Re: Which trailing arm?

[Toby Erkson <Toby_Erkson@ccm2.hf.intel.com>]

Not dumb and actually rather legitimate.  Nope, you don't have to do a 
thing to the upper trailing arm (known as the upper stabilizer arm).  Just 
move the lower torsion arm one notch and everything will be hunky-dory (uh, 
that's stupid American talk for 'okay').  Just make sure that you have the 
front end aligned as soon as you adjust the front ride height!

I would recommend, however, that you don't lower the front end so it will 
match the ride height of the rear end as you are not really fixing the 
problem.  What you should do is replace the rear torsion bars in your aging 
Fastback.  The bars are the springs in the rear suspension.  The bars 
actually twist and it's their resistance to twist that create a spring 
effect that give you a soft ride.  Over time the ability of the bars to 
hold their spring (their ability to not twist) diminishes and doing so 
causes the rear end to sag (this is true for the front but the butt of a 
air cooled VW is much heavier thus they get more work).  Though it costs 
more to do it, it is the proper way to restore stock ride height and keep 
your baby in good running condition (this rule applies to all of the VW's 
that use torsion bars in their suspension, be it front or back).

Another option to lowering the front end to match the rear is to install 
adjustable spring plates at the rear end.  These allow one to fine tune the 
rear ride height.  Another option is to use air adjustable shock absorbers. 
 Remember, these options hide the problem just like lowering the front end 
does.

     Toby Erkson
     air_cooled_nut@pobox.com
     '72 VW Squareback 1.6L bored and stroked to 2.0L
     '75 Porsche 914 stock 1.8L for sale


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Which trailing arm?
Author:  type-3-errors@umich.edu at SMTPGATE
Date:    4/4/97 2:01 PM


OK, now this might seem as a really dumb question to all you vets out
there, but I just want to make sure before I really screw things up.  I'm
getting ready to lower the front of the Fastback to even the car out.
The rear is sagging a bit.  I read through the article in VW Trends on
lowering the T3 front end.  It talks all about using the lower trailing
arm to lower the car.  What about the upper trailing arm?  Do you need to
move that one too?  If not, do you have to modify anything so it all fits
again?  I only want to go one notch, so its nothing extreme.  Any help
will be much appreciated.  One final thing: Greg, can I have your snail
mail address?  My uncle wants to send you a pic of his T34 Ghia and a
writeup on it.  We aren't technically advanced enuf for a scanner.
Thanks again!

Cayson Ellsworth
68 Fastback
72 Super