Exess toe out with 944 alloy arms
 

Hi

As the title says I'm having issue with excess toe out on the rear with early 944 alloy arms. I have the arms pushed as far forward as I can in the spring plate, the spring plate end (as in rear most portion) is now is touching the arm.

I searched and I couldn't find anybody else with this issue.

Steve

Have you tried swapping the washers/spacers around at the pivot bushing? I have both of them on inside (frame horn side) to get better alignment with spring plates.

Funny you should mention that as I have probably the same problem, but then with alu arms!
It showed up at the alignment job and the main reason one side is not optimally done at the moment... It started after I used heim joints (sp?) for the inner pivots (and bushed the outers with elephant racing brass/urathan)

Only remedy is taking the spring plate off, filing the holes further and have another alignment. Not a fun job and I have put it off for most of last season...

Hi

I had the same issue with my 1303 daily driver/sons car, it has steel 944 arms and the very end of the spring plate touches the trailing arm, its only slightly toeing out and only showed up at the alignment shop, Im going to take a bit of the end of the spring plate to correct this.

On my other 1303 which is using 1986 alloy arms the toe out is very noticeable to the naked eye, moving the trailing arms any more forward could cause the wheel to be too far forward in the arch.

Good idea wrenchnride I will try moving the washers to the inside.

Steve

I set one side with both shims/washers on the OUTSIDE, and the other with both on INSIDE (frame horn side). Looking at the pix you can see the springplate flexing bad on the side with them on the outside. The other is not flexing as much.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g3...0.jpg~original

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g3...1.jpg~original

Hi

I've been thinking about moving the shims to inside, I think it would make my issue worse, it would give even more toe out.

Steve

It was just a thought. You can see from the pix why I moved the spacers. Haven't done alignment yet to see where I stand.

to me it would make sense to go shims inside, bolted to the spring plate as far back in the slots you could OR
shims to the outside & bolts thru springplate all the way forward, havent played with them yet myself but going on rough geometry/physics that makes sense, ive been doing stuff to align doors at works thats similar, up to go down, in to go out & such, good luck steve, hope its all approved soon enough too, you have motivated me to get stuck into mine as much as i can for aussie day too, starting with a HUGE garage clean/organise from the 1000 odd jobs for other people thats left a mess! best get back to it hey

Trailing arms
 

Hi, I have two set of the Aluminum trailing arms. But if using them will open another problem, I don't see why I should. The backing plate for the 944 caliper and disc setup will attach to the steel IRS trailing arm. So please what's the advantage again in choosing them?

Also can someone show the toe out condition for a point of view where is shows the most?
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k9...t.jpg~original

To add more track. Also more room for wider wheels without hitting spring plates. Thats my reason anyway :)

Track
 

Good morning, on the picture I posted those cookie cutters I had turned and removed the outter rim. I had the guy re-position the offset of the rim, in order for the 10 rim and tires not hit the trailing arms. Although I had to have 4 inch extra wide fender to do it, it added track. So is anyone happy with their fix?
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k9...1.jpg~original

i seem to be having the same toe problem with my alu arms :lol: think i will be having a play with the inner pivot spacers. i currently have them both on the outside!

Be careful, if you set both spacers on the inside,(and have red urethane buushings) the bushing will come off. Don't ask me how I know :P
I also tried both spacers on the outside, (I think this is what the manual says) and the bushing also came out a few mm's but stopped inside that "cage".
Right now I run one shim on the inside and one on the outside and it looks good.

About the toe-out problem, I don't seem to have it at all... actually the setting I run now, was done as a trial, to see how much toe-in + camber I can get, and I can say it's visible with the naked eye, so it's alot! (mostly the toe-in, not the camber).
Can this be super - non super beetle related maybe?

Hi

Thanks for everyones thoughts.

I have been thinking about ways to overcome this issue.

I fitted alloy arms for a number of reasons, I've moved my motor forward 100 mm, using alloy arms I have to use longer axles, this cuts down the CV angle.

Marco on Shoptalk has come up with some adjustable inner pivot bushes to overcome excessive camber on lowered cars, I think I could use this idea but instead of gaining camber I could use them to move the pivot point for more toe in.

The other idea was to take a bit of the alloy arm on the inside pivot and shorten the urethane bush as well, this would turn the pivots inwards giving more toe in.

Its hard to photograph the problem, you can get an idea hopefully. I have attached 2 of Marcos photos from Shoptalk

Steve

100mm forward
 

one inch equals 25.44mm, which is to say 100mm a little short of 4 inches forward. :o wow have you completed this part of your project yet? The reason for my inquiry is due to having 3 Super Beetles. I've been toying with the ideal of using a SVX Subaru engine in one of the three. I believe the four inches will allow me to have everything under to hood. I have the core SVX engine and the adapter plate. I may even connect it to a automatic transmission. Would you please keep me posted as to your updates. At present I have just had shoulder surgery and can't do any lifting of the adapter plate to the trans axle.