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Building an adjustable beam with Avis adjusters (Tutorial)
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locke999
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 11:07 am    Post subject: retainers Reply with quote

how many retainers are there?

mine has one in middle.
thanks
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Jeff Power
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 1:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yep that's it.
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Serpent7
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 2:25 pm    Post subject: Re: Building an adjustable beam with Avis adjusters (Tutoria Reply with quote

jeremyrockjock wrote:
This is a step by step guide to installing avis adjusters. I modeled the beam in Autodesk Inventor so it isn't exact. It is accually a narrowed beam so note the differences. The bump stops are missing and the sway bar and spindles are removed already. Feel free to add suggestions to it.

Your beam (bus thru 79, standard beetle, ghia and thing) is set up with two torsion tubes. The trailing arms on each end are held on by a set screw that is tightened into a dimple drilled in the torsion leaves. It then has a jam nut to hold it in place.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


To remove the trailing arm you must use a 19mm or 3/4 wrench to loosen the jam nut and then using an 8mm allen wrench remove the set screw.

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The trailing arm will then slide out of the tube. The upper arm may be harder to get out due to the pressure against the bump stops (not modeled)

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Note the set screw dimple in the leaves. It is only on the front side for the trailing arms and in the rear for the center retainer (shown later)

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I usually leave one trailing arm on so that I can pull the leaves out with it. Here you can see the basic anatomy of the beam with the center retainer and the bearings.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Next I remove the center retainer set screw. It also has a jam nut.

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Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


I then use the trailing arm to pull the leaves out of the beam.

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Here is a close-up of the center retainer.

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Repeat the step for the lower tube.

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Take the adjuster large half and here is where it get more tricky. To use this on a bus beam you will need to work it to fit the 2.5 dia tube. Two ways of doing it are to grind the top and bottom inside edges so that the adjuster will lay flatter to the tube. Another way is to heat the adjuster and flatten it a little in a vise. If you are building a drop beam for a bus you line the bottom of the slot up with the original center hole and scribe or trace the slot onto the beam. If you are building a beetle beam the original hole should line up with the top of the slot. I also scribe the outside of the adjuster as a reference later.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Repeat for the bottom tube.

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Using a grinder with a cut off wheel, cut the area for the slot out of the beam but don't go outside of the outer mark for the adjuster.
Next there are several options to loosening the center retainer. It is held in place by 3 dimples. You can either drill them out which is difficult on the lower tube due to the steer pivot bracket or you can use a pipe to hammer the retainer back a forth til it moves freely. (Jeff's idea)
Once it is loose put the large half of the adjuster back in position, lay the small half on top of that and put the new larger screw in to the retainer and hold it down in position using the jam nut. With it in the correct position weld only the large half down good.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Once it is welded back the set screw out enough to reinstall the torsion leaves and center the dimple. Then tighten down the set screw. The reason you leave the set screw in partially is to keep the now loose center retainer from sliding inside the beam as you install the leaves.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Reinstall the training arms and set screw and torque then to the spec and install the jam nuts.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Wala!! You have a adjustable beam.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.



Just ordered my adjusters... Ordered lowering blocks for the rear, they won't be in for 3-4 weeks, so It will be a month before I lower my Bus. Plus i gotta goto the junkyard and find some 16" vw steelies. I got some ideas!!!! LOL
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joe56vw
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 3:40 pm    Post subject: Re: Building an adjustable beam with Avis adjusters (Tutoria Reply with quote

Serpent7 wrote:


Just ordered my adjusters... Ordered lowering blocks for the rear, they won't be in for 3-4 weeks, so It will be a month before I lower my Bus. Plus i gotta goto the junkyard and find some 16" vw steelies. I got some ideas!!!! LOL


do you mean 15" or 14" cause 16" wheels only came on bd and splits they are very hard to find and $$$
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 3:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

unless he means something off a watercooled.
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Goshen
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 6:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What an awesome thread... it made things simpler... thanks
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jeffreyned
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 11:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, I'm grasping the concept for adding adjusters, but I'm not clear on the narrowing of the beam thing. I have a 66 single cab I'd like to lower. I'm guessing it has the needle bearings. Is there a way to push those in an inch so I could trim the tubes? Maybe I just didn't understand what was said, or how things work, but if someone could explain it to me like I'm a two year old, I'd sure appreciate it.

