Was the Corvair really unsafe at any speed?

[freebeard]

I missed that the first time around. I respectfully dissent.

No chain. The swing axle trailing arm is limited by a stop at the bottom of it's travel. The chain is used to control the spring tension when you need to remove the trailing arm or it's torsion bar.

I'm skeptical about over-sizing the front anti-roll bar. I got front and rear bars for my 1961 panel van. The 1 1/8th" rear bar went on, but the front bar came with stock mounting brackets so that I needed to freeze and drill the rubber bushings. The rear bar gave it very neutral under/oversteer (along with 14s on the front, 15s on the rear with 28" tires, and gas pressurized shocks) so I never installed the front.

Things that do work:

• anti-roll bar
• Z-bar
• camber compensator
• negative camber

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I'm skeptical about over-sizing the front anti-roll bar. I got front and rear bars for my 1961 panel van. The 1 1/8th" rear bar went on, but the front bar came with stock mounting brackets so that I needed to freeze and drill the rubber bushings. The rear bar gave it very neutral under/oversteer (along with 14s on the front, 15s on the rear with 28" tires, and gas pressurized shocks) so I never installed the front.

Since the problem is the rear suspension, initially I was also quite skeptical about the benefits in oversizing the front anti-roll bar, but it had been proven to improve the stability on the Beetle.

Things that do work:

• anti-roll bar
• Z-bar
• camber compensator
• negative camber

I never seen any Z-bar in a Beetle or any other traditional air-cooled VW, but it's not so uncommon to see lowered ones with negative camber. Even though it may also work, I'd rather not do it because of concerns about irregular wear of the tyres.

[freebeard]

I was padding the list.

Z-bars are archaic and act similar to the camber compensator. It's like an anti-roll bar with a twist in the middle.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nxuHXEzDJL...ssis_TopSA.jpg

[freebeard]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcz4duk7MYU