Adjusting front suspension

[71Westy]

Right, I'm fed up with using the sidewalls as suspension at the back, so I'm going up one spline.

Having tried it before, that leaves a bit of a rake, so I want to knock the front up about an inch. I have simple welded in adjusters. Any advice on doing the adjustment. I assume I jack up the front as far as poss then support the wheels whilst unscrewing the adjusters. Drop the wheels a tad and move round a notch or two. Anything to watch out for?

Thanks,
Nick

 

[dubdubz]

it may not be as easy as that [ as always ]

your fate depends on the tightness of the leaves holder thing in the middle of the torsion tube [ the correct name evades me at present! :lol: ]

you might have to split the bottom or top trailing arms from the hub - so you can do each tube individually...as it depends on who did and how they have set the leaves, as some set them slightly fighting against each other, others are simply set equally.

good axles stands and possibly a helper so you can both jump on the wheels/hubs to move downwards

hth

 

[Blake7even]

Blind luck. You have to jack her up to the point that there is no twist in the leaves. Currently the mass of the bus is twisting the leaves in one direction, as you jack her up this will untwist, level out then go the other way as the hubs/wheels mass acts on the leaves. You need to find the sweet point. On my last bug it was jacked up so the wheels 'just' felt the floor still. Then back off the nuts. If you get it right it's smooth, wrong and you hear a loud bang but you shouldn't damage anything. Get stands in there if it drops but you can't use them to hold as you need to raise lower the height on the jack. Mark your adjusters now! If they fly round you may forget where you where.

Or just raise the rear 1 inner spline, as it's less than an outer!

 

[71Westy]

Don't talk to me about inner splines..... 3 hours of sweat and cursing last time just to get back where I started.... grrr.

Thanks for the advice folks. I may just do the rear and leave it some settling time....

 

[71Westy]

Just re-reading, and it made me ponder my plan. Which was to jack up the front of the bus and stick it on axle stands. Then remove the front wheels to leave some room. Then use two jacks on the hubs to adjust the height of the front suspension - intially to take up some of the downward tension, then to adjust the nuts so the groovy bits went round a notch or two (I've no idea how much, so that'll be trial and error). Sound sensible?

Nick

 

[dubdubz]

it does if the centre collet will move easily

when I did mine you take a reasonable amount off to get it to turn freely without being loose!

try it it'll only be a couple of hours to try........

 

[Slammed]

Raise it higher than you want it, put axle stands underneath, loosen the adjusters after counting how many teeth are visible, the wheels should drop, if not force them down, count how many teeth the adjusters have moved, if its right tighten them up, if its not right, move the wheels again, tighten up adjusters, drop the bus back down, if it looks a better height then job done, if not, repeat procedure. Don't forget when you drive the bus it'll settle another inch or so.

 

[71Westy]

Ah. Well that didn't work.

Raised rear fine (apart from finding brake pipes within a gnats of being worn through, so swiftly replaced...)

But undoing the front adjusters, with the bus raised and the wheels off, the bottom aduster pinged.... the wrong way! The top adjuster is at the top (ie lowest setting) and seized solid (and it looks like bringing it down would foul the gearshift rod).

With Mr Rackham's help (thanks mate!), we both jumped up and down on the hubs and managed to get the bottom adjuster down a little. But it still leaves the rear in the air and the front scraping the ground....

So - how do you free a seized upper torsion bar without stripping the whole beam down?????

Oh, and the nice new Bocar carb that ran so sweetly..... it won't idle (and even dies between gear changes). Wot fun :-(

 

[Slammed]

If there's movement in the arms through the torsion of the leaves, heat the hell out of the adjuster until the grease is pouring out of all the gaps and try to move it again...

 

[Freezzr]

I had the same problems... I took the spindles completely off, then easily turned the adjusters downwards and mounted everything back...

 

[71Westy]

I was wondering about heat, but ran out of patience and time. I'll give it a try.

Bit worried about dismantling the spindles, as I don't know quite what tension will be there - seems all over the shop.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[jacks906]

get a thick walled tube over the pin and lever it down mine was all seized up but managed with some good leverage to move them both round
the problem with trying to force them from the ends is your loosing alot of energy threw the torsion springs which means it wont move

 

[71Westy]

OK, stupid question time - do I need to sacken off the main bolt? The bottom one moved, but I found the bolt wasn't that tight - I could do it up a further couple of turns. The top one is solid, but the bolt is done up tight. I'd assumed the bolt fitted into a collar around the torsion bar, so didn't need undoing?

 

[jacks906]

do you mean the lock nut or the alan key head bolty bit

lock nut needs to be removed or slackened enough

alan key bolty bit can be left tight that just screws threw the coller and into a dimple in the springs to hold them in place

dave

 

[71Westy]

Its actually a bolt, but yes the allen key bit. Just pm'd the chap who sold me the bus and he's confirmed I need to keep that bit tight. Blowtorch next

Thanks,
Nick

 

[71Westy]

Finally succeeded yesterday afternoon. Freed off the top by squirting in WD40 for a couple of days, then, with the bottom adjuster still tight, used a G-clamp to pull down the top adjuster. Then I could move the bottom adjuster with gentle application of a lump hammer

Still nose down - measuring it I've gone up 25mm at the front, and around 60mm at the back (1 spline). So thinking of some adjustable spring plates still.

But the main issue now is that with some actual springs involved in the suspension, the body rolls round bends and scrubs the sides of the tirewalls at the rear. There's hardly any room as the MWS Empi 5s have a much smaller offest than standard (95mm versus 125mm measuredfrom the back of the wheel)... so now I'm looking at changing the wheels....

BTW, should a 71 have an anti-roll bar at the front?

 

[jacks906]

i would have thought that it should have on my 70 has one but could be a different beam i have :?

 

[Nick-Rackham]

Ah. Well that didn't work.

Raised rear fine (apart from finding brake pipes within a gnats of being worn through, so swiftly replaced...)

With Mr Rackham's help (thanks mate!), we both jumped up and down on the hubs and managed to get the bottom adjuster down a little. But it still leaves the rear in the air and the front scraping the ground....

No Worries must have looked a right pair trying to co-ordinate bouncing on the front hubs! All in the name of "getting the right stance" Glad you got it sorted in the end. Just the wheel / tyre combo to sort!

 

[71Westy]

Well, I'm gonna spray up the standard wheels, then stick on probably 185/75 14 commercial tyres, which are as close as I can get to the 185/65 15s that are on the back and look ok.. That'll bring the front up a tad too (which are running 165/65 15s)

It has to be said that the ride is MUCH better with some suspension travel (must be getting old), although the handling is more boat-like.