Thread: Boge Load Leveller On Early Classics

Originally Posted by rick130

Cars don't roll over, they trip over, literally they need something to trip the back tyres, the tyres lateral traction gives way (they slide) long before enough grip is generated for gravity and the CofG to take over.
The cars can't just go flop on their side.

In other words, rear roll stiffness has nothing to do with a roll over.

Indeed, making a very tight and fast left-hand U-turn in a Renault 16 will show how far a car can lean over.... and still not flop on the side... despite what your (female) passenge thinks!

The early VW Beetles with their swing axles would, under hard cornering forces and a weight transference forward ("OOps", -brakes!!!) would lift the rear end up...which would increase the downward angle of the outboard axle ...remember that the wheel is fixed at right angle to the shaft... so that the tyre leans enough to roll off the rubber and onto the rim. Voila !

There was a particular loop onto a freeway bridge over here, had a reducing radius... Used to get the less-than-vigilant Beetle drivers on a Saturday night.. Towies loved the spot!


VW fixed the problem by adding an outboard CV which allowed the wheel to stay upright.

What Is a Swing Axle?

and

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_axle"]Swing axle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] - see point 2 under "Shortcomings" - Car trips over the wheel.

Not just VW's .... the rear engine renaults ( 8, 10, dauphine etc) like to tuck a rear wheel under and roll. Smart people never lift off if there cornering hard .... Gotta love swing axles. Bodyroll means nothing .... Anyone that doesn't believe me I'm willing to take for a flat out drive in a Citroen 2cv ..... They WILL believe me after this ... trust me

My first car was a 64 VW type III wagon, with the swing axle rear transaxle set up.

Initially it had the standard 15" rims and razorblade tyres, but of course soon ended up with 14 x 6" rims and fat retreads. (18yo at the time)

Because the torsion bars had 'worn' by the time I got the thing it actually sat quite low and handled scarringly well (according to mates on surfing trips down the Great Ocean Road).

Wayne Lynch used to have a blue one of these and clocked up a gazillion miles scarring his mates doing the same thing with far more aplomb years before me.

With the right tyres and a 'worn' low suspension the horrible rear wheel tuck thing didn't happen, they just slid nicely.

cheers, DL

I can confirm the boge self-leveller was still fitted to the 94 soft-dash classics wihthour air suspension.
Crawled underneath one today.

Wow! Thanks Dougal - you learn something every day. I though they were finished with in 91ish.

I have to agree with the body roll being redundand. Along the great ocean road in dad's 77; when the bumpstops hit the axle when cornering that was the time to floor it - you learn to ignore the body roll.

In 87 coming back from an SA sand dunes trip we did a 360 at 100kph. The body flopped all over the place - but stayed on it's wheels.

Unless you have sagged springs the load leveller won't unload the springs - ie, there will always be a pre-determined load on them to maintain a relational roll stiffness to the front.

Also, (as very cleverly dedigned) the rear roll height is almost the same as the ball height - so ball weight doesn't contribute to body roll.

With good bushes, springs and shockers there's none of this triangulated ride- except if you overload them. Been there done all that.

Sent from my GT-I9305T using AULRO mobile app

Originally Posted by benji

Wow! Thanks Dougal - you learn something every day. I though they were finished with in 91ish.

I have to agree with the body roll being redundand. Along the great ocean road in dad's 77; when the bumpstops hit the axle when cornering that was the time to floor it - you learn to ignore the body roll.

In 87 coming back from an SA sand dunes trip we did a 360 at 100kph. The body flopped all over the place - but stayed on it's wheels.

Unless you have sagged springs the load leveller won't unload the springs - ie, there will always be a pre-determined load on them to maintain a relational roll stiffness to the front.

Also, (as very cleverly dedigned) the rear roll height is almost the same as the ball height - so ball weight doesn't contribute to body roll.

With good bushes, springs and shockers there's none of this triangulated ride- except if you overload them. Been there done all that.

Sent from my GT-I9305T using AULRO mobile app

When you say rear roll height almost the same as ball height, are you talking roll centre and tow ball?

Originally Posted by uninformed

When you say rear roll height almost the same as ball height, are you talking roll centre and tow ball?

The ball joint on the upper suspension link. It is the roll centre.

I was surprised to see the boge too. The owner was asking me what it was.

Okay, I started the thread with the information gleaned on the Load Leveller.
It's another thing to fit one.
Whilst the manual only shows a scant 10 point instruction, there's a little more to it, or so I found.

I hope this helps others who want to replace their unit, or simply learn some of the little challenges encountered in working on a 39yo vehicle.

Tools Required
Trolley jack and a pair of jack stands.
3/4" socket and ring/open end spanner. Upper suspension pivot
9/16" socket, ring/open end spanner. Upper load leveller bracket

THIN 5/8" and 3/4" open end spanner. I ground down some old cheapies with a flap wheel on a 100mm grinder. 4 to 4.5mm will work. Go slowly, don't overheat. Ball joint removal/replacement on load leveller body

1 3/4" or 44mm socket and torque wrench. Ball joint socket removal

Before you begin, clean the exposed threads with wire brush, then spray with Inox (or your favourite penetrant) all the fasteners and joints which need to come apart. This was done the day previous.









*1,*2 & *3.
3/4" head. Socket with ratchet and a ring spanner.
Bolts are 1/2"UNF x 6 1/4" long with nyloc nuts. Replace the Nylocs.
When loose, make sure they will withdraw without force.





Once removed, you'll probably clean up or replace the ball joints.


Clean the ball joint housings thoroughly, don't over grease.



Good quality chassis or bearing grease will do the trick, lithium based in my case.



The Ball Joint assemblies are P/N 575882, torqued to 70nm or 50ft/lb.


Here's the new unit, ready to be installed.



Torqued up and ready for the upper boot. I used red Loctite as a thread locker for the ball joint and joint thread to leveller.




Now, the refitting...
After fitting the top bracket, loosely, it was a juggle to thread the lower ball pin into the leveller rod. Patience won out.
Replacing the suspension pivot bolts was another challenge.
I ended up putting one in place, then lowering the axle and jacking up the suspension pivot at the ball until the bolt could be replaced by hand.

If you need to replace anything...
Upper suspension pivot bolts 6 1/4" x 1/2" UNF Gr8, nuts are 1/2" UNF Nylocs. P/N 253948 (available from a few places)
Upper load leveller mount nuts are 3/8" UNF Nylocs.
The bolts, you better hope they're in good nick, the top two do not fall out. For the record, they're 7" x 3/8" UNF. P/N 253958

Cheers
Richard