TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sat May 17, 2025 1:27 pm

1971 standard Beetle. Reindexed the rear spring plates, rotated down one spline to lift rear. I scribed where the spring plate and axle assembly mate together. After reassembly, passenger tire rubs front edge of fender. Driver side is about an inch away. Is it as simple as readjusting the 3 spring plate bolts to move the wheel away from the fender to match the driver side?

Anyone have dimensions so I can confirm what mine should be?

Sat May 17, 2025 3:15 pm

Rear toe settings are more important than you realize and it looks like yours are different from side tom side. They were probably off before the tires, maybe a 50 year old car has a history....

Toe in will mostly wear the tire quickly and this maybe the rubbing problem too. Toe out will make the car likely to steer itself into a ditch as maybe why the one side clears those large tires.
Stock rear toe is very slightly in, -5 minutes.
4 wheel alignment is kind of expensive, at least when adjustments are made. It can be done at home but it takes time and some research for how. Look up string alignment procedures.

The oversized tires will kill your gearing and cause overheating issues. The motor needs about 3000 rpm to cool well and this may limit your running in fourth gear. The shift points definitely will be much higher. If the car now sits with the front end lower your caster will be off [maybe zero] and the car will wander and twitch.

It's always something.....

Sat May 17, 2025 5:35 pm

… alignments are kind of expensive? How much do they cost where your at because here they are $150 +/- ( retail ) which i consider a hell of deal when mechanical labor rates are almost that per hour.

Being in the automotive industry i happen to have a buddy that does frame work and alignments, we’ve discussed OP’s scenario before as id come across this on a Baja i was working on. So far ive measures 3 different beetles wheel bases and all three were an inch short on the passenger side. My buddy had told me that some car manufacturers used to do that on the older cars. I dont know if all beetles were this way, only certain years, or what but thats what ive seen.

Sat May 17, 2025 6:49 pm

I just went through this. The rear alignment makes a huge difference in drivability and road manners. I highly recommend paying to have a 4 wheel alignment done.
Dont screw up your alignment to fix a fender gap issue.

The alignment shop had to use ratchet straps on my car to get the rear alignment fixed. Then tighten the spring plate bolts. Downside of urethane bushings is they have zero give to them for performing an alignment.

My alignment was $180 out the door. I couldn’t have done the rear as good as they had.
If you took everything apart to index the plates then you lost the alignment anyways. No way you got those plates in exactly the same position they were in before.

$200 is nothing to have a safe handling vehicle.

Sun May 18, 2025 5:00 am

Thanks everyone for the information. An alignment is scheduled, assumed that was needed with all the work done.

PO passed away, bought vehicle from his daughter. Not much history was passed down. Vehicle came from Las Vegas, old registration was in glove box. That’s all I know. Vehicle was very well taken care of by PO.

I’ll crawl under today and take some measurements, see how “square” it is. Hopefully, I’m not too disappointed.

Mon May 19, 2025 1:03 pm

Let us know how your experience with the alignment shop goes.

I would never trust any alignment shop near me to be able to do an old type 1 correctly. They couldn't even do my wife's mini van with completely new suspension parts correctly. Lazy bastards.

Tue May 20, 2025 4:40 am

Some of them just don't know. After I converted my street Buggy to 944 IRS parts I took it in to the alignment shop. The kid on the rack came up front and asked his boss a question. The reply was "The owner is right here, ask him."

Turns out he couldn't figure out how to adjust the toe in with the tool I gave him to use. I explained all the adjustments to him but when I got home I noticed the car was not sitting level. Somewhere in the process he had loosened off the bolts for ride height adjustment and that side had slipped down to the lowest the adjustment allowed.

I don't think he had a clue as to what had happened or that he had changed anything.

Tue May 20, 2025 10:19 am

Yea...
The shop I took my car to said they were very familiar with old vw's. They said that they did the alignments for the local vw shop. I felt good about it. Until after 4hrs they said they'd have to keep it another day and charge hourly instead of the initial flat rate of $180.

I said stop everything I'll be there in 10 min.
When I got there the boss wouldn't let me in the shop. He said it was a liability. I get it I told him. Then i said it doesn't take 4+ hrs to align a car that came in already driving straight!

After some back in forth with the boss I was allowed to guide the tech but not actually touch the car! I told him I'm the builder of the car and you wont let me touch it?!
What a joke! I ended up telling the tech exactly the numbers I wanted to see. He made it happen. With 5min to spare the car was done and off the lift.

I could tell the boss was upset.

The expert tech didn't even know how to drive a stick! He had to get someone else to test drive it for him!

My car does in fact handle great.

I specifically said I wanted a readout of the before and after results. Magically their machines memory failed and they don't have the records of my car. Right...

Tue May 20, 2025 12:13 pm

Last thing I want to do is deterr anybody from doing anything by making this thread turn into an alignment shop slam fest, but I thought it should be mentioned at least that, like SCHEPP even said, you will need to work with the mechanic to get what you want. Unless you find a wrench turner that was turning them in the 70' and 80's on german cars, I guarantee most 'kids' at these shops get overwhelmed and won't do it or say they did and waste your time. It's just how it is. You can't expect people to figure something new(old) out today. They want the easy buck or GTF out of their shop.

I half expect everytime I take a wide 5 wheel into the tire shop, for them to say they don't know how to hook it up to their machine or something. "We don't have that adapter." Thankfully, their machines still accept them. I don't use them so I can't speak to how it's hooked up. I'm just saying, a car getting over half a century old can cause some problems with the youngins who weren't raised to use their brains. lol

Tue May 20, 2025 1:30 pm

ORANGECRUSHer

Well said!

Wed May 21, 2025 4:03 am

Schepp wrote: The expert tech didn't even know how to drive a stick! He had to get someone else to test drive it for him!
A couple years back I was fueling up the street Buggy 3 hours from home and noticed a nail in a rear tire. There was a tire shop across the way so drove over there to get it checked out. The mid 40's tech came out, looked at the car, "Is that a stick shift? Could you drive it into my stall please?"

:roll: