Dusky

Hi!
quick question.
Whats the stock ride height on the rear? Mine is still quite high, even after sitting 2 weeks now. Waiting on my brake distribution block to actually drive it.

derekderek

27-3/4 inches top of inside fenderwell to ground.

Alan 71

Hi D,
"top of inside fender-well"

I wouldn't say to the top of the fender well...
I'd say just under 28" from the ground to the 'top/center of the wheel arch opening'.

This dimension is directly affected by the size of the wheel and the height of the tire.

For 68-72 cars the dimension was based on a F70-15 tire which is about 27" tall.

Regards,
Alan

F70-15 tires.
The front is about 1/2" low and the rear is about 1/2" high.

Dusky

Cheers!

Looks like there was only 1 image uploaded :p

69autoXr

The car has to roll for the suspension to settle. Don't make decisions on ride height until you're able to move the car.

Dusky

Moved it 20-30 meter. Quite high!
I don't have the front and rear bumper extensions on atm. How much of a ride height difference should I expect from that? I don't plan on refitting the front bumper extension. The rear will be refitted probably.

Alan 71

Ho D,
The extensions may have just a very small impact on the ride height.

The way the rear of the car is 'sitting' certainly doesn't appear to be typical.
It may help folks understand what's going on with your suspension if you'd post some photos showing the complete suspension from side to side.

Have you been doing work on the suspension.... and what was the ride height like originally?
Regards,
Alan

jb78L-82

What little is showing of the transverse leaf spring in your picture indicates that is not the OEM steel spring and/or it has been worked on...AKA re-arched. I had a friend with a Bahama blue 74 L-82 4 speed in the 80's that the OEM spring "rebuilt" locally and the spring arch was way out of spec afterwards. Your car looks similiar......

Dusky

Cheers!

I'm glad you say it looks weird, because it looks weird to me too, almost like it's jacked up!
Everything on the rear suspension has been rebuilt, the rear spring has not been changed though. ( Not by me anyway! )
It looked like this before :

some pics of the rear suspension now :





I did shim body mount #4 quite a bit to make the doors fit properly, but I don't think ( THINK!) that would cause such a big difference.

ezobens

Not sure if it's just the camera angle but the car seems to be sitting really high all the way around?
The front appears to be just as high as the rear....

Alan 71

Hi D,
The body mount work could have only minimal affect on ride height.

The first thing I notice is that the half-shafts appear to be at 2 different angles.
Typically they would be the same.
Also, typically the half-shafts would be parallel or nearly parallel with the road surface.

The spring has 8 leafs... I believe original and replacement springs had 7, 9, or 10.
Do you know where this spring came from?

Again, have you been working on the suspension???
Is this ride height problem something new???
How long have you owned this car?

Regards,
Alan

Dusky

Front is high too indeed, but the front has new springs as well, so I'm hoping those will settle a bit too. Moog 57XX ( non AC springs)

You can see most of the work carried out on the car here : http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/dusk...c3-505921.html

I thought that the halfshafts should be parralel to the road too, i've a C4 corvette too, so I can take a peek there once in a while.

The supension ( front and rear) have been fully disasembeled. Bushings etc were all changed ( can see most in that build thread).
It wasn't this high when I bought it, bought it in october, then started the resto.
I might be miscounting, but I thought it's 7 leaves ( leafs?) and 1 spacer?

The car has been in the air for a while as you can see, I expected it to be high, but no this high!

The only real mod I did was solid mounting the diff ( omitting those big rubber bushes in the rear crossmember, as per that chevy chassis manual)

cheers

revitup

Looks like there are still shipping bands on the spring. They should be removed. Might help a little, very little. You could also get rid of that spacer on top of the spring stack. That'll get you another 1/4 inch. Again, not much.

Alan 71

Hi D,
I took whatever is on the top of the spring to be a leaf since 9 leaf springs have 3 flat leafs at their top.... I though this was the top lip and had been cut short.
Regards,
Alan

I'm looking at the bottom mount of the shock absorber in your photo. It doesn't appear to be fully seated.
Is that causing the suspension to 'bind'.
Do the shocks pass the 'bounce test'?

This space shouldn't be there.

Dusky

Hey!

I'm glad it's a 7 leaf, getting a different spring over here in Belgium would be a royal pita.
Sadly I don't think it's the problem, I've been jumping up and down the car a few times already. I just hadn't tightened those yet, as I tend to wait with tightening suspension components till the car is relatively settled, but it seems like there is a different problem here!
I could probably get away with using longer bolts on the rear, but I don't know if that would be the cure to the problem, or just a way to mask the problem? Watever the problem might be..
i still have some time to figure it out though. I'm only planning on getting it back on the road in march 2019..

As always, thanks for the time you spend on me guys

Alan 71

Hi D,
Using longer bolts treats the symptom but not the cause.

The original spring was designed to be 'progressive'. The 3 upper leafs didn't become part of the spring's load carrying spec until the spring's arch was almost totally expended.

Have you measured the ride height? How many inches are you looking for?

Thinking about the front springs... are they a GM spring or aftermarket?
Do they have 3 coils that are closer together than the rest of the coils?
Are both the top and bottom coil properly seated in the 'valleys' in the upper frame pocket and lower a-arm?
Regards,
Alan

The 3 straight leafs.
I don't know if the spring you're using should have some straight leafs or not.

blue by you

what size tires do you have on the car, they look small

Dusky

Hey!

From the ground to the highest point on the wheelarch it's 30" on the rear, 27,75 inch on the front
From the ground to the bottom of the frame it's 8.66 inches on the rear

it has MOOG springs on the front, MOOG 5758 http://www.moog-suspension-parts.com/moog-5758
They're aligned properly in the bottom pocket, but they're not clocked like the original springs, so I have no idea how the situation is at the top.
But the front looks like it's near stock ride height, still needs a few parts fitting on the front ( radiator,carb,alternator) so it might lower a little bit too. ( And settle when eventually driving).
Tempting to cut half a coil off the springs on the front though, just to give it the slightly sleeker look.


Would the 7 leaf/ gymkhana spring also have those small springs that are not load carrying at rest? Mine isn't like that anyway.
The worst part about this car is not knowing what has happened to it in the previous life!
When I bought it it was significantly lower, but then again, the birdcage was just resting on the frame because the body mounts were plain rotted away...
The red car in the picture you've posted is the look I want to go for, wich I assume is stock?

Tire size is 215/65/15

Thanks!

Alan 71

Hi,
It's very possible that the 7 leaf spring didn't have the straight leafs.

The body mount change could account for some of the difference but certainly not all of it.

How many of the 8 body mounts did you repair.
Can you post a photo of the result at mount #4?
Regards,
Alan

Dusky

Body mount 4 is ( funnily enough) the only one I didn't really touch, because it's fibreglass and couldn't rust out like the rest did
I added a 3mm plate on the frame to reinforce it, and it has around 0.5" of shimming on there
What I did think about, is it possible to bolt the bracket that holds the rear strut rods ( tie rods? or camber rods? I don't know all the specific names in American english) on wrong?
That's about the only thing I can think of that could be holding it atm. Although I don't really see how it would influence the ride height that much without just bending..