Thanks,

Jeffrey
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jeremyrockjock
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 3:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Unfortunatly you cannot simply press the bearings further. Its a machine fit. There are several ways to narrow a beam. If you wanting to retain the needle bearings you must narrow in from the center. That is unless you have a horizonal mill and can machine new seats. If you are going the bushing/ urethane route your better off narrowing it from the outside. there is a tutorial thread on that process too. I'll see if I can dig it up.
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 3:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Narrowing
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=71084&highlight=narrowing+beam
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 7:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks!
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 10:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

How much drop can one obtain with just the adjusters alone? (stock spindles) My single cab has cut fender wells... Rolling Eyes but that may help in this instance. I'm looking for a lowering recipe to obtain a mild drop as inexpensively as possible. I'm up to the challenge of adding the adjusters and possibly narrowing a front beam without needle bearings. What's the max drop I can obtain doing those two things, and then, can I match that in the rear using spline adjustment only with the stock rear end setup?
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 11:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Why use both dropped spindles and adjusters? Why not just use adjusters for a mild drop and then adjust the rear to match? I've been researching, reading, etc. but I have yet to find anyone saying how much drop they can get with just adjusters in the front and only adjusting 2 splines in the back.

Anyone?

Thanks,

Jeffrey
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 5:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jeffreyned wrote:
Why use both dropped spindles and adjusters? Why not just use adjusters for a mild drop and then adjust the rear to match? I've been researching, reading, etc. but I have yet to find anyone saying how much drop they can get with just adjusters in the front and only adjusting 2 splines in the back.

Anyone?

Thanks,

Jeffrey


Flipped spindles are used to keep the steering geomethry closer to the original. = Better handling whit lower ride height.

Flipped spindles + adjusters are for those who want to go lower than just whit flipped spindles.

And whit only adjusters on the front basically there is no limit how low can you go...................
exept the bumb stops
wheels hitting the cab floor and doglegs
tierods hitting the frame
steeringbox hitting the ground
etc etc.

So to cut the long story short If you want your bus to be nice to drive you start whit flipped spindles.
Next issue is steering box raise if you dont want to destroy it.
Then adjusters and narrowing.

This is just my opinion and I know that there are many differend opinion out there.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks Tahis! That's exactly what I needed to know.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 12:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

read the whole lowering sticky, man. It will explain all this stuff and you won't have to ask a thousand questions. Other folks went through the trouble before you did.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 12:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

smitty24 wrote:
read the whole lowering sticky, man. It will explain all this stuff and you won't have to ask a thousand questions. Other folks went through the trouble before you did.


I've read through many posts and stickies. Thanks for the tip. However, I didn't find a simple straight forward answer. No doubt the answer is buried in a thread somewhere on this site. Lots of people have the same questions and lots of people on here know the answers. When you think about it, it's not a bad idea to have it in multiple threads. It's always interesting to me that some people are so keen to post up "read the stickies man" instead of using the same amount of time to offer up a reasonable answer to someone's question. Clearly such people are not concerned about cluttering up threads or using up space. The effort seems motivated more by a desire to say "I know the answer, but I won't tell you. " Maybe it would be better to just help a brother out. Cool
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So I have searched and searched. Will this work on a 68 bug with crimped front beams rather than the dimples? Can I beat the puck loose the same way? Thanks.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 22, 2018 4:40 pm    Post subject: Re: Building an adjustable beam with Avis adjusters (Tutorial) Reply with quote

Thanks for the info. I have this type of beam on my bus. I would like to raise the front end up. How would I go about adjusting this beam to raise the front end?
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