Front Coil overs
 

Hi All, new to the site which I think is great. I am after some info as to how to run coil overs on a beetle torsion ball joint front end. I am presently building a track car but want to run coil overs and Iam unsure on the easiest way to remove or replace the torsion leaves to run the coil overs while still retaining the control arms. Has anybody here done it, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Mike

Probably easiest to use the red9 coil-over conversion kit...

you need to mod your beam with a set of weld in adjusters, then leave them loose,

Thanks, the kit sounds great, I had a look at the site, but I already have very good shocks so the kit would not be worth it, also a little worried as to how the replacement swivel bar would cope on the race track. If I were to leave the adjusters loose, torsions would still effect the control arms as they would be still be connected as one and therefore not allow free independent movement. Any other options Cheers

torsions would act as anti-roll bars

If you left the centres of the leaves loose they would not be located laterally and move about. The seals at the end of the tubes are just grease seals and would not give any support.
You could just buy the link rods (a friend bought them on their own, not as a full kit)

Rich

Thanks Ricola, I'll email them and find out the cost to get to Australia. Would you consider the bar strong enough to cope with the race track? Mike

The only applications I personally know are friends running these bars in kit cars where the front end is significantly lighter than a beetle so I don't know how strong they are, probably best to ask Red9.
However, what is your ultimate aim, if it is to stiffen up the front end, why not just use softer springs while keeping the torsion leaves in place?
Rich

bit of both
 

on my front end i used the original torsion leaves on the top and on the bottom arms i made some steel covers instead of the pressed tin ones on the torsion arms and ran a 14mm rod screwed on the ends between the two sides with nylock nuts .I felt happier doing it this way because all the weight of the front end of the car is still distributed between top and bottom arms as opposed to just the bottom arms on a red 9 kit . The big plus for me was i already had the coilovers so it cost me the price of a lenght of screwed bar,i custom made my steel covers but some large washers would work just as well
hope this is of some use
cheers jon

can you give us a step by step instruction and some pictures how you did it please mate.:)

I would also be very interested in this work. I am building a 'trackable' front end at the moment and would like to know (other then the red9 stuff) what people are running for coilovers / front end mods...

thanks!