Had some issues with my front beam, put in a new one and i assume i now require a wheel alignment. Car is booked for engineering next friday and i need to take a 25min drive or so to get there, traveling upto 70k maxs. Just want to make sure i don't have any issues.
Should the front end be fine with that amount of traveling. I don't think its to bad out of alignment. Camber is off as-well. Would any of this be an issue for a couple of short drives while i play the rego game???
Depends how far its out. Why not do a rough check with some straight edges or even a bit of string. I'm sure if you google it up you will find some home-made ways to do it easily.
Caster and Camber wont be a big issue for a short trip but you can scrub a tyre quickly if your toe is not closeis.
Lift the front of your car so both wheels are of the ground just. Get a nice straight piece of wood that is long enough to go from the centre of one front wheel to the other.
Nail a 4 inch nail into it and straighten the tyre until that nail scribs a straight line in the tread.Now go to the other side and using a piece of say chalk scrib another line until that tyre has a mark all the way around.
If the chalk line meets up spot on then the tyres are parellel to each other.If not play with the tie rods until you get that line to come around on itself. The trick is to keep everything nice and still and straight. Take care with your first nail scrib though as this is your reference point.
Hope this helps a little and hope i have explained it good enough so you can try it.Its only a rough guide but with patience you can get to within a degree which will be okay for a temp wheel alignment.
Cheers Col
I did mine with a tape measure...
and a spirit level...
You cannot tell by sight...
I thought Mine was OK but turned out it had 50mm toe in...
it won't take 10 minutes to do either...
can take an hour or so...
although all you need is approx parallel front tyres so they won't wear... in a straight line...
so doing that is easy...
its adjusting both sides at the same time thats difficult..
plus getting the wheels so they are the same amount on each full lock....
Are We talking about a kingpin or ball joint front end??
Lee
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
ball joint front end. advice good so far
the camber adjusters on the ball joint front end
are under the top ball joints
just loosen the balljoint nut to turn the adjuster
[sometimes the adjusters are siezed and won't move]
they are eccentric, so as they are turned around the camber will go from positive to negative... etc
there is a mark on the camber adjusters "l"
this mark should be at the front...
[this is the normal setting]
If You still have problems with getting the correct angle of camber You want [probably negative]
You can buy adjusters that have More adjustment..
I bought mine from ebay [volksbahn]
Lee
PIC: standard and extra camber - adjusters
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
above PIC: standard adjuster is on the RHS
groove is on the top [faces front]
Here is the other side of the adjusters
You can see the slight different in the offset hole..
standard adjuster is yellow..
Lee
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
how low is your car now do u have the excentric adjusters fitted if its to low you will need these before you get a good wheel align otherwise it will be all out of wack
you can also use string to align taking the align of the back wheels
you could drive striaght up to Hurstville and have a wheel align there before u go on a drive only a few klms
once the car has settled in in a 2 or 3000 Klms get it done again
the Blue slip also requires a certain heigh so u must meet this for yr blue slip
u can lower it after but take a risk of being done by the cops
i need to double check, but im pretty sure the lowest point is above 100mm. Its higher then what the pictures show in 'members ride'. I also have dropped spindles so i assume the eccentric will be ok. Is this right Dave? Its not super low.
Where in hurstville do you recommend Dave. They adjust from the tie rods rights?? How long do they usually take.
Lee, thanks heaps for your advice.
i think theres tyre place near the hill st Club in Tracey St only take bout 30 minutes to do the align
have you greased the front end make sure its full and you will have to do as you drive the car, I did mine ever week for 2 months or so and the grease settles and moves around inside the tubes and the suspension settles etc etc so you need a 2nd wheel aling also get the rear end done as well since its all been apart
Yep, front beam is currently full, i had to pull the new one i got out and put in another new i bought elsewhere. The first one i had, all done by a vw shop had no grease in it. AT ALL!
Ok, so i will refill as i go. This place can do the rear end aswell? Is there anything different special about a beetle wheel alignment.
GREASE: the one VW recommended was Lithium based Moly grease
which I've been using since late 60s..
just make sure the front wheels are off the ground when You grease the torsion bars...
if You do them every month or every oil change they will last a very long time...
use in CV joints and wheel bearings to...
Dave,
thats a bit extravagant having the wheel alignment done twice....
Lee
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
Dave, thats a bit extravagant having the wheel alignment done twice
common practice Lee
For a good wheel alignment place go to Heasman steering at St Peters, ask for Doug. Can do front & rear.
He has done my oval & the steering is now spot on.
Back in the 50s...
the front wheel alignment was done using a metal pole about 25mm round with a metal pointer mounted on one end... fixed..
on the other end was a pointer that could be slid back and forth on the tube...
with a grubscrew to lock it in place...
a one piece of chalk...
Lee
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
