Adjustable front beam, how? - Solved!

[thatmacguy]

Ok, I'm obviously becoming prematurely senile. I can't for the life of me figure out how to adjust my new front beam properly. I've looked and looked for instructions online, but this appears to be one of those things that "everybody knows" how to do. Thus the instructions I have found have either been missing key points or have been completely unintelligible.

I can jack the car up, loosen the locking nut and then as I raise and lower the car on the jack until it is about where I want. The stud, nut, and "serrated grippy thingy" move up and down as you would expect. I can then tighten the locking-nut back up, lower the car back down, and there is about zero difference in ride-height regardless of the adjuster's position when I tighten it. I can also loosen the stud using an allen wrench, but don't know what, if anything, that's supposed to accomplish.

Sorry to ask, but I wasted hours trying to find a good step-by-step set of instructions and came up empty.

Thanks!

My adjusters look like this (except less fuzzy):

[jmallen05]

After you moved the adjuster did you take it for a short drive? It may just need to "settle" and driving it around a little might do it.


jerry

[bren]

Sorry this did not copy real well. Most of the instructions are about mounting and not adjusting. It is all I could find. Hope it helps.

[ghiastein]

Do you have 1 or 2 adjusters. If you only have one it will take a lot of movement to raise or lower the car. With 2 adjusters you can adjust both to change ride height greatly.

Remember that changing ride height will change the alignment especially the toe.

[thatmacguy]

Jun 12, 2009 12:56:48 GMT -5 ghiastein said:

Do you have 1 or 2 adjusters. If you only have one it will take a lot of movement to raise or lower the car. With 2 adjusters you can adjust both to change ride height greatly.

Remember that changing ride height will change the alignment especially the toe.

Thanks for the prompt replies guys. I have two adjusters. Now I'm starting to get worried. As far as I can tell I'm doing exactly what's listed in step 9 of the above instructions. Considering the problems I've had with parts, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that is something wrong with the beam. The difference in ride height is minimal at best. I've got about 1/2" of adjustment, not the supposed 2". I can't get anywhere close to stock ride height. At max ride height my torsion-arms are absolutely level even with 2 sets of caster-shims installed. So I've got zero steering centering force (and I mean zero).

Hopefully I'm just "missing something" which I need to do. I've even loosened the top shock-mounts and the sway-bar to make sure I don't have anything else holding the wheels up.

I can jack the front of the car up, let the wheels hang, tighten both these adjusters back up, and once the car is back down off the jack the front is still too low for me. Around 1.5" lower than stock I would say. The adjusters also never move past the "middle" of their adjustment range. They basically start out in the "down" position if I put weight back on the tires while adjusting them, and then move up to the "middle" position once the wheels are hanging free in the air.

Anyone here have these adjusters who can tell me what's going on?

Thanks again!

And, I'm off for the weekend. I need a break! I'll try to tackle this again Monday evening and let you know how it goes.

[ghiastein]

You may not ever be able to adjust for a "stock ride height" It all depends on how the beam was set up. You can add or remove pre-load when you weld the adjusters in by relocating the set screw. When mine was done we marked the exact location of existing set screw. Used that as a guide to position the adjuster the instructions say to center the adjuster with the set screw to allow for both up and down adjustment. I only wanted down adjustment so we position them all the way up. So if I adjust my beam to its highest level I am sitting at stock ride height. Yours may or my not be set like mine. If the welder never used the existing set screw as a guide you may never be able to adjust to stock ride height.

Just a quick question is something stuck? When my beam was welded it warped the adjuster slightly. When you lift the car with the jack and the wheels are off the ground. Can you lift or push down on the tires to gain more movement from the adjuster?

[bren]

Could the hole in the beam not be cut to the full hole size in the adjuster? Does that make sense? Maybe too much metal was left on the beam under the adjuster and the screw is hitting on that.

