VW Beetle CAMBER COMPENSATOR
Original text by James Sly,
This article copied from the VWTrends magazine.
Keeping that vintage Volkswagen on the road is a great goal when you're talking about
restoring some '50s or '60s Beetle and using it for a daily driver. Once it's all back
together and you're rolling on a southern California freeway when a hot Santa Ana wind
blows in, keeping that vintage Volkswagen on the road takes on a entirely different meaning.
As the Beetle does an involuntary samba to the left or right with each new gust of wind,
one of VWs least desirable characteristics makes itself known. High speed and high winds?
High drama, to say the very least. Even an 18-wheeler screaming by becomes an event to the
driver of a vintage Volkswagen while the Passat driver doesn't even notice. A car that feels
terrifying to the driver isn't going to be much fun for daily use, is it? Luckily, there
are a few simple changes that can make any Beetle feel a lot safer and drive down the road
with much greater stability. This time around we'll pay attention to taming the swing axle
rear suspension. Next time we'll look at the hows and whys of front anti-roll bars for the
Beetle, and follow it up with discussions on shock absorbers and wheel alignment issues.
These are simple changes, and they have made an enormous difference in our 1964 Beetle
-the terror is gone, and driving the car has become a real pleasure.
The Sway-A-Way Camber Compensator fits all swing axle
Type 1 and Type 2 cars with manual transmissions up to 1968
. The product is quite simple in design and easy to install. We've assembled it here so you can see
how it fits together. Essentially, the camber compensator is a simple leaf spring that pivots
on a bracket bolted to the bottom of the transmission. Polyurethane end pieces cup the rear axle
and prevent it from moving into the dangerous downward position. Because the axle simply rests
on the urethane, upward motion is unchanged. This means the Sway-A-Way camber compensator does
not affect ride quality the way some designs can. Vintage guys will propably want to paint this
one black - or wait around for a NOS Empi compensator.