Help with raising a lowered Bus

[Betty Bus]

Hello, we recently acquired this 72 bus that is lowered. We're unable to enjoy road trips because it's so low it bottoms out & scrapes on everything. We want to restore the stock ride height. I've been researching on how to lower these things, to determine what methods are used. The rear seems pretty straight forward, to clock the torsion bars. In the front is where I'm stumped how to correct this vehicle. There appears to be 3 common methods, and have found no evidence of these yet. What am I missing?

1) Drop Spindles
2) Front Beam Adjusters
3) Remove the Torsion Spring Leafs

Here's the Bus in action:

Front Spindle, this looks stock with VW logo found on the part:

Front beams are not adjustable:

Front End Plate appears stock, with lower torsion removed:

Spring Leafs removed from lower, appear to be a full stack:

The only part I haven't removed is the upper torsion. Because it's under a pretty strong spring load, it's difficult to remove, and I don't want to pull it apart unless it's necessary. Thanks in advance!

[SGKent]

Make sure the leaves go back in the same way they came out and that there are no broken ones.

I'd ask the prior owner what they did to lower it. If they are a Samba member maybe search thru their threads to see if there are any on how they lowered it.

You can use a crowbar to raise that top spindle a little and knock it off with a dead blow hammer. Same putting it back on. Or a 2x4, 4x4 etc on a floor jack - don't lift it more than a little so not to topple it off the floor jack on the other side.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[skills@eurocarsplus]

your upper ball joint is going the wrong way. the stud should be pointing down.

holy shit...just when you thought you've seen it all...

I would check the spindles. they could have drilled the taper the other way around somehow.

honestly, I would probably cut those spindles in 1/2 and toss them. I bet they are trash from being used with the ball joints flipped like that
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[SGKent]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

^^^^

I have seen people do a ball joint flip on other makes...just never on a bus. it's the cheap dirty way to lower a car. I have never seen it done on a bus...

I have to wonder how much of a drop that was. I am betting is was quite a lot.

I have 3" drop spindles on one of my buses and I will get some tire rub with 2 people up front if I am on a really, really shitty road.

I have to wonder how that setup even worked seeing the eccentric drops in from the top.

wow...what a shit show
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[Betty Bus]

Wow good catch! That is so hilarious I'm not even mad. Here's a pic I took right after removing the spindle. Both ball joints pointing up. This thing was pretty low and bottoms out every bump in the road. If you're in a turn, the front tires can lock up causing you to lose control, very dangerous. Thanks for the help and now at least I have a plan.

[Zed999]

There is a company in UK, Transporterhaus, who have been making those flipped spindles and arms for decades, I've used them myself. About 4-4 1/2" drop, not for the faint hearted!

The ball joints are fitted with a snap ring so once in the arms they are never coming out without machining.

But this makes it very easy to convert back to stock using stock spindles and stock arms. You'll get more money selling your flipped spindles and arms than the stock replacements will cost you. If you were in the UK I'd sell you the whole lot for £100.

You will also have two adjustable tie rods because they are also fitted upside down at the spindle end for more clearance to the chassis. You can use them but it will be easier to set up if you get one fixed length one like stock and you can sell your extra along with your "lowering kit".

The other good thing for you is that you still have your bump stop arms. If it had been lowered with adjusters they would have been cut off.

You'll have to do the rears too. At that height it may have hinged spring plates. I'd sell those too and replace with stock. Your rear bump stops will also have been cut down, again very easy to replace, they just push on.

[nebe]

Every time a lowered bus is raised, an angel gets its wings.

[chachi]

[Betty Bus]

I appreciate all the help and support. We're making progress to obtain new front spindles and trailing arms. They've all been customized exactly as Zed999 pointed out, and can't be re-used.

Moving onto the rear. Looking at the spring plates, the angle is showing about 21 degrees. If I index one spline it becomes 30 degrees, which is way off spec. Then I notice what appears to be a custom adapter. Wagenswest has a similar product they call it a horseshoe plate. Looks like it gives a 3" drop without affecting camber. It appears that I can just remove the horseshoe and bolt it back together?

[SGKent]

are there any scribe or chisel marks on the arms and hubs that someone made before taking them apart? Look on the top.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[Betty Bus]

I'm not sure I'll take a look. I guess those are slotted to adjust for alignment. I will probably goto an alignment shop after this is all done.

[SGKent]

if there are marks on top (and maybe bottom too - paint, chisel, scribe etc.), you can line them up and the toe should be the same. Camber is more complex and usually folks don't screw with it. You'll have to call around to old time shops if you want to have the rear of the bus done. Modern shops won't have a clue what to do. It took a special tool too that moved things around while the bolts were loosened.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[Dibaltic]

[Abscate]

[Betty Bus]

After replacing a pile of parts it's finally done. New spindles, trailing arms, ball joints, tie rods, shocks, and bump stops. Now she's back to original height. Thanks for all your help!

[TomWesty]

[Betty Bus]

[Betty Bus]

The bus's maiden voyage didn't go well. I got 1/2 mile down the road and a trailing arm popped off. The set screw was torqued to spec at 29 ft/lbs, so I dunno. Has anyone had this happen before?

[skills@eurocarsplus]

just in case one of these threads goes poof:

another thread posted:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9437351#9437351