[clintonddk]

Is the set screw (the center screw) setting in the springs right? There is an indent in the springs for the screw to set in. This is what locks it in place. Your adjusters are different then the ones I use but to me it looks like all you have to is loosen the locking nut to make your adjustments. You would want the adjuster to be at the top of the slot to be at full ride height.

[74vwbaja]

heres just a thought, but could your front torsion bars be weak and causing the front end to sag?

[vintagevwnut]

In order to get the wheels to want to center (caster), adjust your offset bushing in the spindle to lean the spindle back on top as far as you can, dont forget to set toe in, and camber.

And yeah you may never get that beam to go to stock height, thats not what you bought it for.

You may have to take the outer splined piece off to make sure your getting full rotation of the springs and center piece. Also if it is installed on the car like I figure from what you say, make sure that the front wheels are hanging to prevent them from keeping the spring pack from fully rotating, pretty basic, but just covering that.

[thatmacguy]

Thanks again for all your prompt responses. I have a few things now to look at. This was a new beam purchased with the adjusters already installed. The torsion springs are also new. Supposedly this beam allows you to "lower your front up to 2". To me that says it should go from about stock height down to about 2" below stock height. But like I mentioned I would not be at all surprised to find out that something is wrong with it. I think the key is that my adjusters aren't moving beyond the middle position. They need to move further up in order to get the height I want. I'll play with it Monday evening and let you know what I find.

My purpose is using an adjustable beam is actually to keep my ride height reasonably close to stock but to have flexibility to use different tire sizes etc and still keep the car looking nice. I'm not going for a slammed or lowered look.

[bren]

If the screw in the adjuster is not moving the entire range of the adjuster slot then I would look for two things.
One, is the beam hole cut to the same size as the adjuster plate hole.
Two, dimples on the beam may not have been removed properly. See steps 2 and 3 in the above Berg manual.

[thatmacguy]

Thanks again for all your input, it proved very helpful as usual. Once I figured out that the primary issue was that there wasn't enough movement in the adjusters I was able to come up with a solution. It turns out that these adjusters won't move "up" to full ride height as you would expect them to. To get them to move above about the 50% mark in their travel you actually have to jack up the car until the wheels are hanging free, and then arrange method of jacking the adjusters the rest of the way up, then locking them in place while applying that force to them. Once I knew what to look for I was finally able to find a single reference to this on Samba. This is very difficult to manage on the top adjuster as the bottom adjuster is in the way. I finally managed to get it done and now have the car at about the height I want. I might lower her another 1/4" or so, but she's in the zone now. Ride is vastly improved and a number of disturbing creaking noises I was getting when she was 'slammed" have vanished. I also now have some centering force, which is nice. I took an extended test-drive tonight and was very pleased. Driving straight and feeling fantastic.

All this confusion and wasted time could have been avoided if they had included even the most basic instruction. This must be the type of frustration most people feel regarding computers

Again, thanks so much for the feedback, it helped me narrow down the issue far faster than I otherwise could have. Also, miracle of miracles, it means there isn't anything wrong with the beam! That's a huge relief.

So she's finally ready for this Sunday's autocross. Anyone going?

[ned]

I have the same beam and same problem. I wanted to raise the front to get a little more suspension, because the front was nt giving at all on bumps. Well, I jacked up the car by the beam, and loosened the nuts, being careful not to loosen the allen bolt. The adjusters slammed down to the bottom of the slot. I thought great, the weight of the wheels pushed them down...now I will have a higher ride! I jacked the car down and found it had lowered so much I could barely get the jack out. Obviousely they went the wrong way. Now I don't know how to raise it back up. Theres no way to grab those little bolts without wrecking them. Help. Ned

[mathyewgeetee]

I'm having the same d**n issue. How in the world do you elevate the ride height with these adjustable torsion bars. I have to use a jack?! Are you kidding me. I'm thinking it might be easier to disconnect the upper shock mounts, strap a takedown onto the torsion arms and pull down to raise the ride height. I have the avis style bars that I purchased through Jbugs.com which btw don't send any instructions with anything. I wouldn't recommend them. You can find cheaper prices elsewhere too.