Thread: Bump steer kit
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Old January 17th 2013, 10:37
Tine Tine is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 4
It has been about a year since i made this modification to my '74 2 bolt 1303, and a full season later i can say that it works and is roadworthy.

As i lowered my superbeetle with kerscher adjustable coilovers, i had experienced a lot of bump steer and some contact between control arms and rack&pinion; steering rods and chassis aswell. also, as i looked all over the internet people were unable to use steering rod flip-it kits with 2-bolters because of interference between steering rods and sway bar in some positions.

As i was not happy with the minimum height of my vehicle while still maintaining some of the suspension travel, i looked into possible solutions. I came up with custom made, longer ball joints and use of standard flip-it kit, which was now possible. The neck of ball joint is longer by 20mm, which is just enough that keeps the arms from bottoming out, steering rods from touching sway bar in any position and helps to form proper geometry when combined with the flip-it kit.

This is what it looks like, compared to stock ball joint:



Here it is, mounted:



This is the closest possible position of the steering rod and sway bar



The steering rod and control arms are virtually parallel, which eliminates most of the bump steer



Here is the height of the car, could still go lower for shows:




So after a year of everyday usage, i can say that this solution works great; i could also install shorter bumpstops on the coilovers to further extend the suspension travel. Since these modifications has been made, i have never experienced any bottoming out.

If anyone is interested, i could probably arrange manufacturing of some additional sets of these ball joints, the price for a pair would be in the ballpark of 100 eur + p&p; probably a little less when group buy could be organised. Contact me at email: tine.wolf [at] amis.net .

Cheers,

Tine

Last edited by Tine; January 18th 2013 at 04:50. Reason: tie rod - ball joint mixup ;)
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