Since I have seen numerous discussion on how to lower your car I decided to do a write up with pictures showing how. I get out of high school everyday at 12:15 so I have to have something to occupy my time.

I purchased my 8'' grade 8 bolts and nylon locking nuts at a local hardware store for $12.00.

First things first I jacked up the rear and placed it on jack stands. Remove your rear wheels.

I had to remove my sway bar mounts in order to get to the spring bolts. The place your jack under the end of the leaf spring. Most say to use a clamp and a piece of wood to keep your jack from sliding but I used the clamp that was on the spring. Once you jack up the spring and have taken pressure off of the nut, unbolt the nut. Then slowly lower the jack so that the spring is fully arched.

Remove the old bolt. Slide the bushings onto the new bolt and place it back into the trailing arm. Raise the spring back up with the jack.


Put on the lower bushing and then the nylon locking nut. I fully bolted down the nut to begin with.

Connect the sway bar mount and repeat on the other side. Put the wheels back on and drive the car around the block to let the suspension settle and see how it sits. I had to unbolt mine about 2 turns to get it to where I wanted it to ride at.

Clearance to the tire isn't a problem. My sway bar mount is actually closer than my spring but I did trim the bottom threads of the bolt off. The whole job took me no more than 30 minutes. If I had to do it again I would have replaced the bushings at the same time but it won't be hard to do that a few weeks from now.

Sorry for the large pictures. I can't figure out why photobucket only resizes some pictures in threads.

Hope this helps some of you that want to lower your car.

 

Nice job. I'd drill a small hole in the bolts and put cotter pins through just to be sure.

 

It ain't going nowhere with those locknuts and the tension of the spring pushing against the nuts.

 

Nice job on the write up. I may ease out this evening and see if I can't find me some bolts like this and do a little lowering on mine.

Lots of good ideas poping up on the forum here lately.

 

Nice job showing how to do it. I have had my rear end and spring out 3 times in the last year so I knwo that process very well.

I can only add the following: When adjusting the nut position on the bolt to lower/raise it more be sure to support the spring and take pressure of the nut. The spring is so strong it will force the nut to crossthread if you wind it under load.

Don't ask me how I know!!!

Pete

 

Thanks for the writeup and tips. I ordered a 9 leaf spring from a catalog last week and it should arrive today. I am planning to replace my rear spring this weekend. From reading multiple posts, I am expecting it to ride too high after the change, and need to go with the 8 inch bolts. Thanks for your photos and write up.

kdf

 

Will definitely give this a try

 

Hey great write up with great pics that's what I like about the forum.. I think you have the bottom flat washer installed upside down.. The rounded edge should be up against the rubber donut.... Dave...

 

Now you need some new rubber or urethane donuts. Great writeup with pictures.

 

I'm personally a little leary of the nylon locking nuts for this job...my local hardware store has castle nuts in a range of sizes. I'd grind a small flat on the threads near the end of the bolt with a Dremel (are you listening Olivier? ), use a center punch to assure an accurate start, drill a hole through at the correct spot, thread the nut into correct position, and put in a cotter pin. THEN you can be sure that the nut will never back off. The same could be done without the castle nuts, but cotter pins are not made of particularly strong metal, and I could imagine the pin eventually shearing off if the nut started to work its way down the threads...

just my .02

 

From the last small photo it looks like the bolt comes down farther than the bottom of your rim. If that is the case THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS. If you get a flat tire, that bolt will hit the pavement and rip out your entire rear end. There are plenty of threads on the forum about this.

If it just looks like it in the photo, nevermind. But if it does hang down too far you are asking for trouble.

 

Remember to give those new nuts and bolts a shot of clear spray to help with the rust and retain color.

 

Good pics ... nice write up.

Those look like yellow zinc plated grade 8 bolts .. shold hold
up pretty well to the elements, but some satin clear never hurts.

I would like to add something: In the back of the AIM, they have
a chart for swapping various front springs and rear bolts ... to
get the factory ride height dialed in. It is noted that a longer
rear bolt will not only drop the rear, but it will also push the front
bumper up. So, now you cut a little spring in the front ... lowered
accordingly, but now the rear sits a tad higher. So, don't expect
to dial it in perfect without a few tries.

I'm not really looking forward to adjusting ride height when I get
her all together. Hopefully the new springs aren't too far off.

 

My favorite way to lower the rear is to accelerate....

Sorry I had to...