Not to spoil this thread in amyway, BUT...my 82 is 27.5 front and 28 rear and the car has been 160mph with a C6 friend next to me to verify the speed, in Mexico of course. I did not see any handling issues and didn't feel light in the front either. I was expecting this to happen at 125ish, but it didn't. This speed was with an earlier 383 CFI build, but hadn't changed gears yet and had the a 2.73 It had legs forever. I could not do that today with the car. I was also in a 69 C3, 427 4speed car and went 147mph and it handled great at speed, maybe the weight of the BB helped? My car does sit a bit lower than most for sure, that may have had something to do with things as well. BTW, nice 82s.

 

Thanks for the input. Definitely going to lower the rear, since I'll just be doing the longer bolts, I'm pretty sure it'll leave the back up a tad higher still.

 

My thoughts exactly. I'll be having the alignment done since new tires are going on and apparently the right front control arm bolt loosened up and some of the alignment shims have fallen out, that I've never seen.

 

Thanks for the input. "BTW, nice 82", thanks man, just needs some basics and hopefully the new ECM and chip corrects the high idle and CEL. If not, I may need to consult with you about it, folks say you're the CFI knowledge base and guru.

 

Stock bolts are sitting right where they should be, Castle nut and cotter pin sets it at the bottom of the bolt. Just ordered a bolt set from RPI designs. Correct style black bolt using a cotter pin and Castle nut.

8¾ total length and 8 to the cotter pin.

 

This video might be helpful for you:

 

Excellent video, thank you for sharing. Did it end up settling down after a drive?

 

Just curious, where are you getting a new ECM? Myself and others may need one some day...thanks...

Good move on getting the bolts with the castellated nuts, I'd at least have a second locking nut with the nylock ones..

60

 

It's a remanufactured one, not "new", but new for the car. It took a lot of looking around. I found it at Dino's Corvette Salvage. Their site listed it, but said to call for availability and I got lucky, he had one on the shelf, ready to go. Other than that the only other option was to send my old one out to A1 Cardone to be rebuilt.

On the bolts, I was happy to find some that had a factory like appearance, black oxide finish, castle nut/pin set up. I didn't like how a gold finished over threaded bolt and a nylock would look. Not that you'd see it, but I'd know it was there. Kit was a good price compared to others, $56, ecklers wanted $81 for a gold bolt type kit.

 

Thanks. It's still winter here, so no chance to drive it yet. But just sitting for weeks (and rolling back and forth on the lift a bit) has settled it down some more.

 

Something to be aware of: pay attention to your shocks and bump stops when you start lowering the rear. My 82 sits at around 27.5" fender height and was nearly on the bump stops sitting stationary. It would bottom out regularly before I trimmed the rubber to allow for more travel and now my shocks bottom out barely after the trailing arms hit the bump stops.

 

Thank you for that tip. I'll be sure to check that. Seems like 27.5 is the magic number. A couple other ppl mentioned that number too.

 

My 82 has the factory gymkhana suspension option. It’s ~ 28.5” to the bottom of the fender on all 4 corners.

I’d like to drop 1” but there’s so little ground clearance already. I have Nitto Invo tires 255/50-17” that actually measure 26.5” versus listed specs of 27.05”. I’ll most likely look for a tire that actually measures a full 27” when the time comes.

 

I can see your full post in the forum email, but actually I'm the forum, odd error. That suspension has the steel multi-leaf spring in the rear? 27.5 was mentioned a few times in the thread. Folks also said to watch the bump stop clearance and shocks for bottoming out.

 

Yes the gymkhana suspension has the steel rear leaf spring and higher rate front springs. Not sure if 82s with the gymkhana sit higher than the standard suspension.

 

Sweet ride. What's your thoughts on the HD suspension vs standard?

 

I have about 1/2" difference between the left and right side rear on my 1975 coupe.
Are there any concerns about tightening the bolt on the left side to get the ride height equal on both sides? Seems pretty straight forward, however I would like to know from the folks here if this is a no-no.
Right side sits at 27-3/4" measured through the wheel centerline to the fender lip, which looks good to me.

 

Is the front equal height side to side?

 

I had some work done on the rear end at a local Chevrolet dealership. When they returned the car it was seriously jacked up in the rear. It was so high that all I could see was the rear spoiler in the reverse mirror. The tech told me that the spring would re-settle after they re-installed it. Give it time and the problem will go away. Years later, with the same issue I started eating the half shaft u-joints because they were at too sharp an angle to operate smoothly. The half shafts would get noisy and I had several mechanics look at it ($$). At the next Corvettes@Carlisle I met an older gentleman at VB&P who simply laughed at my story and sold me a set of 2 longer Grade 8 bolts with nuts. Now I can go out and change the angle of the rear of the car simply by tightening the two bolts to go up and loosen the bolts to drop the rear.

C3 Corvettes were much worse than the C2's are with their Nose-lift at higher speeds. My C3 started life as a BB Corvette and has the heavy duty goodies associated with the high Hp versions. I have a 3.36 rear end and my 427 will happily go up to just above 100 mph and the steering starts to feel a bit looser on smooth asphalt (like a runway) The faster you went, it stayed on the ground but gave bad steering sensation of the light contact of the front tires. On a racetrack I was able to go as fast as I could in the 1/4 mile without the front end issue. I am not sure I would ask my C3 to go any faster without a good 1978 Pace car Spoiler mounted securely to the front end.

Somebody here needs to design an active Aero system and make parts like a variable front spoiler that adjusts on the fly. It wouldn't be that hard on cars with some space down there.

 

Yes. Both sides sit right at 28-1/4".