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how do you adjust height on the rear of a 1970 vw beetle, the left side seems lower and wheel is canted in at top

 

[2013Tdi]

http://volkswagenownersclub.com/vw/showthread.php/121273-rear-suspension-1970-vw-beetle

 

[John G]

This thread may be too old, but did it ever have a solution? Nothing came of the link above.

 

[67bug]

John G, can you describe your problem or query? Is your car a swing axle or IRS setup? Just want to raise it or lower it or some other problem?

 

[John G]

My Beetle has a negative camber when the car has no load. It has been this way for the 40 years I have owned it. I removed the body and added a fiberglas kit, so the car is much lighter than it was originally, but still toes inward at the top of the tires, and toes outward at the bottom. It is a '69, with IRS suspension. Is there a way to adjust the suspension to return it to normal?

 

[67bug]

In front of the rear wheels are plates with four bolts. The spring plates mount there. Behind the plates are the torsion bars that hold up the rear of the car. They are splined. There is a process to determine, for the height desired, what angle the spring plates should be set to. You need a magnetic angle gauge to figure out what they are now and what you want them to be. The process requires you to mark the torsion bars and spring plates, remove the spring plates and/or torsion bars and turn them usually one notch or so. Read up on this process carefully before doing any work and document exactly how many teeth/notchs you move anything. A little goes a long way. The teeth on the torsion bar are different at each end so that you can move the spring plate one way and the torsion bar the opposite way to get smaller angle changes. There should be plenty of videos on this process. Many people use the old VW jacks to pull the spring plate back up into position to get it back on the torsion bar. Make sure you have something like this before you start.

 

[John G]

Wow. Thanks so much for the detailed information. I will begin looking at videos about the process and, hopefully, make some changes to improve the camber. It's always a learning process.