74 beetle w/ Porsche rear suspension. Torsion bar Question.

[The Pirate]

Ok so I have gone insaine and decided to do the whole 944 Porsche disk brake swap on my 74 super. I decided to swap to the 944 aluminum turbo arms on the back as well. I am going to put a 915 5 speed in and a type 4 engine as well. All this is a bit heavier than the original gear. I now need to decide if I should go with the stock tortion bars or get some beefier ones? Also should I stick with the longer late model bars or swithch to the shorter early model ones wich rode stiffer? Any feed back out there?

Thanks

The Pirate

[UniqueVW]

Im doing the same I just ripped apart a 87 turbo 944 Im going with the stock torsions if i dont like it i will change them. But my body is off the pan getting painted over the next few months so im going to do porsche front and rear sway bars also since there a huge upgrade. I have no problems with anything fitting besides go with the porsche mastercylinder instead of the S/B. Look into german vw race cars they run full porsche suspension/brake sets ups or custom after market parts. So far I got 1900 into brakes with new lines/rotors/pads and mastercylinder. The tranny is a 905 Built old school racing tranny. That set me back only 500 since my buddy races porsches.

GoodLuck.
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1974 Super Beetle German/Racer/Classic Look. I call it the Roadtrip Look. Complete restore!!!
1964 Baja Bug. Nicknamed Jumper! <SOLD>
1988 Golf GL 4dr! ForSale $950.00 obo contact me if intrested.

Parting Out 1974 Super Beetle. Contact me if you need parts.

[The Pirate]

I looked at the porsche rear sway bar from the 944 and it did not fit. Which bars from what models are you using? I may not be able to use the front one because I am Fab-ing (A) arms for the front of the car using a 944 (A) arm and some beetle (I) arms. I am diong this for a few reasons one of them being I do not want to order insainly expenzive ball joints from Kerchner when I can just go to the local parts store and get 944 ball joints for $40.00 and no shipping. Plus you are far more likly to wear out a ball joint than the actual arm. It will also help reduce some of the famous SB shakes and add some weight to the front of the car to help balance the front against the rear. As to how they are built I will share as soon as I have them under construction. And yes they will be welded together by a pro welder. I happen to know one. Plus what year and model Master cylinder are you using?

A lot of the Porsche equipment I am running is used but in great shape. The front spidels are from a 1985 944 non turbo so the spedo will work. The rear trailing arms spring plates and brakes are off of a 1986 turbo. I paid $400.00 for all the brake gear. Luckily the cars had new brakes when they were junked. I paid $250.00 for the trailing arms with the axel stubs intact. Finaly I went ahead and got a rack and pinion frame that was in great shape to build the car on for $150.00. Lots more to go..........$$$$$$$$$

The ride hight adjustment bolts for the turbo spring plates interfear with where the plates rest in the torsion braket seat. They will need to be removed and the two plates welded together. Or you can get a pair of sway away spring plates and with a little clever cutting and welding of the two plate sets, get a ride hight adjustment that will work and fit the turbo arms. How ever the sway away design does not look all to stable and the hight adjustment bolt looks like it could easily slip off of the spring plate and drop the car. There is a third option I have come up with. It uses a double Porsche spring plate design. The two main plates are loose to spin on the shaft while a third small plate is welded solid and has the equipment for the ride height adjustment.

I will get some drawings of the front suspension idea and the spring plates up in a day or two.

The Pirate.

[The Pirate]

Any one else playing with Porsche parts?

[chrisw95]

Greetings, I am not playing with Porsche parts yet, but I am considering.
How difficult would it be to add the 944 rear suspension to my 74 SB.
I am prepping the SB for a 13b and would like to have the additional support, not to mention the assistance with stopping the hop I will get with that much HP.

Thanks

[DORIGTT]

[H2OSB]

I'm using 944 torsion bars and n/a 944 rear brakes, complete. All I had to do to fit the brake was get slightly extended tubes where stock parking brake cable enters the parking brake backing plate and "swans" for the end attachment. I'm also using the stock 14mm 944 rear sway bar.

For the front, I'm using typical late suspension LCAs with Kerscher press in Ball joints so I can mount n/a 944 spindles. My struts are coil overs based around 944 strut housings with a spacer that sits down inside the strut housing so I can use VW Mk1 Golf inserts. My spring are 120# 10 inch long springs from Summit Racing. To deal with the camber issue associated using 944 spindles on a 1303, I have extra eccentric inner mount bolts from Topline AND WhiteLine camber bolts in the top hole. I am also using a Topline 7/8th inch front sway bar.

My front brakes are 944 rotors on 944 hubs. The rotors were turned down 25mm in O.D. so late 914 front calipers could bolt to the spindles and fit perfectly over the rotors. To make the calipers wide enough to fit over the 20mm wide 944 rotors, I salvaged the spacers from a set of Porsche 911 REAR M calipers. This is all perfectly centered over the rotors with 2.5mm washer shims placed between the spindle and caliper. The pads fit perfectly on the rotor braking surface as if it was meant to be. The only isuue I ran into was once the caliper was bolted in place, part of the caliper (where the outer piston lives) fouled the hub at its edge. This was corrected by turning a bit of material off the hub.

Basically I now have slightly better brakes than the typical 40f/33r disc brake kits you can buy, with 42f/36r calipers and front and rear vented rotors. This will all be handled by the stock 19mm Super Beetle MC.

The only thing I would do differently, were I to do it again is have an adapter bracket made to mount the calipers so the rotors remained stock diameter, and thus there would be no need to mod the hubs. I may do that down the road, although I do think it's cool my current set up allows the use of the stock backing plates.

H2OSB