Type 1 Front torsion rods cut?

[Cancerman]

Has anyone ever seen or even cut their front torsion rods in half, right in the center? A friend has discovered his front rods have been cut in half, each set, upper and lower, come out from each side. One screw clamps the rod one each side. Also, some of his small rods have been removed to lower the front ride height. I'm wondering if this was done in an attempt to make it more of an independent front suspension, or just trying to make it easier to reinstall the rods. Any thoughts?

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Adding adjusters is probably a better way of doing it. That way you can raise or lower the front of the car as you want or you can off-set the torsion stack by adjusting each stack separately. The suspension is still tied together via the beam; splitting the torsion stack. In this case, I would think, would only control the softness or hardness of each side.

Lee

My opinion is worth what you paid for it.

[Bruce2]

if this was done in an attempt to make it more of an independent front suspension,

Although there's effectively one lower spring and one upper spring, the VW front suspension is 100% independent L to R. The anchor point in the middle prevents movement of one side from transmitting to the other.
Can you post pics of what you have?

[Cancerman]

it's a friend on another forum. We were trying to figure out why this was done to his car. Someone just cut the rods right in two. I'll see if he has pictures. Thanks for responding.

[ImScruffy]

I have tossed this around in my head with the idea of having 2 adjusters up front. That way you could do minor adjustments left to right. I have not been able to find any examples of anyone else doing it though.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Do some checking around. I have seen widened beams with just what you are talking about.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=wi ... &FORM=IGRE

xx.jpg

You will have to drill each stack for the jam nut and put the same assy in the beam but it has been done but I don't know just how good it turned out with less than half of the stack to deal with on each side. The suspension might be a bit stiffer but that is just a guess.

Lee

[Steve Arndt]

You can cut 4" out of the beam and weld two 2" wide adjusters to each other in the middle. Then you only have to remove a small amount from each leaf stack.

[Bruce2]

That way you could do minor adjustments left to right.

If you have a VW with the height at the front right different from the height at the front left, the problem is at the rear. IOW, the proper way to fix it is to correct the rear. Once the rear is even (side-to-side), the front will be even.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

That way you could do minor adjustments left to right.

If you have a VW with the height at the front right different from the height at the front left, the problem is at the rear. IOW, the proper way to fix it is to correct the rear. Once the rear is even (side-to-side), the front will be even.

Assuming that the frame head isn't out of alignment, (twisted for example) that is, I would hardily agree Bruce.

I have been told (and both of my pans slightly twisted for example) that the frame head is easy to put a slight tweak to especially in a buggy or kit car whre the same structure of a bug isn't there.

The area between the front fire wall and the shifter mounting point can also have a sag in it again on buggies and kit cars for lack of structural reasons. I got this info from a VW junk yard many years ago. With a widened beam any flaws in the frame head are going to be magnified by the wider beam.

Most of the examples of the split torsion beam I've seen, and that isn't many, were to widen the stance of the front beam. It seems that it used to be more common thing to do than now days.

Lee

[ImScruffy]

I wasn't thinking about it in a "something is wrong" type of way. I was more thinking about corner balancing.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Theoretically you could preload each corner but there are other concerns along with it. I guess you could set the upper beam to stiffen or soften the ride on each corner (side) if you left the lower beam alone. Often that is done by adding a single torsion bar adjusters to one or both torsion tubes. Dividing the tubes like you asked I guess is possible. I guess the clarification question would be... why?

One draw back might be a change in ride height on one side or the other just like preloading the rear torsion bars differently would do.

Lee

[Bruce2]

.... about corner balancing.

Achieved by adjusting the rear only.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

With the way the Bug is setup Bruce is correct but I think there could be more to the story than just that. Reading "Piles" posts and a couple of other's interjections also very interesting.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

For what it is worth: I kind of remembered that Dodge played with twin torsion bar front suspension for a while. Not tranverse but linear to the frame. I seem to remember that is worked but not well for every use.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=do ... &FORM=IGRE

th[2].jpg

Its funny but the other day on one of the automotive "how to" shows they were converting a vehicle to a more conventional aftermarket frame and suspenson. I remembered them removing the torsion bars which brought this up.

Lee

[sharkskinman]

20210130_160044.jpg

Squareback volksrod
Type 3 to Type 1 link pin
11" extension..3.5" drop
Almost 9" wider beam
2 sets of leaves flipped n cut to fit