single spring pack in front beam?
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dsatterley
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2007 4:58 pm
single spring pack in front beam?
Hello,i have a 69 bug that i'm interested in building for some hpde events but also streetable.My question is if anyone has ran the front suspension with one leaf pack in the beam.The reason i ask this is i also run formula vees in scca.On these we run one leaf pack in the lower tube and in the upper tube we run a sway bar that has a stud machined into the end with washers to take up the slack between the two upper arms.Just don't know if a stock spring pack has enough spring rate to handle the weight.Was also thinking maybe using the stiffer springs i,ve noticed in ads for baja bugs thanks in advance for any input dave ddc racing
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FJCamper
- Moderator
- Posts: 2910
- Joined: Wed Nov 14, 2007 2:19 pm
Accidental experience
We ran our '70 Ghia at Road Atlanta right after installing a Puma front beam, and did not notice that either in the tow from Birmingham, or in an early practice session, that the upper beam locking nuts had come off. We lost all support from that torsion leaf stack.
The Ghia had been racing at top speed around the track and Barret, driving, had not noticed it.
The only difference was the nose ran a little lower than usual, which hadn't messed up out handling like I would have thought.
When I discovered we had lost the support of a whole torsion tube, I found some hardware and fixed it, but our lap times did not significantly improve.
I'm curious if just disconnecting the upper torsion leaf stack by removing the locking stud, and using adjustable coil-over shocks would allow me to better adjust the front roll stiffness. We're going to try it.
The Ghia had been racing at top speed around the track and Barret, driving, had not noticed it.
The only difference was the nose ran a little lower than usual, which hadn't messed up out handling like I would have thought.
When I discovered we had lost the support of a whole torsion tube, I found some hardware and fixed it, but our lap times did not significantly improve.
I'm curious if just disconnecting the upper torsion leaf stack by removing the locking stud, and using adjustable coil-over shocks would allow me to better adjust the front roll stiffness. We're going to try it.