Just to add a little something to the mix has anyone got a narrowed beam with adjusters and drop spindles and air suspension?????? and is it possible?

Looking to IRS the rear of my stock height van.

Two questions:

1.How much of a drop will this result in?

2.Will fitting drop spindles on the front level the van out?

Has anyone got some pictures of this set up on their van with alloy wheels - Fuchs or BRM's.

Thanks.

Oh and a third question - what are the options of fitting five stud wheels to a van with stock drums?

Simon,

I rekon my bus has dropped by about 4".
I've fitted dropped spindles on the front, and changed the rear to IRS. There is still a slight nose down stance.....



I still have wide 5 stud on the bus, and fitted beetle IRS. With the late beetle IRS rear drums, you get the wider brake shoes, and therefore better brakes. You can buy a wide 5 rear drum from Machine7 that fits onto the IRS hub

If I did it again.......I may go for an adjustable beam rather than dropped spindles, just so there is adjustment if needed.....

Id suggest if you can afford it to combine adjusters with drop spindles.

U get the stock feel ride quality & 3.5" drop approx with spindles & then have the facility to fine tune the height.

Ive just had adjusters fitted to my cut & turned beam in anticipation of the straight axle conversion to be able to adjust the height @ the front to match the rear drop & the ride is HARSH.

I do have 185 full height tyres & there is only just enough room to get my hand betwen them & the wheelarch/floor on the current ride height.

I think I may invest in some drop spindles when I get some ££ to get back the ride quality ( I had them on my bug & it was like stock. Nice smooth ride)

Mark

I've got dropped spindles and adjusters at the front, couple with gasajusts the rides great. You need the adjusters, because when you straight axle and just use spindles the front will be higher and positive camber at the back. Takes a lot of messing around to get rid of the positive and then matching the front.

Need to get some new shocks on the front, as the tyres rub when I go over a bump

Any suggestions please ??

Before fitting new shocks I'd try fitting some sort of bump stop mechanism.

I am intending on fitting rubber collars on my shocks (actually on the piston) just before the tyre hits the arch.

Minis have these sort of bump stops

Paul

I am running dropped spindles and a CE weedeater beam with 185/65/15 tyres front and back (+ irs on the rear). There's not much downward adjustment on the front beam, most of it has been achieved with the drop spindles.

Problem is there is only about 2 inches clearence between the wheel arch and the front tyres, so i have needed to go for some solid shocks (standard coil over shocks). these do the trick and keep tyre and wheel arch apart, but the ride is to solid and over any distance the family start to moan.

As a bit of a short ass i have raised the height of the front bench seat by 3 inches, which has got me to thinking about cutting out the current wheel arch's and modifying them with the extra this ectra 3 inches then being able to use some more forgiving shocks. has any one else done this and has it worked is it as straight forward as in my mind? or should i just consider going for slimmer 55 tyres and give myself more clearence that way. ?
Chas

SAMBA VAN MAN wrote:Just to add a little something to the mix has anyone got a narrowed beam with adjusters and drop spindles and air suspension?????? and is it possible?

This is exactly what I’m building…

I’m making, from scratch, a 4” narrowed beam with adjusters in the top and bottom tube, airbags in the middle and dropped spindles.
The adjusters are used to set the lowest position of the bus and then I push the bus up with the bags for driving.
I still use standard shocks during driving.

The testversion is finished and I hope to mount and test this beam on Friday.

If I do, you will soon see some pictures on my blog: http://slambulance.skynetblogs.be

See YA,

Peter
www.vwsamba.tk

i don' think castor is any thing to do with self centreing after turning
-it s more to do with kingpin incline

-this has the affect thus - when you turn the hub either left - or right, it has the effect of lifting the vehicle - its the vehicles weight that returns the hubs to their lower position - dead ahead

-similar to a rise and fall door hinge -to make it easier to under stand

-anyway, here the good part, -just to throw a spanner in the werx, when yu drop a spindle, if , so i have read it narrows the track 10mm, then I want to know, is the king pin incline affected -of coures the projected line now no longer travels to the centre of the tire -granted, but an extra 20mm on the et would do it?

bit like why are type 3 brakes bigger than type 1, and then the offsets are caterered to.
-so whats it all about alfred -and what does 'et' stand for, also 'j'

At the risk of sounding a bit non-cool and a bit blonde, I don't know the first thing about narrowed beams...

but what I do know is that I had a '68 baywindow beam with front discs, balljoints and a anti-roll bar fitted to my 63 split ( see the article about 'Alfie' in the latest SSVC mag), had JK adjusters welded on and dropped it about 3 inches, and now it drives like a car (well almost...!) instead of a milk float.

much better, and looks nicer too!

carole

On my 64 bus im running a 2in narrowed cb performance beam with serrated adjusters, 3.5 in dropped spindles ,kyb gas adjust shocks a csp disk conversion with 175 55 15 tyres and brms.

Ive had 2 beams on my van and the cbs the best!

Coulpled with IRS on the rear with adjustable spring plates!

The ride height can be adjusted to suit but I dont like to go too low as im fed up of catching the steering box and was very concerned of how close the tie rods were getting to the chassi rails!

As for the ride its on par with my mk2 gti but without the insane torque steer!!
Its firm but doesnt knacker you over long distances and is a scream when you undertake people on roundabouts!
Coupled with a brand new steering box my van is now a pleasure to drive.

After fitting all the parts for the suspension one of the biggest mistakes that people make is not getting the tracking and camber set up all around I had my van 4 wheel tracked and the difference was amazing
Happy splitting
Aide

I have a Boxwagen narrow beam its fitted with bay window size needle roller bearings because im using 69 bay window front arms and spindles , i have spax adjustable shocks and a csp disc kit .
Van is low steering box is about three inches from ground ( without me in it) .
But the ride is really nice , i have lots of travel on the suspension .
I think its something to do with the bay arms in the split beam .
would post a pic if i knew how , but its in Ultra vw .

http://thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/75699.jpg

Ok - this doesn't really show what Richard was talking about, but he did the same early bay arms into splitty beam trick on my bus.
I'll second that the ride is great and not at all what you might expect from a lowered bus (untill the box hits!)

I can't remember if there is any machining work involved with this?

http://thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/75701.jpg

Note - this beam is not narrowed.

The problem with the bay arms is that they poke the wheels out a little, and when you go down low the ride gets a bit bouncy, and you don't havee any caster so the steering feedback is a bit crap.

For the machining needed you are far better off with dropped spindles