rear axle camber

[stevebaz]

I was able to work on my Chenowth 2lwd resurrection this weekend. my rear swing axle had excessive rear positive camber and the suspension sat hard on the lower stops. couldn't even get the suspension to cycle by jumping on the rear. each tire was leaning out by 8 degrees from vertical. Knowing nothing about setting up the rear end or what I was working with I had to take the torsion bars out and take some measurements. torsion bars are painted white and 27 MM 21.75 long.
car weight is Drivers side 500 Lbs and passengers side 550 Lbs at the rear axle. front axle is 250 lbs on both sides. no people and no gas and no shocks on the car.

measuring the side plate angles they were hard on the lower stops with an 8 degree down angle. once off the stop they dropped down to 12 degree with no load. the suspension has good urethane red bushings in good shape. so I tried re-indexing the side plates and splines. i tried moving up the side plates to 8 degrees dangling and put it back together. the side plates stayed at 8 degrees and resting on the lower stops. so it didn't change the camber angle at the tires.

so I took it apart again and readjusted the splines and plates and between adjusting the inner and outer splines i got the plates hanging at 2.5 degrees down angle. and put it back together again. this results with very little pre load on the torsion bars and the side plates are off the lower stops. sitting on the tires the side bars raise to 1.5 degree down angle. and I can bounce the rear suspension. the positive camber went up to 2 degrees on each side so the tires now look close to vertical. I am much happier with this setting and once on its wheels the side plates are now sitting 1.5 degrees down angle.

My concern is there is almost no pre load on the torsion bars so I don't know if this is a proper set-up. Once I put the shocks back on this will all stiffen up a bunch. but at least the suspension will cycle and the tires are almost straight up and down.

Do I want to consider a lighter torsion bar with more preload? right now with weight on the car there seems like only 1 and another 1 degree when its on its wheels degree of preload in the bar. the car is not complete yet so the weight will go up some and we expect to be driving this buggy mostly on sand dunes and mildly on dirt roads. with the car in lake Havasu everything is available and street driving is possible. no off road spirited driving in my future.

your thoughts and comments are welcome.

am I better off with a lighter torsion bar with more preload or these bars with almost no preload.

[BajaBoy7]

Those bars are probably way too stiff for a lightweight 2 seat buggy. Sway a way used to have a chart recommending bars for different applications that I cant seem to find.

Hopefully someone can recommend some bars for you.

[dustymojave]

The bars SHOULD have the diameter stamped in the outer end. Not all brands of aftermarket bars do. My Hi Jumper has had 27mm short Sway-A-Way torsion bars since I built it in the 70s.

For the weight of the car, and unknown intended use It's hard to say what will be the right bars. For a swing axle car, to reduce positive camber, if the frame has a VW torsion housing (not an aftermarket one) I recommend you weld a piece of 1/4" square bar stock ( I use 1/4" keystock) to the bottom stop of the torsion housing ends.

Also, when you make an adjustment to the torsions, you NEED to drive the car around a little to resettle the torsions. Don't just set the jack down and judge it by that. And jumping on it is not the right way. Drive it. VW torsion suspension does NOT react to jumping on the car like some other forms of suspension do. But with ANY form of suspension, just sitting it down is not enough.
_________________
Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[earthquake]

You can make the stop removable if you make a set of spring plate retainers and weld a piece of 1/4" square bar to them, here is a set of SP retainers you can buy but you can make then cheaper. you weld the tabs to the torsion
and bolt the retainer to the tabs...

https://www.mooreparts.com/latest-rage-511105-vw-bug-chrome-spring-plate-retainers-pair/

eQ
_________________
74 CLASS 11 LOOK-A-LIKE
69 DUNE BUGGY
79 INTERNATIONAL SCOUT II
05 SCION XB SERIES RELEASE 2[#437]
95 Chevy C3500 dually
98 Ford E150
Link to Kelly J. Nolte 3/20/53 - 11/6/08
https://time-zonelabs.blogspot.com/p/about-kelly.html
DEATH TO CHINGERS!
[From a military recruitment poster in the novel "The Stainless Steel Rat" By Harry Harrison]

[dustymojave]

earthquake's right.
_________________
Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[stevebaz]

Thank you for all the responses.

My swing axle tube was fabricated by Chenowth and is not a stock vw tube. the Chenowth tube has a bolt on lower stop it is very heavy duty other than it is held in place by the lower 2 cover bolts- 3/8 class 8 bolts holding the bushing cover on. isnt adding the steel strap to hold in the arms in redundant? If I put the strap on how much clearance does it need between the strap and the arm I am guessing 1/16" I can find no instructions, write ups or YouTube of the installation. With the tube being and in-house fab and not stock VW I am guessing I am better off making these straps and tabs myself as I doubt the the fab housing is anywhere near a stock housing.

and again thank you for all the help.

[dustymojave]

[stevebaz]

Thank You dusty,
Actually I have 2 copies of that book one here in CA and one in Lake Havasu where the car is at. and yes the Torsion housing it was made by Chenowth. next time I go back I will take some pictures. I didn't take pictures last month as I was up to my ears with grease trying to adjust these swing arms and being pressed for time. I have so little time when I am out there about every other month. If I am lucky I get a day every other month to work on it unless projects can be taken back with me when I return to LA.
Thank You for putting up with me. I am going through it tip to tail to get it together functioning and register it and then to tear it all apart and have the frame sandblasted and repaint it. Thank you all I am learning allot.

[dustymojave]

Well shoot. I went past there 2x a week and a 1/2 ago on my way to & from the SNORE race north of Kingman.
_________________
Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.