Refitting A Refrub'ed Rear Beam

[rich_w 0]

I fitted a refurb beam a few weeks ago, everything seemed great until this morning when I took it to get tracked as I had replaced the wishbone bushes up front..

 

The front was fine, but at the back half toe was -2.7mm on passengers side (bad), +3.3mm on drivers (good).

 

When I mentioned I changed the rear beam recently, he said there is a cretain order to for the nuts to be done up and it was best done at a dealership - unsure if I shoudl believe this guy as he had given me some BS before.

 

As I needed a new rear tyre anyway he did suggest about changing it and seeing if it made any difference after a couple of hundered miles

 

Is there an order to do up the nuts?

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

There is no order for them to be done up, he is talking out of his arse.

[hengti 2]

i've had the bad news that my rear susp angles are all out of whack too - that's the problem with some of the more sophisticated tracking machines - they give you a print out of stuff that you can't adjust!

 

i did ask on here at the time about what, if anything, could be done to sort it - thumping the stub axles about seemed the best suggestion

 

 

still drives fine though, so i'm not going to worry about it

[rich_w 0]

I'm tempted to loosen all the nuts slightly move the car back and forth a couple of times, tigthen it all up and get it checked out again - the place I took it have offered a free retrack

[hengti 2]

it does make some sense that, if there's any movement available in the beam mountings, you might be able to try and 'straighten' it

 

if there's toe in on one side and toe out on the other, sounds as though the beam is at the back of its adjustment in the mountings on one side and at the front of its adjustment on the other - ?

 

do the beam fitters know if this could account for rear susp angle problems - ?

 

 

hmmm ....

[Anthony 1,003]

There's not really any adjustment on the mounts, and certainly not enough to correct a 5mm difference between sides

[rich_w 0]

Right, really I have 1 of the 4:

 

1). Bent car

 

2). Bent stub axel

 

3). Bent trailing arm

 

4). Bent wheel (Just happened to be at the right place, so highly unlikely).

 

I have hit the kerb twice in forward montion but I wouldn't of thought it would be enough to 'bend' something (getting use to grp a solid rears!).

Edited May 22, 2006 by rich_w

[Anthony 1,003]

Stub axle would be my first port of call, as that's what will bend first on the beam. Trailing arms are nearly impossible to bend (they usually shear in a big impact as they're quite brittle) and if your shell was that bent I'd expect other issues.

[hengti 2]

was hoping there might have been a 'quick fix' for both of us there!

 

if it's the stub axles, i'll bet that most GTis have got this 'problem' by now. ignorance is bliss until you get on one of these fancy tracking rigs!!

 

 

i couldn't be bothered to strip the rear hubs and thump the axles (whilst guessing at the result), then put it back together and take it back to get it re-measured - all the while, running the risk of having to do it all again next time i run over a kerb (happens alot on track)

 

how does it handle? i honestly don't think mine feels at all wayward - might be one of those things that's just best to live with

[GLPoomobile 958]

Out of interest, could fitting the early style solid beam mounts cause any allignment issues? You sometimes have to lever the beam slighlt to get the rear bolts back in as the early mounts are not offset like the standard bushes so surely this must put the geometry out slightly.

 

But as for this topic, the guy is definately talking bollocks about bolt order, and given that must of these idiots can;t use their fancy laser tolls properly I'm not even sure I'd trust his results.

[rich_w 0]

The car seems to handle fine (not driven it much since this morning and there is a damp roads) but it did seem a bit keen [to go around the corner - it wanted to go around faster! ] on a right hander.

 

I've got 2 309 gti beams to strip once I have done them and know what i'm doing i'll replace the stub axel I think.

 

I did have the chance of using the 'old style' pug sport solid mounts but I really didnt like how much 'work' was involed to make them fit, I've gone to a lot of hassle to make the car go around corners quickly (new wishbones, bushes, drop links springs/dampers need to do ARB bushes..) it seemed daft to "bodge" it for a daily driver so I waited to get some baker bushes. I really wouldn't bother with the pug sport kit unless they were my only option.

 

The previous owner of the beam did have the pug sport grp a mounts, I wonder if one of the 'mounting arms' was slightly bent and thats why I had slight bother with one of the offset grp a blocks (I can't see it causing my problems though).