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Front Suspension No Travel

I have a 69 bug with an adjustable front beam, ball joints, short shocks, and Karman Ghia disc brakes on the front end. This suspension won't move up when the car is on the ground. I can jump on the front end and it won't move. Been this way for 17 years since I put the front beam and brakes on it. When you pull up on the front of the car. It will stay up part way until you push it back down. When you jack up the car, the tires will stay in place for a second then start to drop down. When they come down though, they are sort of jerky, not smooth. I have heard that it could be the needle bearings or bushings in the tubes. I have heard that the ball joints could be in a bind from being lowered. I have heard that the ball joints have to be facing certain directions. I have heard that the adjusters could be fighting against one another. What is your take on this problem? D.J.

Reply to
djdammann
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the torsion leaves are designed to twist....this is how your suspension works....not only that, but they only work *well* when pinned in a certain place...when you use adjusters, or the "cut and twist" meathod to lower your front suspension, the suspension travel can become non-existant....my 68 has new lowered balljoints, new beam, etc....it also has shocks that are fitted to the application(not some off the shelf parts that others claim to "work".....all this still results in a non existant front suspension due to the beam centers being cut and twisted....my wheel and tire combination put the outter edge of the wheels and tires about 1/4" out of the fender openings....i have the car lowered to 3/8 inch of clearance between the front fender and the tire.....the tires never hit the fenders...that is how little the suspension moves....your problem is not bad needle bearings or balljoints, or even shocks bottoming out, your problem is the torsion leaves don't twist when they are in a position that the leverage created by the trailing arms won't twist them.....rides like a gokart....or bicycle...or whatever....i'm going to airbags....getting older...been driving these things lowered for 17 years...tired of bouncing....good luck with yours...

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

I had a lowered 68 bug with this problem. Check the ball joints and makes sure that they are installed correctly. The travel should be front to back. If they're installed where the travel is side to side, they will not allow the suspension to move. I could jump up and down on my bumper and the car wouldn't budge. Andy

Reply to
Busman

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

Thanks for the reply. Do I need to pull the boots back and see if the top of the joint is slotted in one direction?

Reply to
djdammann

As I understand this adjustable front end it is simply pinned in a different position from a stock beam. I have never seen a stock beam, but surely it has a pin in the center of it to keep the torsion bars from rotating completely around just like the adjustable one does. By simply rotating the torsion bars slightly should not completely stop them from twisting. Last night I adjusted the front end up as high as I could turn the Allen-Head screws. There were some more threads left but it looked like I couldn't push the adjustment up anymore (really hard to turn). This raised the car up an inch. I thought it would adjust up higher. Anyway, the same thing happened. I jumped on the front and it wouldn't budge.

Reply to
djdammann

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