The Cal-look Lounge

i am planning to install vw disc brakes on the front of my 69 beetle. at this moment i am running dropped spindles on a 2.9" narrowed beam with spacers.

do zero offset dropped spindles exist? the cb performance website tells that theirs give 1/4" offset, and a set of Mid American Motorworks that i can buy has the same.
i did a quick search here and read that cb intended to make zero offset sets, but apparently they didn't.

is it possible to narrow a beam with 1/2" total? and do disc brakes give the same total width as drums?

any knowledge or advice around here..?

Seems I remember there was, indeed, a set of zero-offset drop spindles available... EMPI perhaps?  I don't recall who made them, but I know I recall seeing them out there.

My biggest beef with the CB spindles, and there's was absolutely NO warning at the time I bought them, is I'm VERY limited as to which rims I can run on my car with a stock-width beam.  Shy of redoing my entire front suspension, I'm stuck running either Empi 8's or stock steel or chromie rims.  Had issues with the inside bottom of a wheel hitting my bottom balljoints when I tried to run genuine 2.0 liter Porsche 914 alloys.

Bugnut do you know the max et-size or offset on a 5.5x15 rim while using a stock beam and cb dropped spindels?

That I don't know... all I do know is I ran Empi-style 8-spokes, which I believe are 5.5x15 inch rims, with my stock beam/CB spindle set up.  I had to space the rim out to clear the disc brake caliper, but aside from that, no issues.

Grind the ball joint, clearance the caliper, no big deal!

The wheels are long since sold, but the advice that wasn't available at the time I was asking was that I had the option of having the inside hub area machined so they'd fit in a little closer and thereby giving me clearance.  Lesson learned, though I don't know why nobody had this suggestion until after the wheels were gone! lol

You say you use spacers....how big are they ??  you can already loose the spacers or not ?

i think my spacers now are 2cm thick, but i am already running dropped spindles that give a offset..

thanks for the replies, all other ideas are welcome. i'm going to think about your comment zach!

It's really no big deal. I had to grind the caliper a little bit to clear the Sprintstars on my GTV, and I had to grind the ball joint a hair on AssHull's '67.
The advantages of drop spindles far outweigh the disadvantages.

What wheels and brakes are you going to use?

Just run normal dropped spindles. Your beam is already way to narrow  ;D

i'm going to run vw discs and 914 mahle wheels:

(http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5751/dsc00261v.jpg)


i want to lose my narrow beam and come as close as possible to stock width with discs on front (without spacers)!
so that means a "new" front beam

that's good news! i don't know much about front beams, but if you're sure that it will work on my 69 beetle..
i heard that slightly narrowing a beam is easy on 66(or something) and earlier, but that it's more difficult on later beams.

You *might* get away with a stock beam and drop spindles if your Mahle's are wrapped with skinny and/or short tires, and you have very little body roll (sway bars).

If it was my car, I'd run a 2" beam with drop spindles and something like a 175/65 on those Mahle's.