RAISING THE FRONT
CUT AND TURN
NOTE: This section requires welding.
In this section I will cover the technique for cutting and turning the frontend. This proccess is refered to as cutting and turning because you are actually going to cut out the spring mount and turn it. This is basically the same thing as turning the rear tosion bars except that the front springs are not splined, so you must rotate the spring mount to get the desired amount of lift. This will change the position of the front torsion spings resulting in the raising or lowering of the car. I recommend putting in adjustable mounts. Once installed they allow you adjust the height without cutting again.
This is also a great time to replace any of those worn parts in your front end. If your king pins are loose and wobbly now is the time to have them rebuilt. Replace the link pins and bushings while your at it. You ball joint people, now is the time to have new ones pressed in. You should consider the long travel ball joints in order to get the most out of your frontend. You can also install raised spindles.
This is a fairly involed process requiring complete disassembly of the front suspension. You should allow plenty of time to complete it. If your car is in good shape and you're a pretty good mechanic you should be able to do it in half a day. But if you're new to this or are planning on replacing other frontend components you may need an entire weekend. This is also much easier with two people, so try to talk one of your buddies into helping out.
Required Tools
- Welder
- Jack
- Jack stands
- Basic tool set
- Pipe cutter or Hack saw
- Tie rod seperator or long pry bar
- large hammer
- Ball joint seperator (ball joint people only)
- 8mm allen wrench
- Straight edge
- Metric ruler
- Tape measure
- Scribe or marker
- Emery cloth or sand paper
- "C" Clamps
- Plenty of rags
- Plastic garbage bags
- masking tape
- Spay paint
- Bearing puller (optional)
- An extra pair of helping hands
Required Parts
- Grease
- Longer shocks
- Longer brake lines
Optional Parts
- Adjustable spring mounts (recommended)
- These allow you to adjust or fine tune the front end without cutting again.
- Urethane bushings
- Long travel ball joints
- Raised spindles
- Long travel shock tower kit
- New steering stabalizer
- Stronger tie rods
- Spindle strengthening kit
- New brake shoes
- New wheel bearings & seals
- Larger tires
OK have you got all your tools and parts together? Have you bribed your best (or maybe worst) buddy into helping you? Most importantly you have thuroughly read this section and know what you're in for.
Alright lets do it
The first thing you will want to do is run the car down to the local car wash and blow as much crap off the frontend as possible. Then bring it home and get set up in a clean work space.
Now it's time to get dirty.
- Block the rear tires.
- Jack up the front end
- Place the jack stands on the main body mounts.
- The two large bolts at the bottom of the front fire wall.
- Remove front tires.
- Remove the front bumper.
- Remove the shocks.
- Disconnect the speedometer cable
- Remove the "C" clip from the end sticking through the bearing cap.
- Use your piers to squeeze the cable retainer located on the back side of the spindle and pull to remove it.
- Disconnect the brake lines.
- Do this where the rubber lines connects to the metal one.
NOTE:
It is possible to do this without removing the brakes, but this a good time to check your brake components and wheel bearings. And if you're planning on having your king pins rebuilt they need to come off anyway. This will also make it easier to set your link pin shims. For ball joint people it makes it easier to get the seperator in place. Therefore I have included it in the steps below.
- Remove the brake drums.
- Remove the backing plates.
- This can be done with the brakes still attached.
- If you're replacing your shoes you can disassemble them before removing the backing plates.
- If your not real familiar with VW brakes, dissasemble them later in the process, so that you can do them one at a time. This way you can use the other side as a reassembly reference.
- Remove the steering stabalizer.
- Disconnect the tie rods.
- If you are not replacing you tierods, you only need to disconnect the outter ends.
- If you don't have a tierod seperator use this method.
- Loosen the nut, but do not completely remove it.
- This prevents your buddy from going flying in the next step.
- Place the long pry bar over the trailing arm and under the tierod end.
- While your buddy prys down on the bar use the large hammer to hit the pitman arm right where the end is attached.
- This will pop the end loose.
- Remove the nut and disconnect the tierod.
- If your antisway bar is still attached to the lower trailing arms, remove and discard it.
Ball joint people skip to here.
King and link pin people only
- Remove the link pin locking bolts.
- Remove the spindle assembly by tapping the link pins out of the arms.
- If your having your king pins rebuilt send them off now.
King pin people skip to here.
