WickedVetteLT4

I know the car already sits super low but i dont like the fender well gap my car has. Im looking to lower it both front and rear and im curious what would be the best way to do it? What does it cost and where can i buy the lowering kit? What have you guys done to lower your cars?

Thanks in advance!

86PACER

Here

and

Here

texasedirpvette'91

i didnt write this up, but JEFNLSA sent this to me in a pm.i think this will help you out just right.


"Here's a detailed write up I did a few years ago for another Vette owner.
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This should take all the mystery out of lowering your vette:


Since we're having lots of members on all types of vette forums wanting to lower their cars lately, it can also go in the general section or where ever you (moderators) feel it should go.
Heres a "copy and Paste" instructions that I had wriiten out for a fellow member on another forum about a year ago, and also did this same for several other members on different forums so here you go, and I hope this will help you out, some of you with older C-4's will have to buy 1 1/2 inch wheel spacers if you plan on putting on C-5 wheels, these instructions are for C-5 owners as well ........
It's so easy to do! Infact, the hardest thing to do is to cut the rubber off the spring.. that stuff on there is tough! Unbolt the outer tie rod & sway bar, on both sides, loosen the spring retainers which are holding the leaf spring to the frame of the car. (blue arrow in picture below)

On either side that you want to start on first, get a block of wood ( 2 by 4 ) and a small floor jack will be fine, put the wood along with the jack under the spring closest to the a-arm, without it being ON the a-arm itself and slowly jack the spring up until it's not resting on the lower a-arm ( about a 1/4 to an 1/2 inch off )
Disconnect the ABS sensor that's located on the brake assembly, that's very important for you to do so!! ( if yours has one) remove the 2 bolts that are holding the shocks to the lower a-arm (they're located near the spring in the lower a-arm), unbolt the lower ball joint stud nut, you can use a two jaw puller or what I did was unscrew the nut until it covered the end of the stud and with a hammer, tap on the top of the nut and not that hard or you'll ruin either the nut itself or the stud or both. (try using a hard rubber mallet first)

Before doing this, find something to put under the wheel hub.. another block of wood would be fine just to stabilize it and it should come free with no problem!!
Repeat this on the other side and let the pressure off from the 2 by 4 and jack free and you should be able to slide the spring out from either side after you pull back at the wheel hub away little, the spring will slide out from the lower a-arm.
It will not come out all the way if the car is not jacked up high enough and it does not have to!! you just need to be able to slide the spring far enough to be able to reach the rubber mounts.

With a steak knife or I prefered a hack saw blade, saw off the rubber mounts (#1 arrows in picture's) and try not to cut into the spring it's self... take your time, don't rush!!.
Do this on both sides.



(Helpfull hint: while cutting the rubber off, lift up on the side that you started cutting at, at the same time you're cutting away, the reason is that if you dont do this, the rubber will grab onto the knife/sawblade and you'll make very slow progress if any at all. The first side that I did without doing this took me about an hr and a half to cut, until I lifted the rubber up off the blade thats sliding back and forth, the other side took 10 min to complete the job, big difference.)

This will give you the drop that your, I think looking for!!!

The wheels will be, depending on what size rims you've got, if your running stock 17's will be about an 1 inch to an 1 1/4 from the fender wells, and if you want an ultimate drop on your car, take out the lowering screw's (if you own a C-5) shave off those rubber bushings that your leaf spring sits on in the a-arm!! (#2 red arrow in left hand pic) for a maximum drop NO!! THE TIRES WILL NOT RUB!!



For the Rear end, take out the stock bolt's (9 inches) (Red arrow) and replace them with 12 inch bolts, buy some extra washers as well because you'll need them to be able to adjust the height by using them as shims.

Jack up the car, place a jack stand underneath some where stable, once the car is up in the air place your jack underneath the leaf spring with a block of wood between them (Jack and spring) to protect the spring, this will release the tension on the spring and bolt, unscrew the nut, and replace with the longer one, if you need washers on either one of the bolts the washers will go on before threading the bolt back through the the assembly, that's it plan and simple.

You will have to of course hopefully with out saying, take the wheels off to do this job, and the ride is fine, just a little more stiff, and I do mean a little.
A wheel alignment will have to be done but you dont have to go right away but eventualy it will have to be done.

I hope this helps out all who've been wanting to lower their cars .

Pics:





Re: Lowering kit wedges?

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Quote:
Originally Posted by JEFNLSA
Hi,

I'm having the "lowering kit" installed on my 96 tomorrow.
Need to know if I should/should not use the wedges.
Read your posts but I'm kinda confused as to what I need to do here.
Pls reply ASAP!!!

Thx,
Jeff

Hi,

Well thats totally up to how low you actually are willing to go with your ride, you can put the wedges in if you're not sure about the height at first, then simply remove them if you want to go lower, just remember, it (the wedges) will be so much easier to remove then the original wedges were....well thats if you decide on not using the adhesive that comes with this so called lowering kit, me personally, I have a feeling that you'll want to go lower then the wedges will alow you to, so I'd go without the wedges period, dont worry so much about not being able to clamp down the spring tightly as you were able to before removing the wedges but if you are, then have them shave a little bit of the spring clamps down a little just enough to where it'll clamp the spring down just a little bit, not very tightly because if you try tightening down the clamp if it's cut too short, you'll snap the clamp in half, remember, it's only made out of Aluminum, I hope this helps you out and here's a picture I drew up showing what I am talking about.


