Help! I have a slight issue with my 1985. I have recently rebuilt my entire rear suspension (bushing, ujoints, sway bar, strut rods, etc) as well as installed the longer bolts for lowering. At the same time I installed some 1" wheel adapters with stock 2002 Z06 wheels. I am having trouble balancing the ride height from left to right on the car. I set the bolts to the same length of bolt remaining and the right (from the rear of the car) sits higher by approx 1"! I removed one of the sides for the sway bar because I remember reading something about that here on the forum influencing the height from torsion, but to no avail.

Any ideas? Any help would be appreciated..

Richard

 

I have the same issue, my lowered 96 sits higher on the right rear with the left wheel sitting in about 3/4"

Help would be very appreciated

Thank you

 

I think you find this to be common, I have read many posts with the same aggravating experience. What I did was to adjust the height bolts unevenly to get the car level.
I am convinced it is not an issue from the rear (that is the result) but moreso the front spring weakening on drvers side. This is not a fact but only my thoughts, run a search at least you won't feel left out.
I believe the post you refer to was shimming w/washers on the sway bar.

 

Front spring?! But the unevenness is in the rear of the vehicle? I would actually think that it is a result of the rear spring wearing out not the front?

The thing that bothers me is that the car was level before the rebuild, so how is it that the longer bolts/lowering and all the other stuff I did to the vehicle would change the ride height. Further, I tried to adjust with the bolts, but basically am getting a bit too close for comfort with the nut to the end of the bolt to hold the suspension together!

Maybe during removal I messed up the rear spring by compressing it too much?

Richard

 

I have dealt with this situation as well, even though I have coil overs.

I'm not sure how you are adjusting the level but I was having an issue witht he front and found that the sway bar was adding some preload into the adjustments...~oops you checked that~~~~

I would agree that it probably has nothing to do with the parts you replaced... What may be happening is perhaps the tension of the spring as it is lowered may not be as close tolerance wise as when in stock form....

In my case I just adjust the spring height to compensate... the other thing that crosses my mind the trailing are bushings, did you torque them at the ride level of the car also with the sway bar disconnected. Perhaps there is some torque that is lifting that side?

Hope this helps,

Mo

 

Another thought after looking through more of the archives...

Maybe I need to replace the spacers for the rear spring? There were several spacers (~1") and ~.5" of paper shim material. Do you guys know what would be the appropriate part numbers or where I can get the parts to replace the shims and paper shim material.

I seem to remember that one side of the spring retainer was much tougher to install when I put the spring back into the car.

All thoughts and input appreciated!

Richard

 

I torqued the trailing arm bushings before connecting the sway bar and before the spring was installed. Since I tore the entire suspension apart I had that luxury of putting stuff in the order the manual suggested.

Richard

 

Good deal...

Yes perhaps you may just need to move the shims around...

Mo

 

 

Getting my ride height level required a few things:

1. Relocating the battery to the rr storage compartment. This helped level the front, by evening out the weight distribution.

2. Adjusting the rear spring bolts independently to get the rear as level as possible with spring preload. Note: All shims are below the spring.

3. Shimming the rear sway bar on the low side equal to the ride height difference (3/8" in my case). This had the effect or raising the low side and lowering the high side. You can search for my post on this topic.

4. Re-adjusting the rear spring bolts again to dial it in to the desired height.

I now have ride heights at the wheel arch center of 27 1/8" at both rears and 26 1/16" at both fronts. With a gap of 3 fingers on the rear and 2 fingers on the front.

One reason that these cars do not sit level is the weight is not evenly distibuted from left to right. I lost my corner weight data (was stored in my palm and my backed up was lost, oops) but from what I remember there was a 50-70 lb difference with the passenger side being lighter than the driver's side.

Also the driver's side front was the heaviest, and the passenger side rear was the lightest overall. This is why moving the battery comes in handy.

Since the same spring is used the passenger side will naturally sit higher, unless the spring is pre-loaded independently. This cannot easily be accomplished at the front axle, therefore I started moving weight around (battery).

Good luck in your efforts.

 

I evened my car out by raising the nut on the low side.

Mike

 

Did you check for free suspension movement on all four corners? The bushing kits can bind up when torqued to spec, preventing movement of the control arms, and affecting the ride, and ride height. I'd check this first. I had to grind down some aluminum to get the parts to pivot like they should.

 

If it was even to begin with, then I would look at the new install, as CC and others stated something may be bound up. I suggested the front as source, because if you raise the car from the left front, right rear will go down as the whole left side tries to lift. In other words the front also has an effect on the rear. Likewise from rear has an effect on front, lowering the height bolt on right rear raises left front. The front leaf having the biggest load due to motor weight/cornering etc. should be the first to fatigue. I leveled mine using the bolts in the rear, but I plan on attacking the front assembly on mine.
I think there are other ways, as tequila states, shim front spring differently, coilovers etc. When I finally come to wits end on this myself I think using coilovers is the best solution to all of this buisness. MO

 

I had to lower one nut more(about 3/4'') than the other to cure mine.

 

Your problem is not that uncommon.
First question. Did you you use poly bushing on your rebuild? If so the poly could be binding your rear suspension.
Second question. Did you torque up the suspension bolts at ride height or with the suspension extended in droop? Is so, bushing are being preloaded.
Third question: did you mark the rear spring spacers when you removed the spring and did you replace them in the same order? You can add or reduce spring shims to get ride height level with spring bolts even in height. FWIW.

Larry

 

1. Poly
2. Installed and torqued at droop
3. I kept the sides (passenger & driver) seperate, but I did not keep the shims in any particular order since I couldnt see any difference in keeping track of that.

If the suspension is preloaded from the poly bushings, where do you think I should look first? Maybe the trailing arms? Do you recommend pulling them and greasing the outside of the bushing? Come to think of it I did not grease the outside of the bushing where it contacts the vehicle frame. This could be contributing...

What grease should I use for this and where do I get it (since I am out of what comes with the kit)?

Richard

 

1) I would loosen bolts and use floor jack to move suspension to ride height. I would then retorque bolts per manual spec.
2) As far as binding, its the trailing arm bushings, especially if they have not been lubed. I just installed some on my latest C4. I had to drive it for a week or two before the bushing took a set and loosened up. I could tell in my ride height.
3) To relevel the spring you can try moving a shim from the low side to the high side.
4) The bushing grease is available at most speed shops. You only have to grease between the inner sleeve and the bolt. Don't grease between the sleeve and the bushing or the bushing and the trailing arm. Good luck.

Larry

 

The bushings should pivot around the sleeve, which is clamped in place by the bolt. Lube the bushing ID and OD anyways though. The bushing is sometimes too wide and this causes binding. If this is your cause, you won't be able to move the suspension pieces by hand when torqued to spec.

The fix to this would be to either cut down the poly bushing a tiny bit narrower (hard to do), or grind the aluminum down a bit allowing the bushings to slide in further, or just put em on, and wait for them to wear in, if they ever do. The problem is in the material, if they were rubber, a little extra bushing width wouldn't be a problem.

 

Whoops! Sometimes the brain doesn't register what it wrote. I got it wrong. You lube between the outer portion of the sleeve and the inner portion of the poly bushing. The sleeve is clamped by the bolt to the mounting bracket and can't move. the poly bushing rotates around the
sleeve.

Larry

 

If the bushing is too fat, the sleeve will move with it, if it moves at all. When the sleeve pivots around the bolt, then you've defeated the whole point of the bushing.