What is the most easiest way to lower my 89 C4 front and rear?

 

Let the air out of your tires


The rear is easy enough....replacing a couple bolts with some longer ones.
The front is a different story which may warrant using the search function on this one as people have done a few different things depending on the year.

Remove shims, leave shims, remove some shims, remove pad at the end of the leaf spring....ETC.

 

That's absolutely correct. The front is a real PITA to lower.

It's a job you can do in your driveway or carport but if you have to do it on the concrete you will 'pay extra' for a few days afterward... unless you are under 30 years old.
I'm 57 and felt like I'd been squashed by my Vette for a few days after doing this, TWICE.
Read on to find out why I had to do it more than once.

The NEXT easiest way to lower the FRONT is to buy a new spring from VB&P.
Tell them how much you want to lower the front and they'll match you up with a spring of the correct rate and less arch.

Here's what I recall about replacing my front spring after the lowering kit fiasco:

Jack the front end up about 3 feet.
Disconnect the top ball joint or bottom ball joint.
Remove the spring retainer bolts.
I don't recall clearly if I had to disconnect the tie rod ends from the steering arms but I think I had to do that too.
Move the knuckle down and out of the way so the spring can come out.
Remove the old spring and install the new one.

Nothing to it, it's just a LOT of work particularly if you don't have a lift and have to do it on a hard, concrete, floor.

BTW, if you use a pickle bar on the ball and tie rod end joints you will destroy the dust/grease boot.
Go find some new ones before you even begin the job.
I'm not going to say how I get mine loose but mo-khanics do it that way every day. It involves a 'BFH'.

The lowerng kit and cutting off the spring pads on the original spring did almost nothing to lower the front of my '91.
Plus it was a heck'uv'a LOT of work to try out the lowering kit.

Longer mounting bolts are available for the rear if you want to lower further than the stock bolts allow.
Lowering the rear is a real piece of cake compared to the front even if you replace the spring bolts with longer ones.

I DO recall clearly the 'lowering kit' which was no 'lowering kit' at all.
But that lowering kit gave me a LOT of experience with taking the front spring out and putting it back in.

Disclaimer:
It's been a few years since I did mine so if some of this isn't correct I supply no warranty with this information, free advice is worth what you pay for it sometimes.

 

Every time I read about this it seems like a lot of work for 1 inch. If it were any other kind of car, your work would get you 2, 2 1/2 inches, which would, to me, be worth it.
I also consider how mine handles so well, especally at triple digits, and would this effect that? I think it would, and since I'm a driver............

 

I don't know about the coupes, but on my vert I was able to get more than a 1" drop and it was relatively inexpensive and easy. IMO the verts look too high stock!

Mike

Before



after

 

And it did a great service to the yard also!

 

 

What the heck is a BFH ???
By the way, Nice Yard...

 

http://www.vbandp.com/

BFH? That's a Big 'Freakin' Hammer.

They have some really good ones at the big orange box store (HD).
The name on them is "Max Fubar". I love that name for a hammer.
I can hear it now: "Wait a minute Joe, I'll get that apart for ya. Lemme get my "Maximum Fubar" out of the toolbox.

VB&P can fix you up with as far 'low as ya wanna go'.
They will want to know what your base suspension is and if you want to stay with the spring rates you have or go softer or harder on the spring rates.

If you go REALLY low, check your camber afterthe car settles out.
May as well check the toe also. Use a string or tape measure for toe, it's cheap, quick and easy.

I've got the front of my '91 down to where the top of the tire just barely touches the inner wheel well on those 'Max Fubar' manuevers.
(There I got to use that term again )
It's just made a tiny mark in the plastic wheel well. It doesn't touch under heavy braking but it will when cornering hard.

Don't ask about the front air dam. That dam dam scrapes everything, even already mashed roadkill.
I should have taken it off and trimmed an inch or so off it.
Now, it's trimmed itself, but, it looks like poop. Trim may be the wrong word...grinded off unevenly is more like it. Hey, it looks like it's been worked on by ta-da... Mr. MAX FUBAR.

If you go with the 'lowering kit' method, IMHO you won't get what you want and it's the same work to just change the spring and do it right.

 

VD&P is for sure the way to go, i just want an inch off (there's a joke there but I wont get my lady friend involved ). Yea, I plan on removing the spoiler and shaving it down an inch..
In the future maybe you can get Max Fubar out in front to smash any road kill down enough....

 

On either side that you what 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, with out it being ON the a-arm it's self and slowly jack the spring up untill it's not resting on the lower a-arm ( about a 1/4 to an 1/2 inch off )

Disconect the ABS sensor thats located on the brake assembly, thats 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 untill 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 it's self 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 presure 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 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, untill 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 altamite drop on your car, take out the lowering screw's (if you own a C-5) shave off those rubber bushing's that your leaf spring sit's on in the a-arm!! (#2 red arrow in left hand pic) for a maximuim drop NO!! THE TIRE'S WILL NOT RUB!!






For the Rear end, take out the stock bolt's (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 tention 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.

 

Put a wing on it.

 

Thanks for the info guys, its actually my mates car he has just purchased, 89 red convertible RHD, it sits up so high and as you guys have mentioned it is the front thats the tuff one.
I will pass on all your tips and he will also be signing on the forum shortly to learn all about the C4

 

Pass on the tips? These guys gave you some great tips. And very in depth. Not my tip of course but most everybody elses.

 

He means he will "pass the tips on"

Also, read here: slightly different suspension, but basically the same work.

http://webpages.charter.net/khasting.../lowering.html

 

Nor-mine........

 

Aussie slang

 

Do you have trouble with the x-brace scraping? I bottom out on some speed bumps with the stock heigth. Thats whats been holding me back from lowering. Looks though.

 

Sometimes, I scrape.

 

I don't want to Hijack here, but I was gonna ask ABoatGuy if the roads in his neck of the woods were smoother than those in the New Orleans area? Never mind, just answered my own question...