Adjust Caster on a 1303 74'

[Hummel]

Helle fellow vw lovers.

So, I getting a little tired of my handling on my 1303.

It's lowered with adjustable KW struts in front and urethane bushings and a HD sway bar.

Last year I got it aligned at a shop and seems to remember that the caster angle was different side to side. I don't have the specs from that anymore.

But my question is how would you guys recommend that I adjust the caster ? In my head there is 3 options:

Machine the bushings in the lower control arm down so the sway bar will pull the control arm longer forward and that way get more caster.

Moved the front bushing the sway bar is attached to the body in, and that way pull everything longer forward.

downside of these to option would be that the wheel will be moved a lot in the fender and maybe hit the fender, also bad if one side need more than the other.

Last option would be to sliced the mounting holes for the top bearing of the strut, this would not moved the wheel to much.

And off curse how much caster should I go for ? I want good high speed stability.

Thank for the help.

Tommy Hummel

[Chris V]

Caster value will be unique to the car, five degrees is probably plenty...Mac strut cars are normally equipped with these upper bearing plates for adjustment:

http://www.k-mac.com/pages/newprods/vw/vw.htm

http://richtuningsystems.com/product_in ... cts_id=130

Gauge:
http://www.joesracing.com/index.php?dis ... ct_id=1177

[Piledriver]

They sell "lowered" sway bars for this purpose, setup is corrected to fix the lowered caster issue.
(may also have an extra bend for clearing something, been years since I looked at one)

Your custom swaybar bushings alone may work fine.
(may be all the "lowered swaybar" is)

Superbeetlesonly website will have detailed how-to I'm sure.

[Marc]

Any of the methods you're considering will have effect, but unless the chassis has a major rake to it you should be able to get enough without major surgery. IIRC the stock caster is around 2°, and I doubt that you'll want more than about 6°.
If both the front and rear are lowered by the same amount there is no caster loss, so another "fix" would be to lower the rear.

Topline sells the offset bushings for both the stock 19mm bar and aftermarket 7/8" bars; they claim that they'll correct for the caster lost by up to a 2" drop.
They offer a 7/8" bar which is shorter than the stocker and purported to work at 1½-3" drop.
Combine the "lowered" bar and the offset 7/8" bushings and you should be good at around 4".
(The above estimations assume that the rear ride height is untouched)

[Jadewombat]

Helle fellow vw lovers.

Moved the front bushing the sway bar is attached to the body in, and that way pull everything longer forward.

downside of these to option would be that the wheel will be moved a lot in the fender and maybe hit the fender, also bad if one side need more than the other.

Last option would be to sliced the mounting holes for the top bearing of the strut, this would not moved the wheel to much.


Tommy Hummel

I went with both of these options, the good part about having and adjustable top mount is that it's adjustable. I was told that the orientation of the strut tops is not perpendicular to the chassis so be aware that there are camber changes also. I didn't need to get that exact with my adjustments, but anyhoo.

http://www.germanlook.net/forums/showthread.php?t=10554