Front Suspension

[HamburgerBrad]

We have the rear suspension Sticky, and due to the number of repetitive front suspension questions that get asked, I felt we needed one for the front. Feel free to chime in with questions/solutions/comments. I may eventually add more to this to make one huge suspension thread and de-stickify the other on allowing it to live its life in the archives of the forum. If you are starting a project and have some time, do yourself a favor and absorb this information

Types of VW front suspension

Beam - Torsion Arm

The torsion arm suspension is so durable and perfect for off-roading because of its travel shape being an arc. The arm causes a rising wheel to move back and up away from terrain reducing upward strain/shock on the suspension and vehicle particularly at high speeds. The basic principle of the Beam - Torsion arm suspension is to have two parallel tubes running a few inches apart. There are four arms, two on either side of the beam which pivot at two ends: one side pivots within the beam which is bolted to the car, and the other side pivots at the spindle around a Linkpin or a Balljoint.

Beetles produced in 1965 and earlier came from the factory with the Linkpin pivot torsion arm front suspension. For those of you that plan on sticking with torsion arms, the linkpin setup is the best starting point. Unlike ball-joints, which can bind, Linkpins allow the spindle carrier to freely travel through the entire suspension range. Torsion Tube separation on Linkpin beams is approximately 5 inches center to center.

Cars produced between 1966 and 1977, the end of German production of the standard Beetle, were equipped with a Ball-joint pivot torsion arm suspension. While fundamentally similar to the earlier linkpin design, the ball-joint suspension it more suited to lower speed, budget off-road cars, and highly restricted off-road racing classes The problem with ball-joints in the torsion-arm suspension is that they bind at a maximum and minimum position allowing only minimal travel. Torsion Tube separation on Ball-Joint beams is approximately 6 inches center to center.

Linkpin conversion

Let's say you are fortunate enough to start your Baja or buggy project with a 1969 or later Beetle equipped with Independent Rear Suspension (IRS), you may want to upgrade your car to the earlier Linkpin suspension and abandon the Ball-joint beam originally holding up the front of your vehicle. As you can guess by the forementioned tube separation differences, this is not a straight swap. There are four ways to do this: a bad way, good way, the best way, and a way I cant categorize because I have never seen it get past the prototype stage.

To begin, a bad way to do this, and the easiest if you can find the parts, is by using an adapter plate. Old ones are rare, but can be found. The adapter plate Bolts to the stock Ball-joint framehead and creats a place for you to bolt up your Linkpin beam. The weakness is that it is not directly attached to the car. you are adding another place for the suspension to fail. Recently a new adapter plate has been produced as seen here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=787535

Another solution to the conversion is by cutting off your Ball-joint frame head and welding on a replacement Linkpin unit. You can either find a used one or a new aftermarket piece.

The best solution, if you plan on running a full roll cage, is to cut off your stock Ball-joint frame head and fabricate a front cage to mount the beam. This will allow you to place your beam anywhere you want for an extended wheelbase and more stability. Other benefits of having a front cage are ability to place upper shock mounts wherever you need them, mounting lights, and mounting fiberglass fenders/front ends.

The final way that I am aware of is by using a combo beam. I have seen drawings and I find it entirely possible to fabricate a Linkpin beam with a small section of Ball-joint beam which serves as the mount to the framehead. This setup will increase wheelbase by a few inches.

Upgrading your suspension using stock and aftermarket components

Both: The cheapest way to gain lift with your torsion arm suspension is to pre-load the torsion leaves. This can be done by the "cut and turn" method or by welding in adjusters. A flaw with the stock beam is that it was never intended for off-road abuse. It it mainly tack-welded together. Finish welding most of the seams with a MIG and gusset where the shock towers meet the upper beam tube. Available through some VW parts shops are Lift Spindles. These lower the mounting point of the wheel in effect raising the front of the car and retaining completely stock suspension geometry for reliability and longevity. You can also have your spindles reamed out for use with Ford or International tie-rod ends. Most aftermarket off-road rack and pinion setups come already reamed for one of these two ends.

Ball-joint: The most common suspension upgrade for the Ball-joint front end is to use the complete beam, or just the trailing arms and spindles off of the VW Thing (Type 181). What makes the Thing spindles stronger aside from any casting differences is that the Ball-joints are pressed in from above (instead of one from above and one from below like the stock Beetle), this prevents knocking a Ball-joint loose on a hard impact. Thing components are a direct swap and will provide approximately 2.5" of front lift. Another solution to Ball-joint suspension issues is high-angle Ball-joints. These are not used much do do poor quality issues. Tweeds Designs also offers a lift spindle for the late model suspension: http://www.tweedsdesigns.com/img/pages/spindles/spindles_AS-BJ.html

Linkpin: There are so many possible modifications to the link-pin front end. I will cover as many as I can now and add more later. Many of the following are bolt-in solutions. The first and most obvious upgrade is the use of wider beams, the most common being 6" wider than stock. Wide beams can be purchased in a variety of configurations from 10" travel shock towers for coil-overs or no shock towers at all for use with torsion leaves. Another common upgrade is the use of longer/wider trailing arms. These will provide you with more suspension travel for a more comfortable/faster ride off-road. Obviously, the longer the trailing arm is, the more travel you will attain. This can range from about 9" with a maxed out stock setup to about 15" with 4" longer arms and coilover shocks. Stock arms can be modified with a long travel shock mount for better control of the shock throughout the suspension range. Moving further from the center of the vehicle, would be the use of gussets on the weak points of stock spindles (around the king pin carrier and tie rod arm). Another spindle upgrade is combo spindles - much stronger and much more expensive.


