Inward camber on 1963 Beetle rear wheels

Hi, I have been doing some engine repairs on my 1963 Beetle, the rear wheels have been on ramps for around a month and i have just rolled the car off the ramps and have a pretty large inward camber on both wheels, I imagine it has tipping in on the ramps for the last few weeks, does anyone know if this has caused damage/bent something or is this something that will correct itself once I take it out for a run?

Thanks a lot for any advice.

hi there
na wont break anything it will go back the same as before after a 20 m drive
all cool

By "inward camber" do you mean the tops of the wheels are tucked in, or tucked out ??? Looking from behind, wheels looking like /----\ is known as negative camber, while \----/ is positive camber.

A swing axle beetle will go across to positive camber if it's jacked up in the air, or if a substantial amount of weight is taken out of it... like the engine for example... so if you don't have the engine in at the moment, then expect to have positive camber.

Being up in the air for a while shouldn't have bent anything, but yeah - it might take a bit of movement (like a few meters) for things to settle once back down on the ground.

👍

kieranweston wrote:Hi, I have been doing some engine repairs on my 1963 Beetle, the rear wheels have been on ramps for around a month and i have just rolled the car off the ramps and have a pretty large inward camber on both wheels, I imagine it has tipping in on the ramps for the last few weeks, does anyone know if this has caused damage/bent something or is this something that will correct itself once I take it out for a run?

Thanks a lot for any advice.

Hi

When the engine is taken out of a swing axle beetle...
because of the weight decrease the rear suspension will go DOWN causing the bottom of the wheels to go IN...
this is positive camber....

this also happens when a swing axle beetle goes over a large bump etc... and then down again...

the wheels will go negative to positive and hopefully back to Negative camber again...

as You can see....
its much better to have the rear wheels on a Negative camber with the top of the wheels pointing inwards...

nothing broken.... that's how they were designed...
and it happens every time a swing axle beetle goes up on a hoist and put down again..... lol

LEE

👍roll it back and forth a couple of meters a few times and watch in amazement

I love this forum! Thanks a lot guys, I started on the car expecting to just need to fit a new clutch, its turning into something much bigger and Im just glad I didnt have another job to fix!

Also (and apologies if I am posting in the wrong place, im new to forums) but can anyone tell me if it is ok to have a bit of side to side freeplay in the drive shaft (as it comes out of the transaxle to connect through the engine flywheel) Just thought I'd ask in case I need to replace a seal before throwing everything back together, there isnt a massive amount of play just a little. Additionally I am fitting cylinder air deflector plates, a video on Youtube shows them being fitted with the cylinder heads in place whereas the manual tells me I need to remove the cylinder heads, anyone have any experience with that?

There is usually some sideways play in the input shaft, if the bell housing appears wet then you may be up for a new input seal, also check the rear of the engine for leaks from the rear main seal. Which air deflectors are you fitting? the factory ones or the "cool tins"?

and try not to take the heads of you could fit the air things with them on or why are they missing?

66brm wrote:There is usually some sideways play in the input shaft, if the bell housing appears wet then you may be up for a new input seal, also check the rear of the engine for leaks from the rear main seal. Which air deflectors are you fitting? the factory ones or the "cool tins"?

Thanks, might as well replace the input seal while its out, the deflectors i have are the small plates with tabs on each end, supposed to just clip between the head studs, there were missing when i stripped the engine down so i dont think the previous owner ever had them fitted