Porsche 944T brakes on VW 1303S

[TZepeSH]

News! I installed the rear arms and brakes, and test fitted the tow bar and rear stabilizer, to see how it fits.
I had to make some computations for angle, as the car was not horizontal. The unloaded angle is 16 degrees, as for 23.5mm torsion bars. It sits nice and flat on wheels.

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I have interference issues between tow bar and rear stabilizer. In the normal position it hits and position of the bushings is too much to the back at the lower connection point.

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But all seems well with the stabilizer upside down. Any problem with mounting it in reverse?

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[66brm]

Apart from the loss of ground clearance, no problem

[TZepeSH]

Thank you for your feedback!
Well, I'm losing the ground clearance from the tow bar anyway. It will even be protected by the tow bar.

[Bruce.m]

The bushings clamp on the last section before the bend for the legs. So upside down lifts it up and the clearance to the forks is very tight. Unless you drop the mounting points. What are you using to mount the bar? Stock 944 classic mounts or kerscher brackets or homemade

[TZepeSH]

Home made brackets (out of the 944 brackets).

[TZepeSH]

News! Very good news! I received the Kerscher front struts and mounted the front brakes. With 21mm spacers so the wheels will not hit the calipers, they still fit under fenders. I like the design of the struts, they have elongated holes for spindle mount, so the camber can be adjusted properly (without Topline Camber+ special bushings). Now I have to set the ride height and all wheel angles, finish electrics and it's good to go for summer. Please ignore the sorry state of the body, it is planned for autumn for a complete rebuild.

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[TZepeSH]

What is the scrub angle or strut angle and scrub area for a 74 1303? I'm trying to make some diagrams and see how I have to change my setup to be closer to stock angles and improve the handling/steering (change the ET of the wheels mainly). Also, what is the ET of the stock wheels (either 4.5J or 5.5J)?

[Bruce2]

I think the 1303 suspension was the prompting for 34mm ET on the 4½" wheels.

[Slow 1200]

74 would be the first year for the negative radius steering, my documentation says 4.5J ET 41 for stock rims and 5.5J ET26 (!) for the sports wheels, front track 1394mm and 1407mm respectively

for comparison the 73 1303 is listed as 4.5J ET34 wheels like Bruce was saying, 1387mm track with drums, 1391mm with disks

[TZepeSH]

Thank you! That is the first piece of the puzzle. Now to find the strut angle...

[Piledriver]

If memory serves a mk1 golf strut assy is ~same angle, strut is shorter.

II have recently been looking for the cheap adjustable struts fot mk1s, appears you have to buy a full setup now.

[H2OSB]

Pile--

I made coilovers for one of my 1303s using Ebay coilovers meant for a VW Caddy(Rabbit pickup). They are Raceland brand, and TUV approved(well, for the Caddy). I swapped out the inserts and bought 120# springs from summit racing. The housings are a beautifully made threaded body with a slotted top hole for camber adjustment.

I will say, finding inserts was not as easy as you would think, but they had to be replaced because these coilovers were intended to lower a Caddy, and thus were shortened, which was way too low for a 1303.

The strut bodies have the internally threaded cap, so I had to try 4 differet brands of insert from Rock Auto before I found an insert that allowed the cap to screw down and engage enough threads for me to feel it was safe. I settled on a brand called Sen-Sen which I'd never heard of before. But has held up well for going on two years now. The inserts were simply typical Rabbit non-performance replacements.

The springs are 12 inch long, 2.5 inch I.D. linear coils. Any 2.5 I.D. spring from 10 to 14 inches long would fit. Back when Topline was developing their Maxx struts I got in an argument with Jon, the owner(ok, let's say heated discussion) about spring rates. He insisted anything above 80# would make a Super Beetle ride like a pogo stick. I felt performance driving required much higher rates. I will say the 120# I have in BOTH of my 1303s make the cars handle superbly. I've autocrossed the car with the struts I've described above. The suspension feels sporty/firm, but never punishing or harsh.

Super Beetle upper strut mounts bolt of with no issues, regardless if they're early or late (my '73 came with the earlier suspension but I swapped to the later suspension so I could use Rabbit/Golf based strut housings for coilover, however I'd forgotten the car would have the early style upper mount and initially bought late mounts, thus both style were tried in the coilovers).

I apologize for the hijack.
H2OSB

P.S. Wow upon rereading I see I should have read more carefully, all that and Pile was actually looking for A1 struts.

[Piledriver]

I confess to owning an 86 Cabriolet....
I want to level out the sag on the drivers side from my lard ass, std springs are fine.
If all else fails a1 performance sells "strut" siszd threaded spring perch bits I used on the Fox 2.0 "Truck" shocks I have on the rear of the square.(home converted to take apart and revalved)
85+ Cabs etc are the mythical rust free mk1s, due to their galvanized sheetmetal.

[H2OSB]

Can't argue with the desire to own a rust free VW.

At any rate, those Raceland coilovers would work for your car, but I do recommend reworking them a bit. The springs that came on them were 400 pounders. Unfortunately, I've been far too long out of the watercooled VW game, so I have no idea what a good spring rate is for the watercooled cars. Also, the inserts are shortened about 2 inches.

The only thing good with those coilovers is the housings, and they are very good. They make an outstanding starting point for a custom set up.

If you haven't already figured out why I went with a Caddy set, it's because Caddys have rear leaf springs so I didn't have to pay for any rear suspension parts(although they do have Caddy sets that come with rear shocks).

H2OSB

[Piledriver]

The weight distribition of a cabby/caddy/gplf is just about perfectly backwards from a acvw, so 400ft/150-200 rear is probably a decent AX setup.
Biggest problem is the need for a 2" raised spindle to balljoint for geometry.
(looks like the welded in setup is best.)
My car is at stock height with Bilstein sport inserts and the front arms are already below parallel.(=bad geometry)

The reason this discussion matters here is late Supers have the same issue with geomery esp. if lowered.

The mk1 strus were used as lowering struts in late supers, about 2" shorter from memory.