TheSamba.com :: View topic - So I'm reading the Archives on lowering a bug

Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:40 pm

And one question I never really see is after a Bug is dropped, what pushes the swingaxel wheels back out to normal camber? I don't want to be riding on tires that look like // \\

Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:44 pm

Don't touch the spring plates!!!! They are a pain in the butt. what I did , I installed a stabilizer bar in the back and it made my bug look lower. I changed the spindels at the front so it looks like a euro look/cal-look

Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:59 pm

hmm never seen a swingaxle bug lowered with straight axles except ones with major body reworking! must be a reason for that...oh yea,negative camber looks kewl!

Wed Jan 12, 2005 6:58 am

Wed Jan 12, 2005 9:53 am

alan and i took my 62 down 3 inner splines .... im going to raise it back a notch or two tonight .........

Wed Jan 12, 2005 10:41 am

decobugMASS wrote: Don't touch the spring plates!!!! They are a pain in the butt. what I did , I installed a stabilizer bar in the back and it made my bug look lower. I changed the spindels at the front so it looks like a euro look/cal-look

It's not that bad really. If you have a good floor jack, then you can coax the spring plate in and out of place along with a pry bar or large flat screwdriver. trust me, if I can do it... anyone can! ;)

Wed Jan 12, 2005 1:45 pm

Nid wrote: And one question I never really see is after a Bug is dropped, what pushes the swingaxel wheels back out to normal camber? I don't want to be riding on tires that look like // \\

Nothing. If you lower to where the axle connection at the trans is lower than the connection at the spring plate, negative camber is the result. Think of the axle a 2 letter "T"s, sitting on their sides like this. |-- --| . Now press down on the center. See what happens?
You can lower w/o that result, but not by much.

Wed Jan 12, 2005 1:49 pm

so I wanna lower my bug 1 notch in the back. can anyone just type out a good explanation on how to do it so it's in the fresh part of the forum here? I know it can't be too tough, but some of us are nEwBiEs here and don't know Jack or Jill for that matter. Anyways. any help is more then appreciated by many of us on here.

thanks
Joel

Wed Jan 12, 2005 11:43 pm

this is what i did.. you may want to do one side at a time to see how everything goes back together.

chock the front
place rear on jack stands
remove rear wheels and place wheels under car... just in case
remove shock

take a chisel and make a mark where the enlongated holes are so you can set the proper toe in when you're putting things back together.

remove 3 bolts at the axle end of the spring plate
disconnect hand brake under the boot by popping (=o=) plate off of the handbrake and remove nuts... you can pull the ebrake line out a few inches... just not too far.

pull the axle assemby back and place a jack stand under it or a rope, etc... i had my girlfriend hold it back for 10 minutes before i dismissed her for a jackstand.

here's the fun part.. keep in mind that the spring plate has decent tension behind it, and it could brake an arm im told. but it wont as long as youre careful :) it won't fly out and whack you though.

place floor jack under the axle end of the spring splate and put slight pressure on the plate.

remove the cover plate at the front of the plate. (4 bolts)
-I jacked the spring plate up a few mm's so it could clear the stop lip.
take 2 large flat screwdrivers (or prybar) and uniformly pry the spring plate HALF WAY off of the torsion bar until you will be able to lower it with the floor jack to unload the tension.

now you can ease the plate down with your jack and the spring plate should fall below stop. you can now adjust the plate. there's a few ways you can adust this... with a protractor or whatever. i used tape myself... dont ask! ;) adjust it to your liking and put everything back together, then go to the other side. keep it at 2 notches or less and you'll be fine. 3 is cool with me, but they say it stresses your cv joints and doesnt allow grease to flow and such.

i am very sleepy right now, so i hope you can make some sense out of this. for better directions, search for "lowering rear"... plenty of good info on the samba. sorry if my info sucks people.it's too late 8-[ :sleeping:

Wed Jan 12, 2005 11:57 pm

Volks66wagen covered everything. Here's a link that explains it also:
http://www.vw-resource.com/rearaxle.html
Be sure to roll the car a few feet once you're done to get the true effect of the change. When you first lower the jack the car will sit up high. Move it forward or backward a few feet and it will settle.

Thu Jan 13, 2005 12:39 am

If you are concerned about the safety of using a jack to hold the springplate, look into getting a springplate compressor. For $25 or so, it isn't too bad of a deal. I did it the first time after being nervous about it. Like everyone has said, it really is simple.

Thu Jan 13, 2005 7:23 am

How did you get your girlfriend to hold that thing for 10 minutes. are you Deaf by any chance? if she did that then dont lose her phone number.

Thu Jan 13, 2005 9:44 am

when I clicked on that link and read it, i am to assume that they were making the rear end of the car higher......

so, to lower it a notch, all you'd have to do is take the springplate with torsion bar out, rotate the axle end clockwise (up toward car) 1 notch, set it in place to get the inner spline set, then just take the springplate off, and rotate that 1 spline counterclockwise (down toward the pavement) to get that .09 degrees he was talking about?

seriously, if i'm wrong.....correct me!! i need to have this right, as I will be doing this myself.

thanks,
Joel

Thu Jan 13, 2005 11:17 am

You do not have to take the torsion bar out. You can lower the car by removing the springplate and turning it up 1 spline, 2 splines, however many you want.

Thu Jan 13, 2005 11:27 am

bill may wrote: How did you get your girlfriend to hold that thing for 10 minutes. are you Deaf by any chance? if she did that then dont lose her phone number.

haha. she's the best girlfriend i've ever had... hands down. now I've just got to see about getting her one of those "cute little karman ghias" as she puts it. we can have valve adjustment dates! :) she enjoys vws but doesnt own one... yet. 8)

Thu Jan 13, 2005 11:38 am

there not really any way to drop the ass end of a bug swingaxle and not have negative chamber in the back. if its a vintage car then that looks pretty bitchn', but if you go only like one notch with the spring plates then it doesnt give too much negative chamber.

Thu Jan 13, 2005 11:57 am

If you really want to avoid the camber and lower the rear you have two options. 1. keep the swingaxle and raise it up under the body (alot of work, but it can be done) which brings us to number 2. If you are gonna go through all that work, you might as well drop an IRS in there. About the same amount of work and you can get later gears designed to work with bigger engines. IMO there is nothing cooler looking than a slammed swingaxle... get so many looks from people 8) I guess now that I think about it there is a 3rd option, ajustable suspensions. Take a look at airkewlds bag kit for an example of that. If you are a decent fabricator you can definitly rig something like that up for much cheaper than his kit. Check out www.volksrods.com for more info on the DIY air set ups.

Thu Jan 13, 2005 1:00 pm

you totally missed the fourth option;raise the tranny!RLR makes a 1"lift kit for the tranny;good for a 2 spline drop,and kcw makes a 2" tranny lift kit,good for a 3 or 4 spline drop! If you go this low you will have to modify the body,though

Thu Jan 13, 2005 7:44 pm

ok, so I just want to drop it 1 notch....all I have to do is take off the 3 bolts holding on the cover, take off the outside torsion bar bushing, then mark the spring plate to the torsion bar for reference, then pull the spring plate off of the torsion bar, and then rotate it 1 notch clockwise?

that's how I am interpreting it ok........if I'm right then cool..but if I'm not, then correct me

later,
Joel

Thu Jan 13, 2005 8:33 pm