what about AC Vw spindles?

Building and tuning discussions about the suspension, shoes, brakes and steering system of your locost.

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southysuper

what about AC Vw spindles?

Post by southysuper »

I've seen where a guy used a complete Link pin front beam from a beetle to build his locost, but I was wondering about using just the spindles from an old aircooled beetle.Image

They can be found in stock, aluminum, raised, lowered, just roller spindle, etc. These just seem like they might be a good, readily available, and cheap psindle, they are pretty light too.

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mr.peabody.d
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Post by mr.peabody.d »

Sorry to question your question...but...

What brakes fit them?
Will they accept aftermarket brakes?
What lug patterns would you need to use? 4 bolt? 5 bolt?

Sorry, I have limited experience with bug/beetle parts.
southysuper

Post by southysuper »

The disk brakes come in standard 4/5 130 VW/Porsche bolt pattern, but 4/5 100, 4/5 114 can also be ordered at the same price. They can also be ordered in drilled and/or slotted format. Hope this helps
chetcpo
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Post by chetcpo »

Could you post a pic of them from the backside and above?
southysuper

Post by southysuper »

Sure I can.
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Dave
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Post by Dave »

they use them in formula vee cars so I'd imagine a similar setup would work.
southysuper

Post by southysuper »

One more thing. These are two different types. I think the one with the larger backing area is the ball joint type. The more spindle looking one is the link pin type. Hope this helps. I'll experiment when I get my control arms.
Locosted Don
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Post by Locosted Don »

All of those spindles are for ball joints. There are two different types of those,one for drum brakes (the smaller one) and one for disc brakes. The king pin ones are more like a riding lawn mower spindle. The MAIN problems with the ball joint VW spindle is that there is a wacky eccentric bushing for the top ball joint that VW uses to try to get a little adjustability for caster and camber. Also they are rear steer.
Cant do it til you try
jamesl

Post by jamesl »

Not the world's best picture, but here's a king-pin version of the spindle on a sand-rail I once owned. I was using drum brakes. Rear steer as mentioned, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't spin them around and make them front steer.

It's been a few years, I seem to remember that the spindles mated to those suspension arms via a big pin (hence the name King Pin) that rotated inside the spindles. You had very limited ability to add camber by juggling shims between top and bottom arms.

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violentblue
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Post by violentblue »

there have been a few vw guys that have built a arm suspensions for their beetles using the balljoint spindles, I've thought about doing this for my beetle as well,
while the paralel trailing arm suspension is beautiful in its simplicity its an ugly piece to bolt onto the front of a locost

stick with the book suspension. this coming from a vw nut


MY beetle
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chetcpo
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Post by chetcpo »

violentblue wrote:there have been a few vw guys that have built a arm suspensions for their beetles using the balljoint spindles, I've thought about doing this for my beetle as well,
while the paralel trailing arm suspension is beautiful in its simplicity its an ugly piece to bolt onto the front of a locost

stick with the book suspension. this coming from a vw nut


MY beetle
Image


Holy crap I think I've seen that car before. Did you used to have a website with pics of car during restoration? Regardless, beautiful car.
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violentblue
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Post by violentblue »

since that picture was done I've pulled the engine and tore it down and rebuilt it properly, paid way too much to get the engine built and was not done right.

need to put it back in and wire the car up.

my webpage
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