Author Topic: stiff suspension  (Read 4093 times)

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Offline dickie67

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stiff suspension
« on: July 10, 2012, 03:13:35 PM »
Hey everyone, I have a '69 bug that I bought a month ago. When I got the car off the trailer I went around the block and realized the front suspension was not working, totally seized. I didnt panic because I was going take it apart to put in drop spindles. Once I started ,I found out the shocks were totally seized and I thought I found my problem. When I put it all back together and went to put it on the ground the suspension didnt move an inch.......WTF? So I raised the car up and quickly dropped the car to see if I could shock the suspension to drop. It worked a little, so I put my buddy in the trunk and did it again and the car dropped quit a bit, not as much as I think it should but close to ride heighth. HOWEVER, when I raised the car up again the suspension extended like it should but when I went to lower it again it stayed totally extended....I did the buddy thing again to drop it, I went around the block....same stiff ride. What is going on? I know the original owner and he replaced the torsion system 10+ years ago and was working fine until he sold it and the car hasn't seen the road for about 5 years and went thru 3 other owners before me and they did nothing with the car. I greased the torsion, lots of grease came out, no rust or water etc., just grease. What could be the problem? Need help. trying to finish this car by Aug.24th weekend and I have lots to do!! Anybody that works on these cars on the side, give me a call, or some helpful advice would be great! Thanks, Rich. 604-308-9478.

Offline bwaz

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Re: stiff suspension
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2012, 03:21:11 PM »
where's the car located... that makes a difference as to who can help.
brian waz

Jodasa

Re: stiff suspension
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2012, 09:38:08 AM »
This happened a few years ago to me too.
Here's a link that I hope helps.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=128625&highlight=

Offline dickie67

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Re: stiff suspension
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2012, 10:08:44 AM »
Hey Guys I live Aldergrove...I started to look into it last night, I removed the upper torsion arms off the spindles and it was stiff, no movement in them at all. I put the jack under the lower arm and jacked up the car and it worked just fine, smooth and free. I had to take a dead blow hammer to get the upper to move so I think it's seized and after checking out the link Jodasa sent me, it sounds like the problem. Gonna give it a try tonight. Keep u posted. Thanks for the replies, Rich.