TheSamba.com :: View topic - Building an adjustable beam with Avis adjusters (Tutorial)

Wed May 25, 2005 2:03 pm

oilspot wrote:
I always thought they changed to bearings when they changed the housing for the pivot pin.

i thought that too until i pulled a beam from a '64 single. i think they went to needle bearings when they went to the bigger snubbers sometime in '65.

Wed May 25, 2005 3:45 pm

I went to today to look for hardware and didn't have much luck finding anything metric. I made the decision to go with 5/8 imperial bolts. 5/8 is sort of between 14mm and 16mm. I bought bolts and nuts and a tap.

Does anyone see any reason not to proceed?

My plan is to use 2" 5/8 bolts with a nut against the head to use as a lock against the adjuster.

Let me know what you think.

The bolts are grade 8 hardened steel.

Thanks.

Wed May 25, 2005 3:46 pm

My Bus is a 66, Anyone know what type bearings it has? If it has needle bearings can I still tap them in an inch if I shave an inch?

Wed May 25, 2005 4:24 pm

Flat Black,

That should work as long as you grind the tip to be a 90 degree point to match the dimple in the leaves. I heard of people having interference with the shifter tube if the bolt is too long, so look into that. Worse case is you might have to bend your shifter tube. I didn't have problems with that, though.

DLC,

There is a step inside the tube on a needle bearing beam, so I don't think that will work. You might be able to find someone to trade your beam for a beam with bushings, though.

Wed May 25, 2005 4:41 pm

a_67vdub wrote:
DLC,

There is a step inside the tube on a needle bearing beam, so I don't think that will work. You might be able to find someone to trade your beam for a beam with bushings, though.

The inside of the tube is an unmachined 54mm. The bearing OD is 55mm.

Wed May 25, 2005 4:59 pm

Damn!

Sun May 29, 2005 5:01 pm

Today I tried to reinstall the torsion arms and had issues. The upper arms went in with-out much trouble, but I could only get one of the bottom arms in. It was not one specific arm. It didn't matter which I started with, I could only get one in. Independantly, I had each attached, but I could not get both in.

I inspected the torsion leaves and they appeared to be okay. I am at wits end and feel like I have tried everything.

If I have one on with the sets screw torqued down, the entire arm with the leaves attached pushes out as I attempt to pound the other arm on. This even happens with the centre retainer set screw in- which was sketchy, so I removed the set screw and attempted to pound the arm on that way with the other arm set against a ridged object and also with someone else simultaneously on the other arm.

Each time, no matter which arm I started with and no matter how hard I pounded it, there was always 4cm of the arm left.

I am not sure what else to try. I am hoping someone has some tips or ideas.

Thanks a lot

Chris

Sun May 29, 2005 6:05 pm

they can be tricky sometimes, but no need to really pound on them. 9 times out of ten it wont help. you can try just the three largest leaves first and insert the other six independently if you can't get the arms on with all of the leaves in place. sometimes i also round off the end of the stack a bit with a 24 grit disc on a grinder. be patient, brute force with a big hammer is not the answer............

Sun May 29, 2005 6:16 pm

Thanks for the response. That is what I did to get the first set of arms on. I inserted the leaves individually where needed but that doesn't help me much with the arms on the other side.

I may try your trick with grinding the leaves a little. How much can I grind them? I assume not very much.

Your post has me a little worried as I used a fair bit of force to install the arms but I really don't see how it would have been possible to install them without force.

Did the leaves just slip into the arms for you?

Thanks again for responding right away.

Goodnight.

Chris

Sun May 29, 2005 6:44 pm

Did you leave the trailing arms connected to the spindle assy? It is a real bear to get them back on this way.

I marked one of the balljoints on each side and separated one of the trailing arms for the spindle for reinstallation. Then hooked the ball joints back up. It is really hard to get them back on otherwise.

If you study the way the leaves sit in the tubes, the rotational angle between the top tube and the bottom tube is not the same. Its real hard to get everything line up with it all together.

I also slightly chamfer the ends of the leaves. It doesn't take much though.

Sun May 29, 2005 8:37 pm

I mounted my beam in the bus first. I tightened up my bolt in the centre on the beam. Then I put on each arm by just rotating them up and down until they slid home. My leaves also slid side to side. i would just walk over to the other side and make sure they were flush with each other and keep trying until they all mounted.
I don't know if this helps or not but this was my experience.

Mon May 30, 2005 9:26 am

I had issues with this also. I did it similar to what irievolks said. I got one side one with all the leaves in. But then I tapped all but the center three leaves out past the arm I just put on, so they were sticking out of the arm. That let me put the other arm on just the three center leaves. Then I tightened that arm down on the three leaves and tapped the outside leaves back in. It helps to tap the very top and bottom ones in first so they help guide the ones on the inside.

Steve

Mon May 30, 2005 2:57 pm

Thanks a lot for the advice. I will give it another shot tonight and let you know how it goes.

Chris

Thu Jun 02, 2005 9:32 am

great thread guys.......

...im now thinking about having a go at my '73 bay beam. A couple of questions still:

when knocking the centre out using a bar and hammer, what happens if i knock it too far one way and push it way past the original whole that im about to drill and cut?

Also will the centre collar spin in the tube is i knock it so the the thread is no longer visable?

where can i get the correct size screw for the original thread so as not to damage the threads in the center collar?

Thanks in advance

Rich

Thu Jun 02, 2005 11:14 am

I actually pushed mine all the way out. It's how I got the inside bushings out to clean and inspect them. That way the tube was empty when I cut the slot. It's easier to clean the inside that way.

Steve

Fri Jun 03, 2005 3:59 am

Steve, how did you get them back into the tube in the correct position? - with the threaded hole lining up with the new slot.

Cheers

Rich

Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:31 pm

It should only rotate slightly, if at all when pounding it back in. It would probably be difficult to line it up if you only had a hole in the tube to aim for, but since we have a slot, the center retainer would have to rotate quite a bit to not be lined up. Just line up the retainer with the hole lined up to the middle of the slot, and it should be OK.

Steve

Mon Jun 06, 2005 5:01 pm

richbvw wrote:

where can i get the correct size screw for the original thread so as not to damage the threads in the center collar?

Thanks in advance

Rich

lug bolt is the same, 14mm x 1.5. those work pretty good, just make sure you thread it in the entire way before you hammer on it.

Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:22 pm

I'm about to do the beam on my '74 Ghia... quick question though... My kit from Moore came with the center collar. Do I use the one with the kit or just leave the original one installed after freeing it from the football shaped depressions by drilling them out as stated earlier? If I do pull the original collar out of the type 1 beam, I'm guessing that the bearing should be removed first. Any other tips?

One more question... I noticed that the new collar has two sets of threaded holes. It also came with one short very pointed screw and one long more blunt screw. I'm a little confused about this. Any help is much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Wed Jun 15, 2005 5:33 pm

Got the beam back in the bus. It is sitting too low I want to raise it up about 3 inches or as much as I can before I run into trouble with the shifter linkage.

I am having problems raising it though. Any suggestions?

The upper torsion arm wants to sit on the bump stop before the retainer studs are even half way to their stock location.

Thanks.

Chris