Hi bus chums, After a lot of research & head scratching I think my new bus will have a narrowed front beam not the red9 wishbone set up. Ive seen buses with a 4" narrowed beam & the front wheels look lost inside the wheelarch, is there a reason to go for a 4" over a 2" beam?, is it best to go for a creative engineering new one? or is there a better one available?, I have the old one still fitted can I shorten it myself or is it a specialized job?
Cheers Phil

Give Guy or Ted a ring at slamwerks in Derby, I know it's not local but they'll be more than happy to help with advice.
Cheers Nathan

Cheers, I know Mark at the bus station he's just up the road in Portsmouth [bit closer]
There are so many options gets a bit confusing Will be using vw Jims steering rack & parts
Phil

What year bus is it for? (i noticed 8 vents in your sig pic)

I went 3 inch just to be different

Phil - it depends on where you want your wheels to sit ... and that depends on the offset of the wheels you are planning on using.

Best thing would be to get the wheels you want, and fit them on a stock beam under the bus ... then see how much you want to narrow by. Always best to get a 2" narrowed beam as these can have an extra 2" taken from them.

I've got the CE ball joint beam. Its narrowed by 75mm but because mines a balljoint its a bit wider and the dropped ball joint spindles make it a bit wider still so I think I'm only narrowed by ~40mm but its okay with high offset porsche rims. I think it may be too narrow if it was a K&L version, I certainly wouldn't want a 4" narrow beam. If you've got low offset wheels (BRM / Empi /Radar etc) then yes 4" is the way to go.

Whatever beam you get just try to make sure you retain OE style roller needle bearings and grease seals.

bobley wrote: Whatever beam you get just try to make sure you retain OE style roller needle bearings and grease seals.

They were only used 64-67 though. From the picture in his sig he has an outy vent bus so earlier than that meaning his beam just has bushes, and the arms are made for that.

I think you can cut the bearing shells off the earlier arms and use them with adaptors to fit into the CE needle roller beam. The main thing I was meaning to say (it was late!) was that you dont want a beam with poly bushes on the outer bearings (dont they squeak and reduce the ride quality).

I'm in the process of manufacturing 2/4/5 inch narrowed beams for early and late buses they will all come with roller bearings as standard. Won't be ready for a few months so all depends how quick you want one. Will be able to narrow your leaves to match at an extra cost as part of the service if required.

As for size i think that 4" is best suited to all wheel combinations.

New bus is 1960 ish got the birth certificate from Germany but was wrong they said 1955 so sent it back & waiting for a new one, could be a 1962. Will get a rebuild thread going when its collected, the boat docks at Tilbury tomorrow 28/10/09 I've got precious movers lined up to collect it & bring it home to Southampton. So will be a few months before I need the beam but would like to get the right bits [i've restored bikes & cars before & ended up with 2 of lots of bits trying to get it right ] Plans for wheels are new shape golf just to be different ish but that might change.
Thanks for the info Phil

This is the wheel I like. what do you think?

Yikes.

Well that would probably work actually. You can get a 4" narrowed beam, a cheap disk conversion from C&C (coz its brazilian bay with the narrow five pattern so all OE parts), drop the spindles (radish?) and then slam it to ####. You should clear the door recess inside the arch but you will rub the sloped inner roof of the arch so you'll be to chop a wee bit out and make a mini tubbed section. Those Interlagos wheels are 45mm offset and with 225 tyres they'll reach quite a long way inboard.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=64301

Found this on thesamba.com I now know how a front beam works
nice clear pictures for anyone like me who was not sure how the suspension works
Cheers Phil

Phil - sent you a om about this mate