[T3] Alignment

Daniel Nohejl d.nohejl at gmail.com
Sun Dec 11 12:40:07 PST 2016


Ok, so I finally got around to getting the front and rear ends of the car measured. I brought it by a shop we’ve used in the past and they kindly did the measurements for free. Of course I don’t have any factory numbers to compare them to (if anyone finds them, I’m still interested!!) but at least we have a general sense of things. The front is even: from the ground to the top of the wheel well is 26” on both sides. The rear is a different story: from the ground to the top of the wheel well is 24.25” on the left and 23.75” on the right. Again, I don’t know what they’re supposed to be, but the right is clearly .5” lower than the left. If anyone recalls, the right rear tire looked like this:

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1572782.jpg

Perhaps being .5” lower on the right has thrown off the camber just enough that the tire wore that much worse and more quickly than all the others?


Daniel






> On Nov 26, 2016, at 6:04 PM, Daniel Nohejl <d.nohejl at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> This detailed technical analysis would be interesting to see. Then, I could take a simple measurement and see how out of spec I am. To be fair, it looks like I’m even side to side but my tire wear doesn’t really support the fact that nothing is wrong.
> 
> I talked to two shops in the last few days…..VW repair places, not alignment shops. The first one hasn’t dealt with Type 3 suspension in many many years but they said they’d “take a look” if I wanted, which wasn’t very encouraging.  The other shop works on all kinds of ACVW’s all the time but they were of the opinion that even just measuring (let alone reindexing) the torsion arms is such a pain in the butt (and so expensive if paying them to do it) that it’s more worthwhile to install adjustable spring plates in the rear like racing and off-road folks do. That way, rear ride height and camber can be more or less simply adjusted. Anyone have any experience with adjustable spring plates?
> 
> Daniel
> 
>> On Nov 25, 2016, at 5:56 PM, Dave Hall <dave at hallvw.clara.co.uk <mailto:dave at hallvw.clara.co.uk>> wrote:
>> 
>> I have a detailed technical analysis of a 1969 Auto Fastback that was produced for the motor industry. 
>> I'm away from home for a few days, but Jim, John and Bob have copies on CD. Maybe someone could take a look and see if a dimension is available to confirm factory ride height. Ground clearance might be shown eg.
>> Dave
>> UK VW Type 3 and 4 Club.
>> -----------------------------
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: "William J" <catnine09 at dslextreme.com <mailto:catnine09 at dslextreme.com>>
>> Sent: ‎25/‎11/‎2016 21:27
>> To: "type3 at vwtype3.org <mailto:type3 at vwtype3.org>" <type3 at vwtype3.org <mailto:type3 at vwtype3.org>>
>> Subject: Re: [T3] Alignment
>> 
>> Isn't there anyone out there witha 69 SB that can at least measure the 
>> height  from  say the top of the rear fender from the lip top center to the 
>> floor which seems to be what Daniel is asking for .
>> 
>> Fingers and hands all differ and are not very precise. I have a 73 and know 
>> the rear fenders are different or I'd check mine. I never checked mine when 
>> I got to compare to now , who does ? Besides that when I have a load of 
>> groceries in the back it seems like it is still the same without the load 
>> yet I never checked it. Or perhaps measure the side moldings to ground at a 
>> point near the rear. Isn't possible to have the ride height proper unloaded 
>> yet to low with X amount of weight , it's not like the torsion bars aren't 
>> weak after years and may drop more at some point than when new.
>> 
>> There has to be some spec out there in some book someone has, at least I 
>> would think so.
>> 
>> William
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Jim Adney" <jadney at vwtype3.org <mailto:jadney at vwtype3.org>>
>> To: <type3 at vwtype3.org <mailto:type3 at vwtype3.org>>
>> Sent: Friday, November 25, 2016 5:41 AM
>> Subject: Re: [T3] Alignment
>> 
>> 
>> On 24 Nov 2016 at 14:36, Daniel Nohejl wrote:
>> 
>>> Rather than just eyeing it up, is there a measurement one can take to see 
>>> if the rear is sagging too low and then if it´s even side-to-side? Like a 
>>> measurement from the apex of the curve of the outside of the wheel well to 
>>> the ground or something?
>> 
>> Place your fingertips on the top of the tire. The wheel arch should
>> be pressing gently on the back of your hand if you have stock tires.
>> This is a bit of a judgment call, but at least it makes it easy to
>> judge side-to-side differences.
>> 
>> -- 
>> *******************************
>> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org <mailto:jadney at vwtype3.org>
>> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
>> *******************************
>> 
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