Front Suspension Topics by Jowlz
Stock leaf packs into Warrior Beam
Combo spindle install with drum brakes



I will add details as I think of them or as they are suggested. If you can think of more topics to cover of anything to take out, feel free to post here but be aware that I may add your information to this post and delete yours

Also, if you know of any pictures that would be helpful for this topic, do not hesitate to post them
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OGST | CU05 | OGJHC
1970 baja|1953 oval

Wanted: two beat up, ugly, curb rashed 6" phone dial wheels

[65BAJA]

Does Tweed still make the conversion arms to use a link pin combo spindle on a ball joint front beam? Sounded like a good alternative to me but they are not on his site anymore.
_________________
All the good deals in the world will still make you poor.

I'll finish it!... Some day....
Edit, I started in 2003 and still haven't built a driving Baja. lol

[STUGG]

Wow, thanks for taking the time HBB. ALOT of good stuff in there. What route would you suggest to follow on a link pin swap from ball? IE: strength/durability upgrades? I've seen some posts about using a Thing front end. Or, is aftermarket really the way to go on this?
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Sometimes, the finest adjustment requires the biggest hammer.

[Vanhag]

[HamburgerBrad]

[HamburgerBrad]

[65BAJA]

I guess then theres just not enough call for a company to make such a set of arms and spindles?

HBB, how would you rate the strength of the gusseted stock LP spindles?
_________________
All the good deals in the world will still make you poor.

I'll finish it!... Some day....
Edit, I started in 2003 and still haven't built a driving Baja. lol

[HamburgerBrad]

ive only had mine out once and i didnt beat on them too hard. I will be able to give you a better personal opinion in a few weeks, and then after each subsequent weekend.

although, back in the day according to the bible most of the aftermarket spindles started out as gusseted stock spindles
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OGST | CU05 | OGJHC
1970 baja|1953 oval

Wanted: two beat up, ugly, curb rashed 6" phone dial wheels

[HeidelbergJohn4.0]

If you are using the stock upper shock mounts, I have the think the Link Pin tower has proven stronger and much easier to re-inforce.
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71 LWB Manx style dunebuggy
71 Beetle
71 Volksrod
Machette Speedster
2012 Passat TDI SE (sadly sitting in a buyback parking lot somewhere waiting for it's heart to be ripped out.)

[Scott Swinger]

Question:

How do I get the tie rods dis-assembled from the steering box and axle arms? I think if I am correct, that thesetie rods are of a wedge design and are press fit into place.

But, to date have not been able to get these two tie rods off.

Thanks,

Scott Swinger

[baja5]

You smack the spindle with a hammer until the tie rod pops out. or you can buy a pickle fork but the hammer meathod is usually fool proof.

[bajaherbie]

BFH
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They also make pullers. the VW tool is about 40 bucks. You can get one at like autozone also for about 10, but it is a little bigger. I works on the spindle side fine but you have to make a spacer on the box arm. The pickle fork/hammer and even some heat if needed work just fine though in most cases.
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Markus

[HamburgerBrad]

post from a different thread

[prettypinkbaja]

I read your post Brad, thanks for all the info. When it comes to suspension, I know nothing. I'm only good with engines. Ok, to my question:
I have ball-jont suspension with KYB shocks. All I want to do is swap the fronts out for coil-over shocks. I was just planning on buying the coil-overs that CIP have on their web site since I don't do much off-roading yet. If I did buy them, would it be a simple process of taking my KYBs off and just replacing them? Or would I need to fab anything up? I'm assuming they just replace them, but after putting on my one-piece front end, I am quite apprehensive to modifying my baja. Also, if I did want to do some off-roading, how owuld these shocks do? Thank you.
-Jennie
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The excitement is in the curves.

-1971 Baja Bug-

[HamburgerBrad]

those budget coilovers are straight bolt-on shocks only good for stiffening up the front suspension. you should not remove your stock torsion leaves, therefore theres no need to worry about through-rods or any other special fabrication.
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OGST | CU05 | OGJHC
1970 baja|1953 oval

Wanted: two beat up, ugly, curb rashed 6" phone dial wheels

[vwclass11]

Is it me or does Prettypinkbaja's front end look bent?

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www.lowlifeaz.com

Vanhag wrote:
On a scale from 1-10 I see a class 11.

[baja5]

Yep, it looks crooked alright. time to cut the front end off and run a cage.

[ordcorpdw]

It seems to me that if you did the cage thing up front you would have to put in a cage throughout the vehicle to support the front. Is this correct? Baja5, I know you have some great pics of yours being done but I sucked at math and I would hate to build somthing that would just fold up on the first bump it hit or in a worse scenerio if it was in an accident. Is there any step by step how to info out there? HBB, If you went the adapter plate route why couldn't you weld it to the front end instead of bolting it? I can almost wrap my mind around making an adapter plate instead of cutting off the whole pan head. I am sure that pony has been ridden to death but I wonder if it could be done?

[HamburgerBrad]

I suppose you could, but if you're going through all that trouble to convert to a link pin beam, you might as well have it done right. for any serious off-roading that would call for a link pin conversion, i would definitely brace the beam against the firewall and then possibly from there down into the tunnell even without a full roll cage.
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OGST | CU05 | OGJHC
1970 baja|1953 oval

Wanted: two beat up, ugly, curb rashed 6" phone dial wheels