Hi everyone. I have a second project now which is a bit of a beater...Its based on a 1302 chassis....

Basically Im just looking for pics of super beetles that have tension control arms added in. I know the silver and blue slalom bugs from europe had them added...I can't remember how to spell the guys name...think its something like henry achlieder? or similar....

Hi

This is a Japanese 1302 with them.

Steve

some more, the last 2 are not exactly what your talking about but the sway bar mounting is interesting

On my s bug I'm building I got rid of the original sway bar and mounted the control arm in that location then built a separate chromoly adjustable tube sway bar also used 944 stubs with golf struts.
Cheers Adam

Hi Adam

Post some pictures.

Did you notice on the photos from my 1st post how he has spaced the ball joint from the stub axle to help with bump steer, I like that you can this easily with the 3 bolt suspension.

Steve

spacer is used to correct 'role centre'.

Having the tierod ends located from underneath helps with the bumpsteer by leveling out the tierods.

I will get some pics. I've made the lower arm from chromoly tube with him joints on the inner with multiple holes so I can move it upwards. Its nice and low but the arm still goes slightly down The outer has a spherical bearing instead of a
Ball joint. Have also used a passat rack with nice long tie rods and no bump steer. The inner mount on the rack for the tie rods is adjustable so I can adjust the acumen.

Hi Adam

Sounds like a interesting setup, what are your plans for the car? Tarmac rally events?

Steve

Tie rods under neath also give steering drag links more clearance to body when running real low ride heights,i havnt found any need for the extra control arms yet,never experienced any bump steer yet either,used whiteline front stabiliser bar special made up to vintage vee dub specs to suit lower ride height caster adjustable , very stable under hard brakeing excellent turn in and stability at 200k plus through turn one at eastern creek,cheers Rudi

Excellent photos and discussion everyone, thanks!

Another idea I had to for roll centre adjustment is to raise the inner LCA mount. You could easily make a bracket with multiple holes drilled and bolt the control arm on higher up to correct the LCA angle.

I will be starting a build thread soon for my 1302 project (it looks too filthy at the moment haha)... its more of a buggy then a beetle. The only body work I used was the strut tower section.

Also if anyone is interested today I dummy fitted an old KE70 rack I had lying around. It fits in nicely, though I have cut out the spare wheel well. But more so in terms of sizing and so on, its pretty well the perfect width and even the KE70 tie rod ends bolt straight into the 1302 spindle! Very handy! Thought that might be useful for any 1302/03 owners who want to do a RnP conversion. The KE70 rack is the same as the AE86 rack and quick ratio gear sets are available for them from quaife.

Also some adjustable strut tops would be useful for the super beetles. They are available for pretty much any jap car and allow for camber and castor adjustment very easily. You can buy generic ones with no studs drilled in them...i might make som eup and see how it goes, though, the 1302 strut top is a weird shape and the generic tops are quite a large circle.

Hi

You can't raise the inner control arm mount very easily.

With a 3 bolt car you can use spacers like on the blue 1302, if you have a 2 bolt car you can use these.

KMac make strut tops.

Does the AE86 rack turn the right way? as in turn the rack right and the car goes right.

Steve

Um, I will have to double check the toyota rack, though, it is from a right hand drive aussie KE so I can't see why not. My project is a little different, in that I have a huge amount of metal cut away and lots of spare space to work with...hence even the thought of flipping the LCA mount upside down and welding it on the top part could work, but I see what you mean with beetles people have the spare tyre well and fuel tank in the way etc... I am going to the shed now to take some pics of my project and the KE70 rack...

Ok sorry for the shitty photos, but its more so you can get an idea of my project. Please note its in its early stages yet! Yes I am aware I will need to do some bracing...eventually a roll cage will be built to tie in all the suspension points...








Please note the rack is just sitting there, I will have to find a KE70 cross member (available on corolla forums for very cheap) and cut out the mounts and weld them on the frame head.

The reason I was toying around with the KE rack is that I picked up the shell for free and the pan for 60 bucks, the steering box and linkages were missing, and i had this rack lying around from my old AE71 spirit project which I sold to pour funds into my kombi. My kombi is my only money pit, this buggy project is meant to be very cheap and therefore I am willing to mix and match and work with left over bits. It obviously wont be a registered road going car. My goal is to first develop a rolling chassis and then eventually turn it into some form of hill climb special with fibreglass body work and so on. In the mean time it will be hard parked in the corner while the kombi gets done!


I also cleaned, repainted and rebushed (urethane) my LCA's

Also I forgot to add, the KE rack is about 1 inch too narrow each side... but, from previous knowledge of my corolla days, RA60 (from memory) tie rod ends are about inch longer than KE ones and they are regularly swapped into KE70 drift cars that are running extended LCA's for mad camber yo. Also Yes the body work will be trimmed down even further, its all very messy and in its early stages yet so please no comments on the roughness of it just yet haha

here is the LCA's looking nice

Hi Matt

Looks good. As you said its not finished so a lot more weight can come out of it

I thought that I had a suitable rack to use once from a Camira, they look very similar to late Beetle rack with centre pivoting tie rods, only problem was the tie rod knuckles on a Bug are on the front of the stub axle. A Camira has them on the rear of the stub axle.

I could maybe have swapped stub axles left to right but I was worried that it might open up other problems.

Steve

Ahh I see what you mean steve.... From memory the KE70 has the tie rods mounts the other way round so yes you are right it would probably mean turning the wheel right would turn the wheels left. Another thought of mine is to convert this beast to centre steering, though I am not sure how you would set that up? Do formula vees use a centred steering box, or are they allowed to use a rack? Some of the sand rail cars in America have centre steer rack and pinion. How do you work out centre steering? I guess you need the centre steer rack for one, but would there be any issues with the difference in tie rod lengths? Or do you just whack it in lol?

This is the kind commonly used in America, very cheap too, as all veedub parts seem to be over there! http://www.dansperformanceparts.com/buggy/susp/buggysusp%20rack&pinion.htm 

Hi

I case anybody is wondering about the blue 1302 in the above photos here is a video of it from a track day in Japan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUo31Rpq6LI&search=porsche 

Steve

I wish you would stop posting this videos Steve ,bring back to many great memoires

Come on Paul, you know want to race a bug again