what is this on the rear suspension

Have no idea. Tried to find a link to a manual but they all require buying.
 
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not to worry guys.After a good long google session i found out this is the antiroll bar or z bar introduced in 1967 and the part i am referring to is the downlink bar.
 
dablakmark8 said:
not to worry guys.After a good long google session i found out this is the antiroll bar or z bar introduced in 1967 and the part i am referring to is the downlink bar.
Click to expand...

As far as I know it's actually a camber compensator and not an anti roll bar.
If you think about it it's actually an anti stabiliser bar because it works reverse to a normal stabiliser bar! :erm:

With a normal stabiliser bar if you corner hard the outer rear wheel is pushed up into the wheel well which in turn pulls the inner rear wheel up a bit (via the anti roll bar) to help prevent body roll.
With the z-bar the opposite happens! Inner wheel goes up and it pushes the outer wheel down causing MORE body roll!

The only two things that make sense with the z-bar are:
1. It helps prevent too much squat in the rear when going over bumps or if you have a high performance engine in the rear.
2. It is a camber compensator. Because of the swing arm torsion bar suspension in the rear if both wheels go up or down from level you end up with toe in.
The z-bar tries to keep the axle tubes level when cornering by lowering the outer wheel in a tight turn (causes more body roll but prevents toe in).

Here is a nice article on tuning Beetle suspension for racing. http://www.aircooled.net/gnrlsite/resource/articles/handling.htm
 
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Paul_S is correct :D

The earlier Beetles had the German Roller tag because they didn't have that. It basically stops the independent rear from collapsing in on itself in a corner.
 
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