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Fri Jul 19, 2024 9:11 pm

Hi there friends i just aquired a 1961 baja bug and i want to raise the front end. I’am assuming it has the stock front beam can anyone share some info on how to raise it??

Sat Jul 27, 2024 7:51 pm

You can "cut and turn" the center section of the torsion beam, upper and lower.
Or you can install adjusters... which is essentially the same procedure.

I think, more recently, stock style lifted spindles are available for king/link pins.

There is also the cheapy coil over shocks.
I've run them before, not really as bad as made out to be.

Mon Jul 29, 2024 10:53 am

Watching this thread as I just came into a '60 and will be looking to do the same thing, most likely cut and roll, specifically interested in how much height you can gain per 1/8" of roll in the beam.

If there is a chart someplace that would be handy.

Mon Jul 29, 2024 8:48 pm

If it will be mainly street with occasional off roading you may not want to raise it.
My current 61 Baja is still running the stock front suspension and it does just fine.

An easy way to get a little more lift and a bit stiffer up front is to replace the split torsions leaves with solid ones.

Sat Aug 03, 2024 6:07 pm

I was having the same problem, bottomed out in the limiters in a lightweight buggy. It rode terrible too. I did several things and in the end it worked like I hoped..

First, I pulled all torsion bars and arms. Cleaned everything up and put a new set of torsion bars in the bottom tube and a thru rod in the top. I had KYB gas shocks on there and it rode much better but over some road surfaces it got squishy so I decided to try a set of coil overs. After installing them I was back to having a stiff front end but not against the stops. It rode harder too. So I had this brilliant idea of collapsing a few coils. I figured I'd just switch back if I F'd them up. Surprisingly, it worked. I collapsed the first 2.5 coils no prob with a propane torch only. I over heated the first try but the second was perfect. I took it to the local tire jockeys and had the toe set. Along with that I got a full alignment measurement before and after printouts. I already had the front end apart and shimmed it according to the charts and my caster and camber are both good. The toe set perfectly with my steering wheel straight and everything which was a surprise and it rides in my opinion like it should.

Sorry so long.

Sun Aug 04, 2024 9:00 am

>Watching this thread as I just came into a '60 and will be looking to do the same thing, most likely cut and roll, specifically interested in how much height you can gain per 1/8" of roll in the beam.
>If there is a chart someplace that would be handy.

You can calculate this yourself. Trigonometry. Two triangles with one angle.
Draw a 2" circle inside a 20" circle [or whatever length the control arms are x2, I am too lazy this morning to go measure]. Now go to the center and draw a middle line, then another 1/8" higher on the little circle and continue out to the outer circle. There's your answer. It will be something like 10/8" or 2 1/4", probably more than you want.

While you are doing Sunday morning arithmetic you may want to consider spring stiffness for your project.
A stock front suspension travels about 8", more or less half up and half down, and absorbs about 75#/" of travel [this may have been with the solid leaf swap for the split leaves]. It is not designed to land the whole car on the front axle like a Baja Bug may be asked to do. Rotating the axle adds preload and therefore total load capacity before you run out of suspension and things start to break, but beware losing down travel as this is very uncomfortable. Adding spring rate with stiffer springs is different than adding preload to a given spring, but probably costs more. The cheap chrome coil overs are good for maybe 30% added spring but always seem to have terrible hydraulic shock function. Swapping solid leaves for split leaves is pretty cheap and adds maybe 10%, I don't recall the actual measurement.
Shock absorbers are not springs, they are devices that slow the spring effect down. Really good ones do so at rates that vary with speed and have adjustments and big price tags. How fast can you afford to go?
Dennis

Sun Aug 04, 2024 5:56 pm

Quote: You can calculate this yourself. Trigonometry. Two triangles with one angle.
Draw a 2" circle inside a 20" circle [or whatever length the control arms are x2, I am too lazy this morning to go measure]. Now go to the center and draw a middle line, then another 1/8" higher on the little circle and continue out to the outer circle. There's your answer.

This is perfect, thank you.

If I understand this correctly the little circle represents the diameter of the front beam and the larger circle is the 360* radius of the trailing arm arc from center of beam to center of link pin connection.

Thanks a bunch for this explanation, easy to understand.

When it came to math they lost me when they added the alphabet to the numbers.

One of the ole mans favorite quotes to customers

"speed costs money, how fast you wanna go"