I've recently aquired a 76' Bug which I'd like to lower as it's currently sitting at the standard height.
In the past I've reset the spring plates, but that's a right pain in the arse.
So I was thinking of adjustable spring plates and I was wondering how much adjustment they actually have?

It's exactly the same PITA to fit adjustables as reset the standard ones, and they only have a small amount of adjust to 'trim' the ride height (and corner weights etc...)

Check this out.
http://www.airsouls.com/how-tos/adj_spr_plates.htm 

worth fitting...................you can get about 4 inches of height adjustment.

the best thing about these plates is you have the same amount of adjustment as a standard plate would, by using the same turn one tooth on the spline method you can lower or raise your ride, the best part is you do not have to pull the rear brakes etc of to do this ,all that needs to be done is jack up the car take off the rear torsion bar cover thingo , remove the outer plate turn to desired height on the spline put the cover back on (4 bolts) then adjust with the bolt to get right, to lower you vw using the bolt will take all of ten minutes , to lower your vw by removing the torsion cover it might take 30mins to do both sides..
i recently made a set for my split, well worth the effort


[ Edited on 10-4-2007 by t2 ]

with sway away plates (and the original adjusting bolt that comes with) you get around 2 inchs of adjustment

Good info.

Thanks guys.

Andrew

Hi

Steel trailing arm 944 have spring plates have adjustment for height, but the adjusting bolts protrude out the back so the chassis needs a bit of clearancing. Used in conjunction with steel 944 arms they will also give you easy camber & toe adjustment.

Steve

I have a set on my Ghia but the adjusters are slightly different to the ones above. I got these in the UK - they started off life as standard swing-axle spring plates that I modified to use 944 arms. Must admit I like the ones above better although that type of adjuster wouldn't fit on a type 3. Although I've not tried it I'm pretty sure that you can use the 944 complete spring plate + rear arm set up if you have IRS - IMHO a much better option.

.

[ Edited on 10-4-2007 by T-34 ]

Hi

These are the steel 944 arms that I had on my 1302. If you look at the spring plate you can see the adjusting bolts and where they would foul on the chassis. I've now gone to alloy arms like T-34, but I've used the later 944 spring plates, these require the same chassis mods as the earlier arms.

Steve

Quote:

Originally posted by T-34 I have a set on my Ghia but the adjusters are slightly different to the ones above. I got these in the UK - they started off life as standard swing-axle spring plates that I modified to use 944 arms. Must admit I like the ones above better although that type of adjuster wouldn't fit on a type 3. Although I've not tried it I'm pretty sure that you can use the 944 complete spring plate + rear arm set up if you have IRS - IMHO a much better option. . [ Edited on 10-4-2007 by T-34 ]

Hi Nick

Im fitting alloy 944s to my 1303, I took measurments of my old setup,
Rear track drum face to drum face
Type 3 drums 1405 mm
944 alloy arms 1490 mm

Steve

Hi Glen

When you see the arms fitted up to the car it looked like nothing will fit, but lots of Porsche wheels will fit fine with this extra track.

Sorry about high jacking your post Gracey

Steve

It's all good Steve.

Just giving me options that I hadn't considered.

Thanks, Andrew

Widening the rear track is also something that I'm interested in doing as I currently have a set of ATS wheels on my other 76' Bug, and even though I'm running type 3 rear drums and 10mm spacers the wheels still need to come out about 15 to 20mm further.

The track is widened, but this can be corrected - depending on what offset wheels you run (although you may need to add spacers to the front hubs). I've not tried it but I have heard that later wheels like cup alloys and the like have the correct offset.

I narrowed the track on mine as I already had the wheels I wanted to use (which didn't have the correct offset )

Although this is not 100% on topic (My car is type 3 based) I narrowed the rear suspension on mine by moving the a-arm pivots inwards by about 30mm and then making some spacers to mount the spring-plates to the front of the a-arms. I also needed to clearance the rear frame and move the top shock mounts and bump stops inwards by 30mm.



There's some more pics on my site and also a basic tech article on the 944 conversion for a type 3 - http://www.t-34.co.uk/index.php?page=tech&id=2

hi T-34 ,
so your wheel mounting face of the disk side to side is around 1430mm now?
great site , very helpfull

steve any idea on the distnace face to face with standard trailing arms (or steel 944 arms) and 944 brakes ?

steel porsche 944 arms are the same as bug irs arms the difference is in the drive flange,s .
wheel track is measured center of wheel to center of wheel not drum or disc face .So with the correct off-set on the wheel
you could have close to the orignal track.In Vic and other states adr laws changing a 50mm over all increase in the track is the max with IRS rear ends.

Hi

We all know that wheel track is measured between the centre of wheels.

The reason that I used the drum/disc to drum/disc measurement is that it takes the wheel offset out of the equation.

The measurement that I mentioned in an earlier post was on my other 1303 which had Type 3 drums on the rear, I believe that Type 3 rear drums give a small track increase

Steel 944 arms with the 944 brakes fitted give 26mm per side increase, so 52mm increase over all.

Malcolm. What you say is true about ending up with standard track, Im fitting some steel 944 rears to my sons 1303, I know that a 7 inch Fuchs or Cookie cutter has a 26ET and they fit fine, so using 55 ET wheels with the 26 mm extra track per side that the 944 stuff will give me will result in a 3mm track decrease, perfect.

This is what the NSW RTA say about increasing track with different suspension, "Where non original axle or suspension cross member components are fitted, the offset of the wheel in relation to the axle or stub axle assembly used shall not be increased by more than 12.5mm each side of the vehicle based on the specifications of the axle components used. If an axle assembly is shortened then the track width limit is taken as the axle manufacturers original track dimension, less the amount the assembly has been narrowed, plus 25mm."

Steve

[ Edited on 11-4-2007 by 1303Steve ]

sorry to bug u again steve lol ....

but is that an increase over standard beetle brakes or type3 ? just want to clarify

if its with standard ill have to try get the factor difference between type3 rears and beetle , from memory it was like 10mm per side or something

avwboy,

if you're not in a hurry, I will be stripping down my rear suspension in the next month or so - I have an unmodified IRS frame that I could put the porsche a-arms on to measure the track for you.

Hi Nick

Nay bother, when you fit 4 stud Type 3 rears to a 4 stud bug, you get a track increase. With all the bits that you have laying around you should be able to work this out.

Steve

Hi Glen

Just fitting the Type 3 brakes will increase the rear track.

Steve