Now remember this, they (whoever's doing the job for you) will fight to the death saying that you need a wedge of some sort in there, please stick to your guns and tell them that you do not want them in there, mine has not had any there for 3 years now and without having any problems whatsoever, and all the others I've done have had the same results, I will not steer you the wrong way I promise, it'll be safe and fine without the wedges, in fact, I didnt' even do what I'm suggesting to you concerning trimming down the brackets on my car.

[B]Hope this helps man...I copied it from something I had saved.

WickedVetteLT4

Thanks for your help fellas! That is right where i want the car to sit!

What size wheels will i be able to clear at most with it lowered?

17/18? 18/19? 19/20?

What width and backspacing? What tire?

Thanks!!

texasedirpvette'91

you can always go 18" with a lower profile tire, and however wide is up to you. now, i didnt lower my vette. i had plans to and found the how-to, but i drive my car a lot. and you being a fellow Texan, you can relate. Texas roads suck. so i hope you dont plan on driving your car a whole lot. cuz it is gonna scrape. but please when you are done, let us see the end result.

shakedown067

I've lowered my 96. I bought the lowering kit from vette brakes (vbandp.com). I think it was around $70. I took her to a local vette shop and had the front installed for $150. I installed the rear bolts in about half an hour. Then you have to get it aligned. Oh, make sure to get the poly bushings when you get the lowering kit, they are extra.

JEFNLSA

I used the info posted above to lower mine. It's been this way for almost 3yrs...no regrets. I too hated the gaps in the wheel wells and, after lowering, my car now has the stance that it should...and this is w/ 17" wheels.

Goldcylon

Having seen Jeffs car in person it looks BadA$$. I would do this myself but have some killer **** speedbumps in my neighborhood. And sadly a driveway that no matter what the angle makes my blood boil as I scape the air dam. Oh well a normal fair wear and tear item. GC

FOXX

Damn, that's the perfect combo! How many inches front and back did you lower it? Hey, also what is the size of the wheel backspacing and the tire sizes on those cool looking 17's?

JEFNLSA

Thx.

I'm not sure of the exacts on how much lower it is but...alot. Here's an old pic before lowering...you tell me:



and after:



Significant difference!

I have the Grandsport wheels on mine; the fronts are 285/40/17 on 9.5" wheels & the rears are 315/35/17 on 11" wheels. Not sure on the back spacing but it's the standard backspacing for LTx vettes (other than the ZR-1).

shakedown067

That car is one of the reasons mine is sitting much lower. Wishing I would have gone with the wider C5 ZO6 wheels now though.

WickedVetteLT4

This car is the reason i want mine lowered now for sure! Almost talked myself out of it because of the Texas roads comment above... lol! Well, ill deal with it i guess. Im gonna hate speed bumps and rough roads but man, its gonna look so much better! I hate wheels well gap!

There were a couple nice cars posted up here i like alot. I guess this one fits my car a little better because the wheels and stuff are very similar... just different color. The black on black looks amazing! Almost make me want black! lol!

Thanks fellas!!

jdc

That is one of the best looking C4's I've seen , the ride height is perfect .

WickedVetteLT4

As far as the wheels go, is there a specific backspacing you must have to make this work without any issues? I believe my wheels are the right offset at the moment but i will be buying new ones soon and i dont want to get wheels i cant use.

I would like to stay with a 17x11 in the rear and a 17x9.5 up front if possible with a 275/285 up front and a 315 out back. I love the look of wide wheels and handling is much better too.

I know to run a 335 or 345 which i would like to do requires some work to make them fit especially on a lowered car so ill prob stick with a 315 at the largest. Besides, after 315, tire prices jump up quite a bit...

JEFNLSA

I have 285's up front & 315's out back. My 315's (GS D3's) stick out past the fender well just a tad but, even though my car is quite low w/ not much clearance, they never rub - nor does the front for that matter. The QA1 shocks play a BIG part in that though...I have the fronts set on 6 & the rears on 4, so the car is rock sold but still feels great. an elephant could sit on this sucker and she'd barely move, yet the dampening is incredible...the ride is really not that harsh. Stiff but fine over bumps. I had KYB's for a short time and they felt like **** compared to these....even over bumps.

WickedVetteLT4

Sweet! I plan to run the same size tires and i want the QA-1's. Since you said you had them, i have been looking them up and everyone seems to love them!

WickedVetteLT4

Bumpin it up... Good write up... Figured someone else might wanna use it...

Ill be doing this ASAP!

FOXX

+1! It's in my subscribe folder!

So do the QA-1 shocks still work with the adjustable ride height (FX3)? What's the pros vs. cons with these?

WickedVetteLT4

Dont know but i gotta get a pic of my streetbike with my vette. I like your avatar pic...

smack123

JEFNLSA - I have to tell you, I HATE black rims on all cars, including Corvettes, but wholly SH** does your car look sharp.

It must be the whole package (lowering, rims, tint, paint), but wow, does that ever look good!!!