I had my '69 in the shop in the Spring, and one of the things I had them do was adjust my ride height to get it as close to factory specs as they could. It always rode "*** high", and they managed to get it pretty close.

I never looked under the car or did any measurements after the work, as I was happy with the way it looked. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when I had cause to be looking under the rear, and I saw the nut in what appeared to be a position where it looked about ready to come off. I counted myself lucky and yesterday got around to lifting the RR corner and began moving the nut up with the idea of matching it to the other side. As I was doing it it occurred to me the difference in the 2 sides might have been an attempt to balance the 4 corners, and I recalled the shop manager mentioning longer leaf spring bolts. I put the car back down and drove it to settle the suspension back in. Now the ride height is at least 3/4" higher on the RR where I adjust as compared to the LR.

My question is two-fold. The pics below show the left, then the right before and after I adjusted. Does the RR look safe before I adjusted? Would my "tightening" the nut explain the ride height differential? I have no experience working on suspensions and will value any input.


Left Rear

Right Rear before adjustment

Right Rear after adjustment

 

The more thread showing the higher the body height, providing those are stock length bolts. They come in different lengths to customize your rear ride height.

The passenger side nut looks off kilter. Perhaps it was cross-threaded, IDK. I sure would not want the adjustment nut that close to the end. There were pictures on here last yr what happens when that nut comes off. Not pretty.

Anyway, that nut should, I mean MUST be a nylon locking nut. Or, the bolt itself must have a pin hole at the bottom for a cotter pin. Either / or / Both

Myself, I don't trust todays long term quality of nylon lock nuts. You have some heat back there from the exhaust. Heat likes to destroy plastic / nylon. I prefer the cotter pin way of insuring that never comes loose.
You can always re-drill a new pin hole location using a drill press where you want it, closer to the nut. A new hole does not weaken the bolt at the point where there isn't any stress at the bottom anyway.

 

Make sure the spring is centered. Another suggestion would be remove spring and reverse upon reinstallation. Sometimes they are stronger on one side. The nuts should be fairly close in location upon completion. And Heads UP cotter pin is a good safety measure. T

 

Castle Nut and Cotter Pin

 

I drove for years with just nyloc nuts. They never moved, but I eventually drilled a hole and installed a cotter pin at the end just to be sure.

 

Those are not stock bolts, they extend past the wheel rim. Those nuts do not have to be as high as you set it. A few threads should protrude no need for more.

 

the nuts have to be as high as you want the car. the excess can and should be cut off. a bubba cotter pin would be take a chisel and damage a thread at the very bottom of the bolt. then you could take a grinder and grind-cut the dinged thread if when you need to remove the nut.

 

You must also remember that the nyloc nut will stay in place but you can not keep adjusting it. Once set it should be replaced upon removal. Original bolts have a cotter pin hole and used a castle nut.

 

I forgot to mention that I bought bolts 2" longer than needed in case I wanted to lower the rear more....I drilled a hole for a cotter in for safety's sake and used "Punched" nuts that will not back off. I flipped the bolt so the head is down...it looks better that way IMHO.
I rebuilt the main leaf since it really began sagging alot.

 

I like that idea..........gonna do that this week.............

 

"For safety sake" ya better order some tires!!! lol I like the idea of flipping the bolts...

 

Not to pick on @doorgunner, that may be a fine solution, and does look better. Just keep in mind that doing this makes it impossible to add a stock-style swaybar. Below is a photo of my rebuilt rear end, with the swaybar bracket in stalled (but swaybar disconnected). With my shortened leaf spring, the effect is exaggerated, but you can see that the bolt is at an angle even with the weight on the suspension. Where the bolt passes through the top of the control arm, is there sufficient clearance to prevent a bind or twist of the arm?

Those are nylock nuts on bolts from VB&P.

 

In addition to the good ideas mentioned, if the rear is a bit high/low at one corner, be sure to check the rear camber. If the camber is off it can definitely cause a 'height' issue too.

 

I respectively disagree.

 

Hi Sunflower, I appreciate your comment, and the way you approached it. I probably would have disagreed too, if I hadn't experienced this myself 2 months ago with our '68. I had noticed that the car had very recently developed a 'shutter' at 50-60 mph and figured that one of the front tires had thrown a weight and gone out of balance and was going to have it checked.

Our son was the first to notice that the rear was sitting lower on one side. After our son mentioned this, I measured it and it was a little over an inch lower on one side. I put it on the lift and started to raise it and noticed that the camber was way off on the left rear - so much so that the tire was visibly 'tilted'. I followed the service manual on how to adjust the rear cam and adjusted it to where the manual measurement was 'close enough' to get it professionally aligned. Re-checked and the height of each side was within 1/16". I took the car for a ride and the 'shutter' was gone - for about 2-3 minutes and it came back. When I got back home, the rear height was off again, and so was the camber.

Long story short, the left cam bolt was stripped and would no longer hold. I found some NOS cam bolts on ebay, took it to an alignment shop, and got everything fixed. Rear height is now perfect, shutter is gone, and it drives great again. Alignment shop said it looked like someone before had tightened the bolts with an air gun, stripped the one, and that one finally would no longer hold, and that was what had also effected the rear height. I know 'the book's' say that ride height effects camber and not necessarily the other way around, but this is exactly what happened to me, so that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

 

Thank you for the explanation.