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Greeting

Back in Maine for August. Brought the Speedster again. Beautiful summer driving here.
I’ve found a garage that has agreed to check my front alignment, check camber and toe in on the rear and balance all the tires. I told the mechanic to follow 1972 VW specs.  
The car has a distinctive “bump” at slow speeds. Very regular. Disappears after about 15MPH but returns with a vengience at 60MPH. Can’t drive much faster than 70. Mechanic said he could check for an imperfect wheel or rim while balancing.  The rear tires, particularly the right rear is wearing very badly.  And I only have 6K on these tires  

Any advice on anything else I might ask him to look at would be much appreciated.  

16ABA843-1555-4628-8C77-D0A3CE3821C3

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To heck with the car.

I want that cottage!

@Marshall check out that other link that Dave Lear mentioned up above - All you need to know about caster shims and why you need them.

So tell the alignment tech to set it up as a 1970 - 1972 front beam/non-Macpherson-strut VW Sedan front end and use the caster shims for 5º - 7º of front caster and you'll be fine.  You may have the shims in the car already, but I'll guarantee that he won't have any at the shop if you need them.  Get them from CB Performance, or small lengths of the right ID pipe will do in a pinch.

Get two sets to be safe, and a pair of longer mounting bolts, too (they're cheap).

https://www.cbperformance.com/...ter+shim&Submit=

@Sacto Mitch posted:

.@dlearl476 , you can retain your account here but change the displayed screen name.

'David among friends' would be a great screen name.

Anyone reading one of your posts for the first time would know how to address you and they would know right off that you aren't an axe murderer, a used car salesman, or an attorney.

... even better would be your name. If you like "D. L. Earl", that works. "Dave Earl" works. "David Earl" works. "David L. Earl" works.

In the unlikely event that my name was Mitch Toll, and I looked like this:

Mitch [1)

I'd sign off "Mitchell Toll, esq."

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Your advice is noted. I am willing to change the cheap tires I have on the car now with the better ones that start with V. Can’t remember the name. Before I do that I need to check that the rims aren’t bent and the balance is good. Thanks. Forget the shims they seem like they are more for track racers which I am far from.

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@Marshall posted:
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...Forget the shims they seem like they are more for track racers which I am far from...



Marshall, on our cars, the extra caster shims are not some kandy kolored tangerine flake racer Dan hot dog option.

They might save your life some day.

The Speedster front end is lowered somewhat from the standard Beetle setup and this lowering reduces some of the natural self-centering that was designed into the Beetle's stock steering geometry.

The result is that, without the shims, Speedster steering doesn't self-center as well as most cars and is easily knocked off-course by sharp bumps (the dreaded 'bump steer').

Shims are a good thing and perfectly respectable. You can discuss them openly in mixed company without fear of embarrassment.

.

Last edited by Sacto Mitch
@Sacto Mitch posted:

.Marshall, on our cars, the extra caster shims are not some kandy kolored tangerine flake racer Dan hot dog option.

They might save your life some day.

The Speedster front end is lowered somewhat from the standard Beetle setup and this lowering reduces some of the natural self-centering that was designed into the Beetle's stock steering geometry.

The result is that, without the shims, Speedster steering doesn't self-center as well as most cars and is easily knocked off-course by sharp bumps (the dreaded 'bump steer').

Shims are a good thing and perfectly respectable. You can discuss them openly in mixed company without fear of embarrassment..

... and as a matter of fact, if you were Dan the Hot Dog Racer Man, you'd probably run less caster than in a GT car meant for cruising.

@Marshall posted:

... Forget the shims they seem like they are more for track racers which I am far from.

Those extra shims are for your safety and may save your life.  Depending on how the car is lowered the front could have so little caster that it isn't safe even at highway speeds.  I wrote this in another thread just a few days ago-

  "As previously said, caster should be 5° or a little more.  We can learn a little from Porsche here- 356 front beams are welded in with 5° caster, which gives predictable handling at higher speeds.  VW specced about 2½° caster, which made parking lot maneuvering easy for 100 lb ladies and gave acceptable handling at 60 mph, but pushing it any higher can get you into real trouble.  Mishaps at these speeds can be kind of final, hence the shims under the front beam."

Please give this the attention it deserves- we're all concerned for a very good reason.

Using the beam adjuster(s) to raise up the front end changes the angle of the trailing arms and does add back caster @Marshall, but how much (per inch raised) I don't know.  How much higher is the front now?

When I first built my Cal Look bug back in 1976/'77 I knew nothing about caster, and lowered the front of the car with a Select-a-drop (same idea as a beam adjuster- it twists the center collar of the top beam so it's adjustable) and 135-15's (23¼" tall).  With the centers of the headlights measuring 19½" off the ground (stock is 24") the steering was 'somewhat darty or twitchy' at 55-60 mph (you were constantly over-correcting as the front end just wanted to 'wander' on it's own) and at 87-89 mph (trap speed through the lights- I bracket raced the car 3-4 times a season for 4 or 5 years) it was truly a handful to keep in the lane.  Being young and foolish, one time coming back home alone from skiing from Whistler, let it all out down this long hill- I wanted to see how fast my beast would actually go.  At over 100 mph (was only there for a few seconds) it felt pretty uncontrollable, the car got hit by a side gust and before I could react I was in the middle of the opposing lane.  Fortunately there was no opposing traffic and I'm still alive to tell the story.

Anyway- got the car back in the proper lane, pulled over, cleaned off the seat and took a walk around the car to settle down and wondered the rest of the way home why something I had so lovingly built would try to kill me.  I started asking questions and not long after had a pair of Berg's thicker caster wedges under the bottom beam.

Why we're so concerned- depending on how your Speedster is set up it could be outright dangerous at only a few mph over legal highway speeds, and it can all go wrong in the blink of an eye.

Last edited by ALB
@Marshall posted:

I am willing to change the cheap tires I have on the car now with the better ones that start with V.

Those would be Vredesteins. My Speedster wore Vredestein Sprint Classics and I ran 18020psi in the front and 22-24psi in the rears. It really helped soften the ride in the front, improved grip, and the rears were firmly planted without being too soft.

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