front suspension advice needed

[baron]

hey guys, long time!

I just fitted my bus with a BRAND NEW 1776 from VW hertitage, and had cogbox rebuild my box with higher final gearing. its totally changed the bus, a delight to drive around town and on the motorway.

you've already spotted the flaw in my plan though haven't you... it's f'kin hard to stop now on stock drums!

so next on the shopping list is disc brakes. I've got some tidy 15inch rims to bolt them up to (not telling which ) but here is my dilemma

it's currently lowered on wagenwest dropped spindles, which are welded and increase track mildly, in combo with the extra ET rims, the front wheels sit at a stupid position

so, I think the solution is narrowed & adjustable beam, and guessing I'll need to replace the spindles as they wont fit discs, that right? so suspect i may as well just go back to stock spindles and use the adjustment in the beam

your suggestions please for a robust front end setup to bring the wheels back into sensible, maybe even mildly narrowed, alignment and allow disc brake fitting, at reasonable price, cos I am superskint already. I'm not after superlow, the 2.5 inch drop i have at the moment is just right for me. I'm rocking a very mild restowagen style.

answers on a postcard... or by reply

thanking you kindly!

PS, seriously, 1776 and freeway flyer is the way to go, AMAZEBALLS

 

[Graham L]

Hi Fella

If you are still running wide 5 then look at the kit from futbus for brakes, no change in uprights needed and they bolt straight on, run them on all of my buses and they are fantastic 8) 8)

 

[baron]

Cheers Graham, strangely nothing on their site about a kit?

But really the brakes are the least of my worries, need to bring my wheels back under the wheel arches!

Edit - yeah, still running wide 5s

 

[gvee]

Safe to assume you're running wide 5 wheels?

The simplest/cheapest upgrade to disks is to convert to the later narrow 5 pattern, but obviously you'll need to change your wheels if you're running wide 5s.

Sparkywig runs a Futbus disk brake conversion kit that keeps his wide-5 setup (check his thread out here: http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5562&start=820" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false

I'm fairly sure Creative Engineering do a disk kit too, but I don't know enough about it to comment.


In terms of lowering - how low do you want to go?

 

[Graham L]

Heres the link to the kit

http://www.futbus.com/Brake-conversion-kits/Wide-5-front-brake-conversion-kit.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[baron]

i swear there was no disc brake conversion kits on the futbus site when I looked!!! :lol:

looks interesting, I know I can ask them, but will that fit on the dropped spindles I currently run drums on?

in terms of drop, I'm currently 2.5inches down, and want to stay there or thereabouts

question is, how best to narrow the track, guessing a narrowed beam is involved somewhere. Do i run this with my current dropped spindles, or is a complete overhaul of front end going to work out cheapest once I sell on the dropped spindles?

thanks for all the help guys, really appreciate it

 

[Graham L]

Yep it will fit on drop spindles, I run futbus brakes on Transporterhaus dropped spindles with no problem, no increase of track on these as well. The kit comes with bearings, hoses, calliper mounts, basically everything you need to mount onto a drum brake upright.

Narrowed beam is really the only way, either a weed eater or a narrowed bj ball from slamwerks that your arms and dropped spindles will fit straight onto.

 

[baron]

cheers graham, figured that was the answer, but not kept up with latest developments so wanted to check

futbus seems to be a good tip picked up on the way, so thanks for that

next question... how to hide another couple of £k spending from the missus :lol:

 

[gvee]

A K&L conversion will narrow your track 1 or 2 inches. How much narrower do you need to fit these whymsical rims?

 

[sparkywig]

Swapping to king and link pin will narrow the track by 2", but by the time you've spent out on a good beam, trailing arms, new link pins, drop spindles and brakes you might as well have bought the Red9 wishbone set up and got decent steering as well.

 

[baron]

Cheers guys, k&l would be of interest, but can't see it saving much on a £500 balljoint narrowed beam.