do the leap of faith and just trust what instructions I have and what I think is correct per help from here.
What I did discover is that if you measure the distance on the adjuster disc between the small set screw and the long set screw(90° apart) its exactly 1 3/8". I'm guessing if you take into account the larger diameter of the adjuster housing, it would really be 1 9/16ths apart. Thus, lining up the big set screw with the line drawn 1 9/16ths above the original grub screw, would place the new grub screw in the stock location. Phew! That was a mouthful.

Tue Dec 02, 2014 2:37 pm

just cut-n-turn beam & no worry about adjusters, that break.....

Tue Dec 02, 2014 5:18 pm

[quote="mr_bill"]just cut-n-turn beam & no worry about adjusters, that break.....

X2 they do fail.

Tue Dec 02, 2014 7:59 pm

[quote="oldschool5er"] mr_bill wrote: just cut-n-turn beam & no worry about adjusters, that break.....

X2 they do fail.

one of mine failed on me. it was after 50K miles and 20yrs. I probably wouldnt use them on a play toy that gets a lot of beating. I would have done straight cut and turn on a stock beam the second time around,
on my last front end build i used thing springs and thing spindles and really wasnt sure what the ride and height was going to be so i opted for adjusters to tune the ride. i probably wont touch them again now that i got it set how i like it.

Wed Dec 03, 2014 3:51 am

I'll take 50k and 20 years. Hell you should be doing endorsements for them! If they fail on me I'll just pin and weld em. No worries.

Wed Dec 03, 2014 5:31 am

This is something I'm going to have to do soon. My current adjusters are stripped out pretty bad. I expect I will have to do some pretty serious cutting just to be able to slide the leaves out unless there's another set screw besides the two obvious ones on each adjuster. I tried fixing the problem this summer when they started failing about a month after I bought the baja but no matter what I did the leaves wouldn't budge from their positions. Seems like a pretty easy job though unless you have bad day and don't pay attention.

Wed Dec 03, 2014 9:33 am

long steel bar and a hand held sledge. Swing it hard, blam, out come the leaves. Knock em in the same way.

Wed Dec 03, 2014 2:56 pm

Blam. Perfect! I need some blam to get one of the camber adjusters off. And the BJs for that matter. I dont have heavy enough equipment at my house. Have to do most of this stuff at work. PIA.

Wed Dec 03, 2014 9:32 pm

Yup the blam didn't help. Somebody mentioned a third set screw earlier so maybe I need to find that? Not sure if I got the sway aways or not.
Pickup a 20 ton press from HF for $130. It'll get in your way most of the time but sure is nice when you need it. They got a bench top one too I should have got instead.
Hope it's going well. I'd like lots of assembly porn if your that kinda dude. :)

Thu Dec 04, 2014 4:45 am

I was thinking about getting a press. Is 20t the minimum for what I want?

Thu Dec 04, 2014 5:10 am

Honestly I wouldn't know. The smaller one is 12T I believe and I bet it'd be enough. I just went big because I'm compensating for a lack of patience. A kit with different sized pushing spacers like a ball joint kit or suspension service kit might be necessary too. I just rent one from auto parts store and then get my money back. Haven't found a reasonable one yet that has what I want. Sockets and pipe can be used too, but like you said the bug BJ is a PITA and you really need a tough hardened spacer especially since there's not a decent lip. Just rent a tool kit and get a small press and you'll be good.
8)

Thu Dec 04, 2014 6:50 am

I was thinking about the bench top one just because of space constraints. My workshop consists of an area about 6'x8' with a workbench in the corner of my boiler room. I'm gonna hit HF this week. There's one near my work. Thx for advice.

Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:03 am

I hope it helps

Thu Dec 04, 2014 7:18 pm

It might take 20 tons on stubborn ones. I just used a HF 20 ton that worked well but took everything it had to push them out. They popped out with a pretty big bang I used a shield on the other ones.

Thu Dec 04, 2014 7:32 pm

Im gonna have to get the 20t arent I? Killin me.