does your monster beetle.......

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

do your monster beetles rear wheels poke out at the bottom? mine are at an angle for some reason[8)]

its not dramatic - but you can notice the rear wheels are slanted a bit, does any body else have this problem? how can you solve it?

also - due to all those power slides from having a locked diff[], i keep breaking the plastic brakets that hold the rear swing arms to the chassis[] i've noticed the frog used metal ones, can these be used on the monster beetle? has any one ever replaced the plastic braket with a home made metal one?

[Headcase]

Hi MMBIB,

Just looked at the wheels on my Beetle and they are straight.

Could it be caused by loose or broken suspender mountings?

Rick

[petercabrio]

Hi MMBIB

my rear wheels are straight also

are your rear bearings worn or the rear arms that the bearings fit into worn?

The frog metal parts do fit, i have some for mine but don't use them as they only have two fixing holes not three and do not cover the end of the rear arm so dirt can get into the ends

Peter

[zakspeed]

It will more likely be the the inner fixings to the gearbox sides. These wear really badly. Hold the rear suspension arm and try and move - should be very little play. In the early days of Frogs and Brats this was a common problem (hence why they changed the later ones to plastic.) I remember Radio Control magazines doing an article on these back in the eighties. They filled the rear arms with car body filler, drilled the centres and put a threaded bar through the whole lot.

You could buy kits in the day to cure the wear - never seen any since. Only other option is to get new 'c' parts, gearbox sides and retainers (very expensive for a runner).

I have used the plastic retainers on my runner brat purly to help prevent wear, but dosn't stop the wear at the gearbox end. Metal and plastic don't go. I've seen gearbox sides almost oval where the suspension arm fits in.

good luck and let us know how you get on..

[petercabrio]

zakspeed

i have some gearbox side plates with a plastic top hat pressed in, the plates have been badly butchered around the motor mount ( by previous owner) were these a solution to the wear problem?

peter

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

hi everyone,

i just looked at the fixing of the arms at the gearbox, there is some play there and i think thats whats causing the wheels to stick out[8)]

i aint gonna be spending much more on the beetle - it aint no shelf queen! if i was to post it in a showroom at would come under "well used runner", my cousin who had it from new ran it VERY hard, but at the end of the day thats what its for right[?][]

i think i could counter the problem with some custom metal brakets like what the frog has - but out of thicker metal, and cut the hole where the arm goes in a little lower down, to bring the wheels back in again[]

[Shodog]

The CRP arm retainer comes with a plastic bushing that fits inside the gear box. These can still be bought for less than $15 on ebay.

Jim