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Hello Shad, ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shad Laws" <shad@lnengineering.com> > Hello- > You suffer a common problem... your trailing arms are worn out. > > The camber of your rear suspension is ~80% determined by the trailing arms. > The bushings on the inner end of the trailing arms don't go bad very easily, > although sometimes the pivot bolt falls out (make sure it's still there :-). > What usually happens is that with age, the weak little VW trailing arms > bend. I had never even considered those- that sounds like major work! Come to think of it they do look very rusty- I keep meaning to clean them up and paint them. So how do I measure/tell if they are really bad? Or should I just assume that they are because of the sagging? > The spring-plate bushings go bad with age very often. However, the thing > they're most responsible for is toe. It is a good idea to replace them, as > the ability for your car to maintain a constant toe will GREATLY help > handling, but it likely won't help very much with the excessive camber > problem. So would you recommend changing just the outers or doesn't that make sense without the inners as well? I think I'll try these first and see what happens. > If you want, you can get early (83-85.5) 944 trailing arms. They are the > identical package size, track width, stub axle configuration, bearings, etc. > as VW, only they have extra interal reinforcement and are 10-15 years > younger. Sounds like a lot of work- but will investigate. I've got an old porsche place quite close and last time I dropped by to say hello I didn't get the condecending response I thought I'd get when they saw my car- they actually admired it! (rust and all!) > Take care, > Shad Laws Same to you, and thanks Mark Seaton '73 Fasty ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org