My Thing sits low on right front?

[justabug]

Hello Folks,
My 74 Thing has been sitting low on Right front side for the 5 years i have had it., Car has never been hit, I was told one of the leaf's in front beam must be cracked? I replaced top and bottom leaf's from Thing Shop. all back together and still sits the same??
(everything inside the beam was like new) Has Napa Ft shocks, its driving me nuts! Anyone have any experience with this?
Not sure how to change this?

[kenj06]

Nice looking Thing.
I would start taking measurements to see where it is off. bumper to ground, body to ground, beam to ground. I'd measure the back also to make sure the torsion rods aren't sagging. Pull the shocks off, and check, maybe one is frozen or defective. I'm assuming tires and rims are all the same size.
Are the torsion arms identical? maybe bent on one side? Shock tower bent? Is it an adjustable beam?
Compare side to side until you find what is different.

[justabug]

[kenj06]

If the rear is low it could be the torsion bar is weak or it was apart at one time and not indexed correctly. Or rear control arm is bent.
If you measure the angle of the spring plates, you'll likely find they are different.

[justabug]

[kenj06]

Measure on the ground. If you lift it, the spring plates will hit the stops.
If you replaced the leafs in the beam, you could likely reindex the rear torsion bars. There are many threads about reindexing.
One below but there are many more covering the "how to" or even youtube videos. Just be careful
https://www.thesamba.com/vw//forum/viewtopic.php?p=7564094&highlight=#7564094

[andk5591]

Just worked on a bug like this. Car was about 1/2" low on drivers side. tFelt the rear springs needed reindexed, but wanted to double check. I measured from the torsion housing to the ground and beam to ground at all 4 corners. THEN jacked up under the beam with a piece of angle iron under the exact center of the beam to get some of the weight off the front and remeasured the rear. Had the same side low. Reindexed the springs and the car sits perfectly.
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[justabug]

[181´rn]

Had this exact same issue with my 181. The rear was indexed unevenly. It took me 5 tries to get it to sit perfect.

Alex

[andk5591]

Yes - that was all I did. I did the test with jacking the front to confirm my suspicion. Keep in mind that most of the weight is on the rear, so you will have more impact changing the rear. Not saying that you might not have broken leaves in the front, but I have not run into that and the jack test will tell you that.

As far as reindexing, get new bushings while you are at it. (but you will have to do both sides) Yours are probably toast anyway. And dont worry about getting the car perfectly level when you do it.

Here is my process.

-Measure all 4 corners of the car at chassis points. I measure from under the torsion spring housings and the beam. Write it down.
- Find the spring chart and determine how many degrees change you want.
- I use a small digital level. (you can also use one of those $8 dial type. You are only concerned with relative, not absolute angles.)
- I release the pressure on the spring plate and measure the angle of the control arm and write it down. (for example you might see 14 1/2 degrees)
- Reindex the springs to the desired amount (dont have the chart in front of me, so these values are not correct) so, lets say you want to increase 1/2", you may need to rotate the inner spline 4 clicks CW and the outer 4 clicks CCW (this would raise the drivers side) ONCE AGAIN - these numbers are not correct - just for reference.
- Have some longer bolts for the spring plate (3/4 to 1" longer - fully threaded is preferred) and start to bolt the plate back on. Then once close enough, replace the long bolts withe the correct ones, one at a time.
- Drop the car, take it for a little drive and measure the height. If you did it right, have a beer.
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...