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How Low Can You Go?
by Alexander Niederfarenhorst
Apr 22, 2003 Overview If you think of lowering the front of your standard bug you had two options so far: You could get an adjustable beam or use dropped spindles. Now there is a third option....Red9Design's Coilover kit for Ball Joint front suspension. Considering the cost of buying an adjustable beam and shocks or getting dropped spindles from CB with a pair of shocks 450$ USD does not sound bad for the coilover kit from Red9Design. As you can see, the kit includes 2 coilovers and 2 rod inserts to replace the torsion leaves. The shock is adjustable thru a knob. The kit Red9Design kit evolved from the Legend Motorworks kit. Some problems were reported with the Legend kit and the company went out of business. Procedure The installation is straight forward. You remove the trailing arms and loosen the middle bolt that holds the torsion leaves from coming out of the housing. You insert the replacement rods that have the swivel ends and tighten the middle bolt on the beam. Make sure the bolt sinks into the little hole in the rod to make sure the rod is not moving side wards and that it is centered. After that is done grease the bearings. I also oiled the swivel ends to make sure they move freely. Bolt on the trailing arms again with the spindles and mount the shock. WOW, you are Done! Simon from Red9Design told me that there was a small problem with the early swivel ends on the Bus kit. They were replaced by stainless steel ones which solved the problem. He also mentioned that they had no problems with the bug kit but the swivel ends were also replaced on those kits. Some said that the top shock tower mount would be too weak but then VW offroaders use those kits without any extra bracing to the mount. They suggested seam welding the tower. I can not tell you how it handles yet but some members of the forum said that they handle quite well and that braking is improved because of a better tire contact to the street. There is less bounce of the wheel so the front does not lock up that fast. As soon as the car is on the road I will update the article on how the kit handles on the road. Simon can be reached at info@red9design.co.uk. You can also check out their website at www.red9design.co.uk.
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red 9, shocks, suspension |
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