69 Ghia "twitchy" at highway speed

[Jims69]

Hi everyone,

New to the site but have been studying a lot of great posts.

I just drove my 69 Ghia home and noticed while crusing down the highway that the car would feel "twitchy" for lact of a better word. Like being blown by a sudden gust of wind from time to time, but it wasent windy outside. I was also suprised by how loud the interior noise was. Could not here the stereo unless stopped at a light.

The car was lowered 2" and has a narrowed front beam.

Are these normal characteristicts of a Ghia?

[Greg Rickard]

Welcome to the site!

The twitchiness could be due to a few things on your car, including narrowed beam, tire tread, condition of pavement, alignment, tire pressure, condition of steering box, for example. My '71 is now reasonably stable at 70 mph, but it was seriously twitchy at one time. I spent time dialing in the alignment, steering, and suspension to get it sorted out.

Ghias do not have any sound insulation to speak of and can be a bit noisy at highway speed. The noise factor could be increased depending on the type of exhaust you are running. My Ghia has a Monza style exhaust; I am switching to a quiet pak exhaust to lower the exhaust noise factor.

[Jims69]

Thank You for the Great info. Greg!

[Ol'fogasaurus]

If its lowered too much, its possible that you might need some caster shims on the beam.

Lee

[Jims69]

Hi Lee

I remember reading in VW Beatle Performance by Kieth Seume something about adding shims to the lower beam to increase caster angle. When I get a chance I will look to see how the lower beam is bolted up.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Need some quick help here guys; I seem to remember that when a bug/Ghia is sitting level, using a angle gage, the beam sits at an angle of something like 6*, does that sound right? If so, would could Jims69 use an angle finder and look for 6 degrees of angle on the beam of a tilted Ghia also and would this tell him that he might need to add the shims. Again, I am guessing at the angle as I am not sure. If so, it would this be a quick and rough check to see if the caster was off; e.g., too shallow?

I went out and measured the frame head on my buggy and got a rough measurement of somewhere between 4 and 6 degrees on the mounting face (I had too much stuff in the way so it was an inaccurare measurement). Not an accurate check but close... maybe.

Lee

[Piledriver]

Welcome to the STF!

I don't know how long you've been doing Aircooleds, tire pressure was mentioned, but just in case---

~17psi front tires, 28 psi back.
(YMMV depending on tire sizes)

Any bug/ghia/t3/Thing needs ~that pressure spread or it will have really light steering and a desire to swap ends at speed. (due to the ~30/70 rear weight bias)

Anyone coming from "normal" cars would never think of it.
Tire shops usually put 35 PSI on all 4 corners, which makes for ...really interesting handling.
(Esp. so if you have them rotated and they DON'T check the pressure)

If there's any slop in the front end/bearings esp if you have wider tires it will want to follow rain grooves and so on.

If she's "new to you', I strongly suggest you approach it like it has had zero maintenance since leaving Germany, unless it was a 100% documented ~20K restoration, and even then I would still go through the usual new to you car inspection/service routine, as things go bad just sitting around...

...Particularly modern gasolines and rubber, esp when they get together, turn into garbage quickly, see the threads on what not to do etc.

If YOU didn't replace it, assume it's ~40 years old. (all brake hoses, brake hydraulics, fuel lines (with SAE30R9 EFI hose and matching EFI clamps, the usual stuff can die in <a year with the ethanol and other stuff in the fuel these days))

Ghias are a blast, wish I still had my 64.

[Jims69]

Wow!

What a lot of Great Information!

Thank You Guys, I have my work cut out for me.