looking for front cross member. mate is doing up his beetle and needs front cross member it wont raise at the front so he needs to replace it.
what year beetle is it? when you say front cross member what do you mean? the front beam?
when you say it wont raise sounds like mayb the torsion spring inside possible has snapped. is it the same on both sides or just one?
i used to have a buggy for going round the fields in and it sunk on one side at the front and just kept hitting wing. it turned out that the first time, the retaining bolts on the arms had came loose, thus letting the arms rotate while not engaged in the torsion spring plates. the second time (after some serious offroad action) it actually snapped the torsion spring inside the front beam.
either way it didnt take long to fix. just a bit of a pain. i dont see why you think you need the whole beam though? even if you do, a brand new one is only about 120sterling from some of the uk suppliers. tell your friend to dissasemble the front a bit and see whats going on, their not hard to work on!
when you say it wont raise sounds like mayb the torsion spring inside possible has snapped. is it the same on both sides or just one?
i used to have a buggy for going round the fields in and it sunk on one side at the front and just kept hitting wing. it turned out that the first time, the retaining bolts on the arms had came loose, thus letting the arms rotate while not engaged in the torsion spring plates. the second time (after some serious offroad action) it actually snapped the torsion spring inside the front beam.
either way it didnt take long to fix. just a bit of a pain. i dont see why you think you need the whole beam though? even if you do, a brand new one is only about 120sterling from some of the uk suppliers. tell your friend to dissasemble the front a bit and see whats going on, their not hard to work on!
all i did was take off the drum and spindle, remove the brake pipe disconnect the ball joints to the spindle, disconnect the track rod arm, (all just one nut operations) pull the whole assembly out, slide to the side, then you should see just the 2 arms connected to the upper and lower tubes in front of you.
undo the securing nut, use allen keys to remove bolt and the two arms should slide off with a bit off wiggling and possibly alittle force.
if the bars have snapped, you should be able to remove them (slide them towards you) easily. if you cant theyre ok, and might just be slack/tired from being the originals and decades of use and might need replaced. to do this there are bolts in the middle of the beam that hold the springs in place, undo them, and the nuts/bolts in the arms on the other (non dropped) side. then the whole lot should just slide out. will be very dirty/greasy.
installation is opposite of removal. just be careful because they are all in order, try not to remove one at atime, they are all like a big bunch of metal strips together.
springs can be bought new or removed from any scrapped beetle. they are the same through all the years.
i dont think ive forgotten anything but its been so long since i did it, mayb someone else will let you know if ive forgotten anything.
by the way it might be better to stick pictures of tyhe problem up in tech. these guys on here seem very clued in!
undo the securing nut, use allen keys to remove bolt and the two arms should slide off with a bit off wiggling and possibly alittle force.
if the bars have snapped, you should be able to remove them (slide them towards you) easily. if you cant theyre ok, and might just be slack/tired from being the originals and decades of use and might need replaced. to do this there are bolts in the middle of the beam that hold the springs in place, undo them, and the nuts/bolts in the arms on the other (non dropped) side. then the whole lot should just slide out. will be very dirty/greasy.
installation is opposite of removal. just be careful because they are all in order, try not to remove one at atime, they are all like a big bunch of metal strips together.
springs can be bought new or removed from any scrapped beetle. they are the same through all the years.
i dont think ive forgotten anything but its been so long since i did it, mayb someone else will let you know if ive forgotten anything.
by the way it might be better to stick pictures of tyhe problem up in tech. these guys on here seem very clued in!
the later balljoint bugs have more leaves in them than the earlier kingpin bugs so if you are replacing the whole stack of leaves, get them from a similar year bug.
when removing and replacing the stack, note which direction the drilled holes are pointing (the holes for the grub screws in the trailing arms), if you get them wrong, you won't be able to secure the arms properly.
use cable ties to keep the stacks of leaves from splaying at the ends, when you push on the trailing arms the ties will slide back, having them in there will do no harm.
if you have an angle grinder, grinding a small chamfer on the ends of the stack will help assembly.
when refitting the trailing arms, you might be best to split one of the balljoints (presuming it's a balljoint bug), the angle of the stacks of springs means that the arms kind of fight each other to give the front suspension some pre-load. Basically they don't want to go back in at the same angle and separating them allows them to go back in easier.
grease the hell out of the new leaves once you've reassambled the lot.
when removing and replacing the stack, note which direction the drilled holes are pointing (the holes for the grub screws in the trailing arms), if you get them wrong, you won't be able to secure the arms properly.
use cable ties to keep the stacks of leaves from splaying at the ends, when you push on the trailing arms the ties will slide back, having them in there will do no harm.
if you have an angle grinder, grinding a small chamfer on the ends of the stack will help assembly.
when refitting the trailing arms, you might be best to split one of the balljoints (presuming it's a balljoint bug), the angle of the stacks of springs means that the arms kind of fight each other to give the front suspension some pre-load. Basically they don't want to go back in at the same angle and separating them allows them to go back in easier.
grease the hell out of the new leaves once you've reassambled the lot.
cheers trev, good tip on the cable tie, and the chamfer edges with grinder wish id thought of that! i remember crappin my pants that id pulled the front end out of the buggy or at least broke the front tubes. it wasnt till i actually took apart that i realised that if id broken the tubes the wheel woulda fell off! sounds like it is the leaves inside alright, tho so ya wipe ur brow on the new beam
i remember crappin my pants that id pulled the front end out of the buggy or at least broke the front tubes. it wasnt till i actually took apart that i realised that if id broken the tubes the wheel woulda fell off! sounds like it is the leaves inside alright, tho so ya wipe ur brow on the new beam