Adjusting a lowered front end

raise the front, put it on jack stands of course. loosen the nuts on the adjusters and move top plates on upper and lower tube down one notch. tighten everything back. you will need a crescent wrench for those nuts. one spline/notch gives about 1 inch of drop/raise. Don't loosen the set screw it holds the torsion leafs.

Ant> I have a 65 VW that has had the adjusters installed on the front axle

Thanks Anton. I wasn't aware of any notches, but then again I never had a VW with the adjustable front end either. I guess when I get it up in the air I will be able to see what you are speaking of and figure out how to move them. Thanks for the advise................Terry

There are 2 types of beam adjusters.

Does yours have one alen set-screw per beam tube (the one Anton refers to) or two?

With 2 alen set screws, the one goes inside the beam and is used as a lever to change the angle of the leaves inside the tube, and the other is outside the tube and is used as an adjuster to push the first screw.

If you have this setup, you have to loosen all 4 lock nuts (two per beam tube) and use the outside adjuster screws (the ones pointing forward/downward) to set the angle of the center set-screw and in consequence the angle of the torsion leaves.

You need to turn out the adjuster screw 2-3 turns on both tubes. While turning, the aluminum block (which the central screw goes through) should slide forward-downwards and the car's front get lower (if it sits on the ground). You must not raise the front on a jack with the wheels hanging, because the beams will turn by the weight of the front wheels all the way up (to the highest position). The front of the car lowers as you unscrew the adjuster screws so you can check your work.

Be warned that the lower you get, the tighter / harsher the front suspension will feel. It will be more tight when suspension is compressed and more soft when decompressed. You should not use gas charged shocks with it, or it will feel like having no suspension at all in the front. The trick is to use adjustable oil shocks (such as Koni Red shocks) and adjust them to have a bit more dampening on rebound.

Also check that the shocks are not limiting the suspension travel.

Bill, '67 bug.

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Bill, it has just one adjuster on the top and one on the bottom tube. It had gas shocks when I got it but it was a very rough ride to say the least. I ordered two lowered oil filled shocks from JC Whitney, which were Empi, and it rides pretty good now, but it seems as if it sets up higher in the front now than it did before ??? Anyway, I just need to drop it an inch or so but don't want to kill the ride either. It has the small 145 tires on the front so I am trying to close the fender gap as well. I just have never touched an adjustable type front end like that and wanted to make sure I didn't screw up by messing with it. I appreciate all the info from you and Anton as well. I will give it a try this weekend, and cross my fingers. Thanks again, Terry..................

this is one style of adjustable front end...

I didnt like this type... i liked the other one with the splines and only 2 nuts... it just seemed easier to adjust.

yeah this type sucks, especialy when you trying to get the front up to get the wheels off as they will just keep on dropping. I didn't realize/forgot that those older adjusters use alen screws two. If you are saying that your front end is higher after replacing shocks, lowering might not bring it back down, as the new shocks you got are not the lowered kind and those will just bottom out and eventually blow out. You will need to get lowered shocks. Look into KYBs

check out this thread on samba it's got nice pics of what's inside the bean and how avis adjusters look. (the ones I was referring in my first post.

Cheers, Anton

for got to include url for the samba thread

Err, didn't he weld those adjusters on the wrong side of the beam? Or is that different on a bus?

Roger