Brazil Disc Drop Spindles

[masterjedi]

Brazil Disc Drop Spindles wot have you guys dune about the spindle hitting the caliper

do you just cut the caliper a bit to fit


and this happen today aswell broke the roll pin

 

[TransporterHaus]

I would suggest taking the material off the king pin and as little as possible off the caliper.

That's a narrowed trailing arm. The shock stud will need re-pinning. If that's one of ours (I don't think it is) we'll swap it for another, or we can fix it for you.

 

[Pete B]

Brazil Disc Drop Spindles wot have you guys dune about the spindle hitting the caliper

do you just cut the caliper a bit to fit

Is this a swap you are sorting yourself or has someone sold you the 'conversion' as a kit? If the former, then be very, very, very careful taking any meat from the caliper and as little as poss from the linkpin casting. If the latter, then I would be tempted to go back to them and shove it somewhere that makes their eyes water because it does not fit, does not work and is a damn poor piece of 'engineering'.
The whole dropped or more correctly named 'flipped' spindles are bad enough, you lose the grease/dust seals which really is, engineering wise, absolute shit. I know it's the norm whoever supplies them, and Alex, it is a pair of your '64/'67 spindles on my bus but that doesn't mean I applaude the arrangement. It works but needs greasing very regularly and is very messy undeneath the bus.

 

[TransporterHaus]

The whole dropped or more correctly named 'flipped' spindles are bad enough, you lose the grease/dust seals which really is, engineering wise, absolute shit. I know it's the norm whoever supplies them, and Alex, it is a pair of your '64/'67 spindles on my bus but that doesn't mean I applaude the arrangement. It works but needs greasing very regularly and is very messy undeneath the bus.

There is an alternative if the grease is an issue for you, run a pair of welded Wagens West drop spindles. You can keep the dust caps then but get a welded spindle also

Whether you have grease caps or not regular greasing is a very good idea for long life of king pin spindles. Unlike ball joint, king and link pin are high maintenance. That and the cost of manufacture is why VW changed their design in 68 to ball joints.

We have rebuilt around 500 sets of king pin spindles over the years and I can honestly say this is the only complaint we have had regarding the grease leaking out.

You're right it's an issue with all "flipped" king pin spindles because the king pin faces the opposite way - a small one IMO. In the quest to make our buses look cooler by lowering, issues are to be expected. Such as crap ride quality when using adjusters and maxed out ball joints wearing out quickly. At the end of the day VW did not design buses to be lowered and the stuff to work in this way, so whichever way you go to lower a bus there are drawbacks.

 

[Pete B]

Prefer to avoid welded spindles fella!
I wasn't really meaning to make a big deal of the greasing/mess issue, as you so rightly say, regular greasing is important and that is usually a mucky job anyhow. All I was getting at is that removing seals in this manner is not good practice and means even more regular attention is required. Perhaps I was rather harsh with my choice of words!
Totally agree that sometimes it does mean making compromises when modifying a vehicle, I have been repairing and modifying vehicles on and off for the last... gulp... 30 years :shock: Small block Chevy into a Ford 100E means, however much you don't want to, you will have to cut the bulkhead for clearance!
My initial concern on this thread was that yet again someone had perhaps been sold components that don't fit and of course the safety issues raised by fettling brake/steering components that as you said, were not designed to be used in this way. Sure, there is a safety margin, you just have to be careful, and please don't think I was having dig at you or anyone. 8)

 

[masterjedi]

yep doing it myself arm all fixed now and calipers on and working a bit off each one

the spindlies are from alex at TransporterHaus
just got to sort the arm hitting the servo now

may have to fix a ce 7" servo or remote servo
who has fitted one ?