To Low, Beam Spindle choices

9th July 2011

My MOT was becoming very close and my suspension was appearing to drop when I took the car out onto a bumpy track. The syptoms where very strange as if i used the adjusters to set the ride height of the car so that the wheels did not come too close to the wheel arches, the car would eventually return to sit25mm under the arch. This gave no room for suspension travel and I was finding it hard to understand what was happening. I decided that I would remove the dropped spindles and replace them with the spindles from my old beam. sent the spindles off to have them blasted and zinc plated and received them back four days later.

Whist I was waiting for the spindles to be returned I decided that I would cut an inspection hatch into the tunnel so that the process of changing clutch cables could be achieved without having to take the peddle set from the car. I marked the area onto the tunnel and cut the bitumen off of the area . I then cut a hole above the accelerator lever 70mm x 55mm with an angle grinder. I found it easier to cut the corners by drilling out four 8mm holes first. This have me a nice rounded edge that was kinder to your hands. I cleaned the edges with a hand file and The hole was directly over the clutch lever inside the tunnel. I made a stainless plate approximately 20mm larger on each side to cover the hole. I drilled a hole in each corner to take an 8mm bolt. I then bent the stainless sheet with a towing bar in a vice to make the curve profile that would be the same as the tunnel. I then used the stainless cover to mark out a further area on the bitumen this was removed so that the stainless cover could fit flush onto the tunnel I then drilled through the cover plate into the tunnel with an 8mm drill . The cover plate was removed and the holes where enlarged to 12mm so that a spirulux nut insert could be fitted.When all four of these where fitted the cover plate was bolted onto the chassis.

My Spindles had turned up and I was all but ready to fit them onto the car when I noticed that my EMPI long travel ball joint covers where breaking down and had gaping holes in them I was amazed at this as they had been fitted less than four months ago . I contacted my supplier Cool AIR VW and happily they agreed that the ball joints covers where faulty. Cool AIR VW agreed as a kind Gesture to upgrade my cobbers to the German High Quality BTT ball joint covers. These arrived quickly a few days later and seemed to be much thicker rubber. Could not however fit the spring retainers that came with the BTT covers as they where so strong they looked as if they would cut the rubber cover. I opted to use my existing spring retainers as these fitted much more easily but where very secure.

The picture left shows them fitted onto the car.

I then was able to fit my spindles, disk and wheels. These fitted back with no specific problems . I was pleased I had removed the spring located at the back of the SWAY AWAY and thread locked it in place.

The Car was then left overnight on its wheels . The following day it had not sunk down on the suspesion and seemed to be set at about 3" or 100mm of gap between the wheel and the tyre. I phoned and booked a MOT for the next Tuesday and was looking forward to having the car back on the road. I thought I might tackle the front spot light wiring before this as I felt it would be good to have them working.