If I was making a list of what I don't love about my '94 (and it would be a very short list) #1 would be scraping my spoiler. Yes, I've read that this is a fact of life with C4's and that's the way I've always treated it as I've heard the scrapes and eventually replaced the spoilers over the years. But now that I have two other C4's to compare (one of which is lowered) I find it odd that only the '94 scrapes at places that seem almost imperceptible (as well as the you-must-slow-down-for-this obvious hazards).

So I measured the ground to lowest point on the spoiler and was and wasn't surprised to find the '94 is a full 3/4" lower than the ZR-1 spoiler. Then I filled up the car and measured the Trim Heights (as they're called in the FSM -approximately at the front and rear of the doors) and found the '94 is 20-30mm low compared to specs.

From my other postings some of you know that my '94 is just shy of 200k miles so you may say I'm lucky it's still mobile. But I'm not ready to put it out to pasture yet.

On the other hand thinking through possible explanations the most likely to me seems a softening of the front spring bushings that has allowed the spring to sit higher in the frame although there are no sounds that would suggest this is happening. But reading the steps that are required to replace these bushings I'm not inclined to dive in, especially as I just rebuilt the front end which would have been the time to do so had I known. But as often happens, I didn't and didn't.

Any ideas?

Thanks a million!

John

 

John, my 96 is lower than my 95. My 95 is also lowered and both hit on driveways and other locations. It is a fact of life, that's the reason to buy the reproduction parts. My 95 still have the factory spoiler, they don't brake easily unless you hit a berm at 81 MPH.

If you would like to raise the Vette you can install shims on the monospring.

 

So at 80mph your ok? I never measured my 90, but I ocasionally scrape it a little on those stupid concrete parking stops when I pull in too far!

 

Mine wasn't lowered but it still scraped sometimes. I don't like the scraping noise or replacing the spoiler either. Good luck with putting it back to stock height.

PLRX is almost right too. "they don't brake easily unless you hit a berm at 81 MPH." Mine took a lot of abuse without breaking until I hit a chunk of ice in below zero temps that broke it. Not quite a berm at 81 mph, but still pretty severe abuse. The good news is that they are pretty cheap and easy to replace.

 

I have beside the stock spoilers a fiber glass front spoiler from ecklers corvette, it looks really nice but there is a price for that!!! It makes its driving even harder, but after scrubbing it couple times I learned how to take all the drive ways side way, in other words don't ever get in or out of a parkinglot straight, teach ur self to do it always side ways, another thing helped me a lot to reduce the scraping was getting the rear lowering kit from ecklers to be able to lower the car at the back, I just lowered it couple inches to make it even with the front ones , and that raised the front nose a bit more, hope that helps

 

Thanks to everyone for all the comments.

PLRX, your thought about shims is very clever and really intrigues me. I just checked and it appears 1/2" to 3/4" is available on the existing bolt which coupled with the "swing" one would get from adjusting the rear should make a big difference.

It seems to me that "raising the Vette" (which is indeed what I would be seeking to do) would mean putting shims on the upper side of the spring. Wouldn't the tension on the spring have to be released before doing so?

John

 

i wouldn't raise it if i would be you because that would efect the handling and if u decide on doing it anyways, try to be carefull on the curves.....

 

The Z51 spoiler is 1" lower than the stock one. You can buy a non-Z51 spoiler and gain some more ground clearance.

 

Thanks, Cliff. I think I confused you and perhaps others. The 4.25" Z51 spoiler only fit '84-'90 and that's what I have on my '90 ZR-1. No separate Z51 spoiler was offered for '91-'96. The '91-'96 spoiler is 3.5" and that's what I have on my '94 non-ZR-1 coupe.

Interestingly the Trim Height specs are 6mm lower at the front measurement point for the '90 ZR-1 than the "94 non-ZR-1 coupe but 5mm higher at the rear measurement point. Yet even with that difference and the Z51 spoiler being .75" taller the ZR-1 spoiler sits 18mm higher at the center point above the ground on my Zr-1 than my '94.

So I'm still looking for an explanation and a fix.

John

 

Corvettes and scraping spoilers are a fact of life.

 

That's why I trimmed an inch off my Z51 replacement.

 

I did the same on my '84. It's not noticable at all, unless you're parked next to a stock 'vette. I like the lowered look and the handling improvements!