Hello all, maybe about to become a very late bay owner.

That is actually shocking.

 

Dire, isn't it?!

 

Well glad you are taking it seriously and will end up with a safe ride

 

Yes, it will end up pretty much perfect by the time I've finished, I don't know how anyone could even stand to see something that s**te looking when looking through the wheel arch gap, never mind the potential catastrophic safety issues if and when that adjuster snapped off the top of the plate.

 

Bit of JB Weld, quick coat of underseal and job's a good 'un!

 

Not to mention how little material is left where they dog legged it. Not much more than half the original x-section?
Looks like someone saw a picture of / had adjustable spring plates described to them, tried to make some, failed, gave up (possibly had that TV appearance deadline to meet?) and lashed together what you now have.
You've got a bus with some interesting history there.

 

There are a few really heavily modified buses on here that IMHO are badly modified and unsafe but because they look cool and popular owners it gets overlooked

 

The fun continues...

Well, I've been over the steering system now. Everything was nice and tight as it really should be at this mileage, except for the steering box, which did have lots of play with the steering set at the centre position, when there shouldn't be any. I've adjusted it properly and the slop has almost entirely gone from the system now. So good news in that I've probably reduced the overall terrible steering and handling somewhat. Next job is to move on to raising the front axle height to a more sensible level.

I am annoyed though, as the Bus had a light-steer system fitted only last February and it's done less than 4000 miles since so I'm going to talk with Lite-steer and/or VW Kampers who fitted it as well regarding this, as the amount of looseness in the steering box at such a minimal time and mileage from fitting is of concern. I'm hoping it's just a lack of correct setting up and adjustment rather than premature wear.

So lets have a look at the current front lowering...

As previously mentioned, the bus has beam adjusters fitted, but looking at the current setting, I'm unable to raise the bus by adjusting these, as they're already set close to their lowest position, so these can only allow for further lowering at the moment. Now this shouldn't be the case, so there must be something else going on here...



So what else is going on? Dropped spindles are in attendance as well is what! But can you spot the weird thing about them?



I'll give you a clue, it's yet another bodge, or rather something missing...

 

I'm not familiar with splitty beams - should the idler pin stick so far out of the bottom of the beam? Looks really wrong. On a bay if that pin can rise and fall it causes a lot of loose in the steering. I'd tentatively jack the pin up and it it goes up until the head is flush you have another problem.

 

That's an interesting observation, you had me worried, so I 've just been out to look at it, thankfully it's fine, the pin is actually snug up to the housing. What looks like the pin shaft on the photo isn't, it's part of the housing on the beam, the design is different to the earlier split beams. Whew! Thought I had another job to add to the list for a while there!

You didn't spot the glaring issue though, at the king pin/spindle assembly. All four grease nipples are missing! And the other side is the same! It was recently serviced for the previous owner and all the other grease points have clearly been lubed up, but no one seems to have picked up on this!!

 

Quick fix for your beam / height issue could be to put some coil overs on there?

 

You good with a spanner/Welder/6’ long scaffold tube?

 

At least it’s a decent colour…

 

Eewww imagine if it was orange or green

 

Good idea, but I'm not worried about quick fixes, It's going to have standard spindles put back on it, then I'll lower it very subtly 1 to 2 inces from standard by using the beam adjusters.

 

Blog decision...

Hi all, I've decided to move my blog to thesamba.com as I've started one there as well and at the Brazilian forum, but maintaining three blogs is just silly, so I'll be continuing over there with just the one. therefore here is where this one ends.

I'll still be around here for following general chat.

For those interested, you can follow along at:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=780362

Be patient, I've got to update it to the present first over the next day or two.

 

spindles normally drop it about 2” so return to stock should raise you up a similar amount, should also narrow your track a bit which would help with clearance.

smaller wheels/ tyres could also give you more space - 17”s are pretty big for a bay

 

Yeah, Measuring these spindles and comparing them to a standard set, It looks like they're actually taking it down about 3 to 4 inches. Then the too small diameter tyres are knocking off another 1&1/4", so that's about 5" lower, which matches what I measured ground to arch edge in ride height compared to a standard bus.