Front End Work

Mounting the front axle was not too much of a problem, however mounting a new TRW steering box turned out to be a challenge. There are two locating pins on the backside of the upper torsion spring tube on the front axle. The pins are alternately used to mount the steering box for a Beetle, or a Ghia, depending upon how you orient the mounting plate. When I mounted my box, it certainly did not align center with the hole for the steering tube in the car body. I believed that the mounting pin was located improperly, and proceded to grind it off the axle beam tube. Bad move. I contacted several resources and found out where the pin was supposed to be, and welded (actually, JB-Welded) a replacement pin on the axle tube, and then remounted the steering box. The box still does not seem to align properly with the body, but the direction comes from reliable sources, so I'm going ahead.

As you can see from the pics, everything seem to work out OK. We'll see for sure, when it's time to install the steering column.

On this work, in addition to the new steering box, there are new tie rods, a new steering damper, new shocks, new inner and outer wheel bearings, and powdercoated the discs.