1979 VW Beetle

[VW Alignment Tech.]

I had to align a 1979 VW Beetle the other day. The rear end on this thing was sagging worse than God knows what. I thought that by adjusting the ride height of this car by way of the rear torsion bar, that would solve the problem. Here's what I did:

I went to my team leader and he told me to loosen the four bolts on each side of the torsion bar cover. After that, raise the Beetle's rear until the whole car appears to be level. After that, tighten the bolts down, lower the car and it should be level.

That didn't happen. I did what I was told and the rear end was still sagging. Mysteriously enough, the rear end also was well into the green.

I should point out that the car is suffering from old car disease, hence my first guess as to why the rear end was still sagging was that the bushings inside the torsion bar were rotted away.

Did I adjust the torsion bar the right way to correct for vehicle ride height? was my assumption of the torsion bar bushings incorrect? If I run into this problem again, I'd sure like to know what it is the hell I'm doing!!

[JFryauff]

Your assumption about the rotting torsion bushings is most likely correct.
Check this page out for some good information:
http://www.vw-resource.com/rearaxle.html

[VW Alignment Tech.]

Originally Posted by JFryauff

Your assumption about the rotting torsion bushings is most likely correct.

I figured as much. It just sucks I won't align any old beetles any time soon!