Dropped Spindles

Gary1719 · Post by **Gary1719** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 12:22 am

Manx david i have seen the different lens here in the states. do you run a amber bulb with the turn signal or a clear.

manxfwin · Post by **manxfwin** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 2:38 am

This will give you a comparison of David's stock height and my buggy with a new b/j beam with all the stock leaves and the adjusters down to the bottom.Tires have not hit the fenders and have hit some pretty nasty bumps here in Indiana,the ride is still good.Remember that a full tank of gas will drop the front more.Hope this helps.

Gary1719 · Post by **Gary1719** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 3:12 am

Thanks for the info. yes it always helps. what do you say you have maybe a couple inches of clearance. So if i soften the front end it may have a reason to dip some more? Also what year is the license plate light holder? did you send your tail light housing in to get chromed if so were. Are you any were near martinsville Indiana? it is south of indy 26 miles or so. Their is a buggy shop their i ordered my Berrien chassis. Gary

manxdavid · Post by **manxdavid** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:20 am

That license plate light's off a 64-66 Bug.

mel hubbard · Post by **mel hubbard** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:12 am

[QUOTE="manxfwin;14693"]

This will give you a comparison of David's stock height and my buggy with a new b/j beam with all the stock leaves and the adjusters down to the bottom.Tires have not hit the fenders and have hit some pretty nasty bumps here in Indiana,the ride is still good.Remember that a full tank of gas will drop the front more.Hope this helps.[/QUOTE] Dave, over the past 12 years I've tried practically every kind of setting on my buggy, but unlike you have found stock leaves and adjusters set to the lowest setting to be far too hard. Maybe the roads in Indiana are better than here in UK because that set up did nothing but try and shake my damn fillings out and the reason the tires never hit the fenders on mine either was because the springing was far too stiff for such a lightweight vehicle,, or maybe the ball joints just run out of travel.. I think it was Meyers who once said something like ''You Should Be Able To Push Down On Your Fiberglass Buggy Hood And Compress The Suspension". When lowering on adjusters only the torsion arms point higher the lower you adjust them and by putting dropped spindles on will get the torsion arms more horizontal plus make the vehicle lower. I have this theory that the more horizontal the torsion arms are, the better the springing action will be, plus it will be kinder on ball joints too. Years ago Meyers did a thing in Manx Mania on reducing the torsion leaves,, he also did a thing on shocks/dampers where he drilled and pumped all the oil out of them and replaced it with a thinned down BBQ lighter fluid mix. If your happy with the way your buggy rides then thats fine, but the lowest setting on adjusters with stock springing and dampers IMO is far too much on a buggy and not something I would ever do again and that goes for both street & off road use. BTW, nice looking buggy you have!

Tom-Kathleen · Post by **Tom-Kathleen** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 12:14 pm

That was Kathleen's Manxter S at Effingham last year. Yes, I recommend drop spindles if you want to lower the car. They lower it yet still give you full suspension travel. If you use an adjustable beam (like both of our cars), you get to fine tune it after the spindle drop. Tom

manxfwin · Post by **manxfwin** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:28 pm

Gary,the license plate cover is a '62-66 or as Manxdavid stated a '64-66(he's probably right).I know in '67 VW used a bigger cover that has to be ground down to fit a flat service.There is a chrome plating company in Ft Wayne IN called Reckon that did the LP cover,the tail light units were already chromned when I purchased the Manx(that was about the only items I was able to re- use).Some powdercoater's are using a finish that looks better than chrome and probably lasts longer.Mel,I think I have been pretty lucky with the construction of the bug(more luck than sense)and have surprised myself by not having any problems after 3 years of driving.Most of the info used in the buggy construction was obtained from this sight and your ideas are probably correct with the amount of experience and years of involvement you have,this is the only buggy I've owned or ridden in so not much to compare with.Thanks for the compliment,I've been more than pleased with the buggy and how it turned out.

Gary1719 · Post by **Gary1719** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 1:00 am

Tom thanks for the help. did you have to use the lowered ball joints since you dropped the front end. Dave i will see if i can find the chrome platers doing a search. thanks for the heads up on the license plate light. I like these. what do you use for a holder? i see somebody else mention the powder coating that looks like chrome. The mother road car show is coming in Springfield ill pretty soon maybe i we seen somebody that has it. Gary

manxfwin · Post by **manxfwin** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 1:22 am

I bought the holder at a swap,I think it might be a '67 or later item.I had to trim it and drill new holes but it is aluminum shaped like an "H" turned sideways with a step in it to raise the plate from the body.You might find it or something similiar on Samba.

Tom-Kathleen · Post by **Tom-Kathleen** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 11:59 am

Gary - we do not have the lowered ball joints. They are not normally needed with the drop spindles unless you are going to put the front end on the ground. Most of the drop we have is in the spindles, and we used the adjustable front end to get just a little bit more and fine tune it. The traing arms are about parallel to the ground. We are on our way to the Lake Tahoe Manx Club event today, so have fun building your car. I looked again at the Manxter today, and remembered the reason we could not use a narrowed beam was the front bumper mounts & side intrusion bars are full width on the beam. Tom