Alignment specs for 74' Standard Beetle with minor upgrades?

[Eskamobob1]

Hey guys,

So I have a 74' standard beetle that sits at stock height with stock springs/torsion bars, dual 3/4" sway bars, and KYB soft ride shocks on 165/80R15 tires. I was wondering what kind of alignment specs you guys like for a road car (have some more fun windy roads on my way to work, but lots of freeway too). Here is kind of what I was thinking, but im not sure.

Front:
1-1.5 deg neg camber
1-2mm toe out

Rear:
1-1.5 deg neg camber (probably matched to the front)
1-2mm toe in
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'74 - front disks/lots more work to do

[theKbStockpiler]

Do you want your tires to wear abnormally?
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[Eskamobob1]

[oprn]

Did you mix up the toe specs? I believe it should be toe in on the front and toe out on the rear.

[nextgen]

Went to alignment recently and after getting it right, I consider it, especially for a bug extremely important to get right. Besides power, handling is what makes the fun and safe to drive.

Unless you have a shop that will is really willing to test drive it after alignment more then once you really never know.

My bug has dropped front spindles 2 1/2" drop, Plus 195 60 15 rears and 195 50 15 race tires front. Same KYB as you in the front and Gas A Just KYB in the rear. Front and rear anti sway bars.

Car had a life of it's own, dart from here to there, dangerous.

I put in New Ball joints, tie rods and tie rod ends. Now comes the story.

I got several suggestions as to how to have it aligned.
One was use two sets of spacers to correct camber.

I go to check out the car the mechanic and see the two sets on the car.

I get a call, car is ready, get on the NYS Thruway in one direction and do 90 no problem, then on the way back 100 and the steering got light.

Went back tell the shop -- great job.. Look under the car and do not see the two sets of shims which were on the car before.

The Machanic says, we tried one set did not like it, then tried the other did not like it either. Took them out realigned. He test drove it at 80 each time till he felt it right.

My point when you do what we think is a simple mod like a tire size.

You need a good shop to take their time and get it right.
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[Stripped66]

CASTER shims, not camber shims.

Caster is the angle of the steering axis of your spindles, and more caster = greater self-centering tendency of the steering...this will make the steering feel more stable at high speeds and when braking (when the dive of the front end naturally decreases the caster angle).
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[mark tucker]

possiably he has the top caster excentrick thingys on the botton too they do caster and cramber...

[Stripped66]

[Eskamobob1]

[Stripped66]

[FreeBug]

[Stripped66]

[Eskamobob1]

[Eskamobob1]

Ok, so I ended up dropping it off at the shop yesterday and asked the guy there what he recommended (shop had a GL bug out front and lots of buses and ghias so I figured I would ask). They basically said, for street use, a good compromise is anywhere between -0.5 to -1 deg camber and then straight ahead of rear and about 1/2mm roe put in front so that you still get the extra bite but don’t sweep the tires all too bad. I’ll go ahead and report back with exactly what they did and how it feels when I get it back tomorrow
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'74 - front disks/lots more work to do

[mark tucker]