Drop Spindle Problems

[81pumagtc]

Hey gang:

I am having some huge problems with new Drop Spindles here.

The Puma had 2 1/2" fabricated drop spindles here. I went out and purchased new CB Performance drop spindles, all new ball joints, tie-rod ends, bearings, new performance front pads, and had .010" machined off of the front disks.

They put it all together, and now the wheels contact the lower ball joint.

I called CB Performance, and they could not figure it out, but mentioned that you need to align marks on the ball joints with the trailing arms, and I actually think that this may be the issue.

When I was doing a little research this evening, several articles mentioned that it may be easier to purchase trailing arms with the ball joints already installed. I am going to go down there tomorrow, and see if I can find the mark on the trailing arms, and see if we can extract the ball joints, and press them in correctly.

If I do go this route, and want to make certain the ball joints are correct, how hard is it to replace the trailing arm?


Dave Riedle

[vw1s]

14" wheels? You may be experiencing the same thing I did when trying to narrow the front track width on Blu. I started with "welded" spindles, my 14" Spectre wheels fit dandy, then, I swapped out spindles for forged units, which brings the wheels, etc. in about 3/4" of an inch per side. Unfortunatetly, this is enough to make the wheel come into contact with the trailing arm at the lower ball joint. My solution? 15" "LeMans" wheels.
CB is referring to how the ball joints are indexed. Our VW's use ball joints that articulate only front to back, parallel to the center line of the car, if the ball joint is not indexed correctly, it will move through it's travel at an angle to the car. This will usually cause binding and premature failure of the ball joint.

[81pumagtc]

Patrick:

Believe it or not, I am very happy to read about your experience!

I was r
doing more research this evening, and read about issues with Porsche steering. Maybe I do have to do a thin spacer...

I will look at everything tomorrow. I do know that there IS a slight bit of difference in thickness between the welded and forged spindles...

I will check to see if I can get a round piece of metal tomorrow to create a custom spacer.

I know, given a couple of days I can get something laser cut, but it would be nice to at least get the car home tomorrow!


Dave Riedle

[vw1s]

Dave, it's not a "slight" difference! A welded spindle is made by cutting the "spud" off of a stock spindle, then, weld the spud to a nice, thick (about 3/4"), piece of steel, then welding the steel and "spud" assembly back onto a spindle with the "spud" up from the stock location, effectively dropping the car. This pushes the entire bearing, brake, and wheel out. A forged spindle is made the same as a stock spindle, but, the "spud" is up from the stock location. There is no offset. The problem is that, your wheel is moved "up", closer to the lower ball joint, and it comes into contact with the wheel. You might be able to make it with a spacer.

[81pumagtc]

Patrick:

That's exactly what I'm doing.

The ball joints were perfect, and everything was aligned correctly.

The spindle is .250 offset, and i put washers on for testing to determine exactly what is required to make it work correctly. Both wheels turn with a .140"
spacer, but that gives you about the thickness of two sheets of paper between the wheel and the ball joint. Upping the spacer to .320" inches gives you a little more than .187 clearance.

.375" is a very common spacer thickness, and CB has them for $21 each. These have only 4 holes, plus the center one, and they will be fine.

Of course, that meant new lug bolts, which have to be fabricated. The Puma uses a Porsche style large ball lug, so I ordered 8 more from T3 Technique, and picked up slightly longer rolled 14mm studs. These are black oxide, and have rolled threads, so they will be fine. When everything comes later this week, I will screw the new studs into the new lug bolts using Ardelite, which is a structural adhesive.

I did this for my current lug bolts, and destroyed the fixture I built to test them at 320 foot pounds, so they will be fine.

The car gets aligned, and the Pig of Plastic is back on the road again!

Then we get to see if this all makes a difference in how it turns...




Dave Riedle

[81pumagtc]

Patrick:

That's exactly what I'm doing.

The ball joints were perfect, and everything was aligned correctly.

The spindle is .250 offset, and i put washers on for testing to determine exactly what is required to make it work correctly. Both wheels turn with a .140"
spacer, but that gives you about the thickness of two sheets of paper between the wheel and the ball joint. Upping the spacer to .320" inches gives you a little more than .187 clearance.

.375" is a very common spacer thickness, and CB has them for $21 each. These have only 4 holes, plus the center one, and they will be fine.

Of course, that meant new lug bolts, which have to be fabricated. The Puma uses a Porsche style large ball lug, so I ordered 8 more from T3 Technique, and picked up slightly longer rolled 14mm studs. These are black oxide, and have rolled threads, so they will be fine. When everything comes later this week, I will screw the new studs into the new lug bolts using Ardelite, which is a structural adhesive.

I did this for my current lug bolts, and destroyed the fixture I built to test them at 320 foot pounds, so they will be fine.

The car gets aligned, and the Pig of Plastic is back on the road again!

Then we get to see if this all makes a difference in how it turns...




Dave Riedle