Super Beetle single A arm front suspension.

[The Pirate]

Ok here are some pictures.

A arms -1982 Audi 4000 A arms with mounting bolts.

Ball joints -are bolt in, same size and length of the Porsche 944 ball joints.
The ball joints are cheap even for quality ones. About $30.00 US each.

The beetel strut can easily be modified to have the camber adjustment on the top mounting bolt to the spindel like the 944 Porsche. all you need to modify it is a round file and some time and work.

Now all I have to do is figure where exactly to mount the arm and fab the mounts. The hardest part is the precise position. I am guessing I want to position the A arm so the camber adjustment is right in the middle. That way I will have adjustment either up or down. To find that I will need to keep the face of the spindel 90 degrees to the ground. I also will need to find a way to simulate the way the suspension will behave with the cars empty weight.

hmmm

The A arms are shown roughly where they will need to be to match where the beetle ball joint ends end. About 21 inches from the center of the mount on the frame to the center of the ball joint. I will be leaving the orignal mounts so If i ever want to change back I will be able to.

[The Pirate]

Ok so now here is the basic plan for the way to mount these. In the following picture the solid black bar represents a peice of heafty tubular steel that will be welded in place on this tubular steel there are mounting points welded on. I left those uncolored to show the joints. Finaly for a bit of added strength and just to give them something to do a third member bolts from the old mount point to the tubular steel. I may be able to make tha whole rig bolt on but I doubt it.

The arms them selves are remarkably light considering the front end weight of the car they came off of. The great thing about this approach is that it stays completely out of the way of the master cylinder. Hmm power brakes now maybe?

[alt+f4]

Since you have the same spindle mounting area but are moving the main pivot out wards that will effect you roll center. With the pivot being that much closer to where the strut is centered you might not get enough neg camber gain under compressiion durring high g cornering.


with your software you have try to set it up to get your roll center as close as or below the ground as possible. and just as a guid line try to get the virtual pivot to the opposite wheel on the outside of the center of the wheel.

[The Pirate]

Ok thanks for the tip.

[volkdent]

What sort of steering rack changes have you made to compensate for the change in lower pivot point for the control arms?

Jason

[The Pirate]

So far I have made none. As it stands the free program I got refuses to unzip so I trashed it. Going to purchase some new software.

I have been working it out on paper for now. Took a ton of measurements ect ect.

The pivot points aren't so much lower as they are farther out. From what I am seeing so far the roll centes will not move to much out of their original planes. The spindle and ball joint are still in the same locations and thus far see no conflict with the rack at all. Everthing looks like it will clear at full drop and at full compression along with all increments in between.

Will have some pics of the drawings up soon.

[volkdent]

The inner pivots on the tie rods will have to be moved out accordingly then. You will have bump steer issues otherwise.

Jason

[The Pirate]

Hmmm. A conflict has come up. I built the suspension in mock up with all the parts and the tie rods bump at one point. going to have to redesign a little. I will have revised plans up later this week or early next week. Plus I have found a way to make it a bolt on mod with just a little welding of reforcement plates and capture nuts ecet...

[volkdent]

Is it going to look like this when you are done?





Found these on this site, linked from http://www.beetspeedengines.nl/hoofd_frameset_1.htm posted by Jeza


Jason

[The Pirate]

Sort of but not exactly. I do like the soloution for the sway bar though. Iwill try to get a diagram up at some point. Thanks for the input!

[The Pirate]

So my current question is refering to the picture posted above: What is the part used to attatch the sway bar to the A arm? What is it called and where can one be obtained? Plus what type of ball joint is being used? Where can one get a ball joint like that? I am currently looking into refining a few things in my basic design and I want to explore some more options.

[ricola]

Alex has put 944 A arms on his strut converted ghia (the white French oe on here that is being converted to G50 and 993 flat 6). Maybe he can share some info on here too? I saw some pics on his build thread on german-spirit.
Rich