- Remove the cotter pins from the ball joint retaining nuts
- Loosen the nuts.
- The top ball joint should seperate from the arm easily.
- If it doesn't, use a large wrench on the top side of the arm to turn it. This should loosen it.
- If it doesn't, remove the nut, turn it over and screw it back on until its even with the threads. Then hammer up on it.
- Use the ball joint seperator to seperate the lower ball joints.
- Remove the nuts
- Remove the spindles.
This is where the job gets messy so keep your rags handy.
Remove the trailing arm retaining set screws on one side only.
- You need to loosen the lock nut first.
- Then use the allen wrench to remove the set screw.
Pull the trailing arms out.
Loosen the retaining screws on the other side, but don't remove them.
Remove the spring retaining screws.
- These are located at the center of the front beams.
Do this next section one set at a time.
- Use the attached trailing arm to pull the spring set out of the beam.
- Slide the spings into a trash bag.
- This keeps them and you clean.
- Remove the trailing arm from the springs.
VERY IMPORTANT:
Wrap the each spring in a seperate bag. Use the masking tape to wrap and label the ends left and right. The Spings MUST go back in the same direction. If you put them in backwards they will lose their tension and sag.
If you're not installing urethane bushings skip down.
Installing urethane bushings.
I recommend the full lenght bushing for off-road use. They provide a lot more area to take the heavy loads of off-roading.
You're only going to prepare the beams for the bushings at this time. You'll install them later.
- Use a bearing puller to remove the outer trailing arm bearings.
- Push the inner bushings futher into the tubes.
- Push it in just far enough to slide the urethane bushings in.
- A piece of pipe that just fits into the tube works great for this.
- You can also use a long punch.
- You don't need to worry about damaging it.
- The beam is now prepared for the bushings.
- Remove the gas tank.
- This is optional, but it makes the next steps much easier.
- Remove the steering arm from the steering box.
- Disconnect the steering column from the steering box.
- Remove the two body mount bolts attached to the top of the beams.
you're now ready to remove the front beams. It's fairly heavy so have your buddy help hold it.
- Remove the four mounting bolts.
- Lift the beam out.
It's now time for the actual cut and turn.
At this point if you are installing adjusters follow the directions that came with them and jump back in below.
King and links can be turned 3/8in.(9mm). Stock ball joint people should only turn the beam 1/4in.(6mm). I have never used the long travel ball joints, but I would quess that you could go 3/8in without trouble. I stongly recommend that ball joint people use adjusters. This way you can fine tune your lift to it's maximum without binding the ball joints.
- Use you emery cloth to remove approx. 2in. of paint from either side of the center lock nut hole.
- This is to ensure a good weld.
- Using your straight edge and scribe (or marker) scribe approx. an 8in. line along the center of the beam.
- At each end of your line measure back the appropriate distance (1/4 or 3/8in) and scribe a mark.
- Now connect the marks with your srcibe.
- You should now have two parrelel lines either 1/4in. or 3/8in. apart.
- Do this next section one beam at a time.
- Use your pipe cutter or hack saw and cut the beam approx. 1 1/2in. from the spring set screw hole.
- If you're using a hack saw take your time and get the cuts straight.
- If the blade starts to bind hammer a screw driver into the top of the cut to spread it.
- Cut the beam again approx. 1 1/2in. from the other side.
- Remove the piece taking note of how it was inserted.(This is your spring mount)
- Clean it and the tubes, inside and out.
- DO NOT remove your lines.
- Be sure to remove all grease or it will contaminate you welds.
- Reinsert the mount. (Same direction that it came out)
- Rotate the top backwards until the front line is aligned with the back one.
- Make sure you rotate it backwards. If you go fowards you'll actually lower the car.(Doh!!!)
- Use your clamp to hold it in place.
- Double check your alignment.
- This is important. If it's not welded in staight you won't be able to get the springs back in.
- Tack weld it
- Recheck your alignment.
- If it's not right redo it.
- When the alignment is good, weld the entire thing together.
- Repeat on the other beam.
- At this point you can also weld the seams on the shock towers to strengthen them.
Remove the factory suspension stops.
Install long travel shock towers (optional).
Give the beams a good cleaning inside and out.
Now give them a fresh coat of paint.
It's time to get ready for the reassmbly. Clean and inspect all the parts. Get any replacement parts that you need. Take anything to the shop that needs rebiulding. Clean and paint everything. Cleanup your work area.
