Lowered, What's Hitting The Ground?

[LowThrum]

Hi All, as usual from me, a newbie question.

My '72 Squareback was lowered in the front when I bought it. I'm told it was lowered 2 splines, not sure if its inner or outer.

Anyways, when I go over any bumps whatsoever the car is producing a very loud and solid-sounding banging noise. So I guess my question is, what is the lowest part of the car in the front that is making contact?

I'm hesitant to drive it much until I know I'm not doing serious damage. I'm not mechanically inclined so I would need someone to do the work of raising the front end. Or is there a way to tighten up the front end so it doesn't bounce so much?

[squaretobehip]

There's not too much to it when it comes to raising, or lowering these. There are lots of helpful threads on here, and a couple videos on YouTube.

As for what's hitting, it's your lower beam mount. If you look underneath the front, you'll see your beam with two brackets holding it on. The lower part of that bracket and mount, are what's hitting. You'll probably see some scrape marks on it if you've really hit it good.

Take a couple pics, post them up, and we can help you out.

If you're gonna own one of these, you're gonna have to get a little mechanically inclined. Thankfully, there's lots of folks here to help you.
_________________
1963 Notchback - Ruby Red
1963 Squareback - Pearl White
1965 Squareback - Baltic Blue

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[Yabbadubbadoo]

If you still have bump stops the rubber stopper is probably gone and your lower arms are likely smacking the metal bump stop mounts. This could explain a loud metallic thud on every bump. Some people cut them off or you can raise the suspension and look into getting drop spindles if you want to lower it a better way. The bump stop was put in for a reason so I'm not recommending cutting them off, just saying that's what some folk do to stop the thud.

Note: There's other things that could be going on but what I explained is the most likely.

Would warrant a thorough inspection of the front beam for roadworthy.

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Sydney, Australia.
66 Type 3 Fastback

[vbrad26]

Lowest part possible making contact with the ground? The tow hook...if it is still there.
Otherwise yeah may be bump-stops.

[LowThrum]

Thanks for the info! My Bentley manual is on the way, when it arrives and the weather warms up, I'll go outside and actually inspect. Your responses give me a great place to start, its appreciated.

[vbrad26]

[LowThrum]

[squaretobehip]

Ah yes, I cut my bump stops off, and my car was earlier so I did not have a tow hook at that time...so check those as mentioned!
_________________
1963 Notchback - Ruby Red
1963 Squareback - Pearl White
1965 Squareback - Baltic Blue

Follow ISP West on:

Facebook - www.facebook.com/ispwest
Instagram - @ispwest - www.instagram.com/ispwest

[Bobnotch]

Yup, those are the first things to check. After that, make sure you're not bottoming out the shocks. You don't hear about that very often, unless you're more than 3 splines down though (with stock shocks, and cut off bump stops).
_________________
Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[Mike Fisher]

The torsion bars get loose and have to be tightened periodically.
If you don't have and scraping marks underneath than it's probably torsion bars rattling?
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https://imgur.com/user/FisherSquareback/posts
69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
66 sunroof,67,70,71,71,71AT,72,72AT,73 Parts
two 57 oval ragtops sold
'68 Karmann Ghia sold

Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you end up with a lot of scum on the top! - Russ_Wolfe/Edward Abbey

[Bobnotch]

[LowThrum]

Update: its def the towhook that's hitting the ground. Just minor scrapes on it, its not even bent. But I still need to raise this thing back up and maybe lower it in the future with some drop spindles or something.

[KTPhil]

Pics showing the stance and condition of shocks and bump stocks would help us advise your next step.

[LowThrum]