The Cal-look Lounge

Hi Gang,

Against my better judgement, I'm leaning toward installing a narrowed beam in my Project Oval. I'm thinking 2" max... all I want is a little extra fender clearance.

I've heard the horror stories... poor handling at speed, tires scrub when you turn, you could end up in a Mexican jail... all kinds of stuff... I also firmly believe that with proper suspension tuning, an alignment by somebody who knows what they are doing, proper caster, etc the car should drive in a straight line fine.

What I'd like to know, has anybody had experience with an altered pitman arm that helps the angle of the short tie rod? I've seen them advertised, they are supposed to help with scrubbing and turning radius... seemed to make sense to me.

Any thoughts / opinions / ideas??

Thanks,
  Dave

You don't want to hear anything from me.

Oh, I'm right there with you John... trust me.
Worst case, if it's a POS I'll get rid of it.

You can save alot of time and grief and money, and just don't do that. I may have to have you arrested if you keep going down that road ;D ;D ;D ;D

I'm feeling a little strange John... what did you do to me?

Pretty much due to the dropped spindles & 14" wheels Mark.

I gained about 1/2" per side... I'm going to run my car pretty low in front so it will look right with the 14" front Alloys (Fuchs, whatever) and since my car is an Oval, with Oval front fenders that makes tire clearance even more of a problem.

All in all, with only a 2" beam and my dropped spindles, I really don't expect the front end to look "narrow" at all... Narrow, tucked, or slammed is not what I'm after.

Thanks for looking out for me, I know I'm getting older... you probably thought my clutch was slippin' ;)

~DR

Dave my experience is that with a 2" narrowed beam that has drop spindles is there will not be a noticeable scrubbing or handling issue. The problems I have encountered with scrubbing and bump steer have occurred when narrowing (over 2inches) is combined with torsion only lowering.  I believe this is because the tie rod angle gets exaggerated and adding that to altered steering geometry gets complicated in a hurry. I like the front of my cars low and without narrowing them I could not run discs and spindles without rubbing the fenders on every off ramp...which is not too safe if you ask me. I have had my narrowed set up on my convertible for well over 10 years with no complaints. It is easy for people to have ill handling bugs without even without narrowing if the alignment is a hack job ;) I have driven others cars that I wouldn't leave my driveway in and they drive them like that all the time! Your car will be fine because you know what you are doing.

i figured people narrow by 2" so you can still run a 2" narrowed swaybar...

I`ve run a 2", 2.5", and a 3" beam on different cars with no problems at all. These were all ball joint cars with drop spindles and disc brakes. This was always done to keep the wheels inside the fenders and not just to get the narrowed look. No problems with any of those cars and all daily driven. And on occasion driven much faster than they should have been.

I've been running a 2" narrowed beam in my '66 for over ten years now.  I have Jatech dropped spindles and needed room to clear the fender lips.  I am also running Flat-4 BRMs and they push the tire out a little as well.  On the first Berg Cruise the tires kept hitting the fender lip with a stock width beam.  Narrowed the beam and have run thousands of miles with no issues.  I enjoy the stock ride with the dropped spindles and stock length shocks much more that the ride with an adjustable beam and shorter shocks.

Excuse the crummy cell phone pic, but this is how it sits right now with no engine.

I know this will change with the car finished and my arse in the driver seat, but I like the down in front look and plan on adjusting it as needed to keep the look.

~DR.

although i have a balljoint front beam i have noticed that to get the front end down enough with the 155/14 setup the avis adjusters need to be at the lowest tooth.
i haven't driven it yet, but i can imagine you'd like to run dropped spindles. and that only goes with linkpin beams

but this is what 3" will do for you:

(http://image.vwtrendsweb.com/f/8645522+w750+st0/0401vwt_01z+1962_Volkswagen_Beetle+Front_Passenger_Side.jpg)

http://www.vwtrendsweb.com/features/0401vwt_1962_volkswagen_beetle/index.html (http://www.vwtrendsweb.com/features/0401vwt_1962_volkswagen_beetle/index.html)

My car is straight as an arrow at pretty much any speed I can throw at it, 2" K&L beam, dropped spindles & CB discs.

Narrowed beam is a must with drop spindles, IMO and 2" looks just fine to me. I've got a stock width beam, CB spindles 3/4" sway bar, and 4 1/2" Sprints Stars (with 4 1/2" backspace!) with 145's and it still rubs the right side fender when I'm carrying someone fat in the passenger seat (like AssHull, for instance ;))

LOL My dad could always get my 135's to rub before I narrowed my front end.....Looks like your picture says its a must do if you want that stance.