Raised my Rear
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Racer
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 405
Likes: 65
From: Rural Iowa
Raised my Rear
My 99 Vert has the F45 adjustable suspension. The previous owner used the car for auto shows and had lowered the car fully on the stock bolts.
It gave the car a decided tail down look, that actually looks good on the Vette, but it resulted in, much bottoming out of the rear suspension on the larger dips and bumps which populate the rural roads in my area. I had switched to performance setting, to avoid the bottoming out, but it resulted in a very solid ride and the big dips would make me grunt and hurt my back, when I hit them.
Anyway, I decided to try raising the rear, to see if it might improve the ride. I put the rear up on jack stands. I removed the rear wheels, so I could sit next to the car and make the adjustments, without having to crawl under. I found the stock bolts still in the car, and I had plenty of thread left. I "tightened" (looking from below) the adjusting bolts, 3 and 1/2 turns, resulting in raising the rear about 1 inch maybe just a bit less.
I had checked the camber with eyeballing to a framing square on my garage floor. If anything it looked a little better after the adjustment, less out at the bottom. But that was with the car empty of passengers. I'll have to keep an eye on tire wear and possibly get an alignment in the future.
The difference in the ride was night and day. Much more comfortable ride over bumps on the rear suspension. I was actually looking for bumps to try out. I did not see any handling issues at all.
For now, I think I'll "put a pin in it".
Jim
It gave the car a decided tail down look, that actually looks good on the Vette, but it resulted in, much bottoming out of the rear suspension on the larger dips and bumps which populate the rural roads in my area. I had switched to performance setting, to avoid the bottoming out, but it resulted in a very solid ride and the big dips would make me grunt and hurt my back, when I hit them.
Anyway, I decided to try raising the rear, to see if it might improve the ride. I put the rear up on jack stands. I removed the rear wheels, so I could sit next to the car and make the adjustments, without having to crawl under. I found the stock bolts still in the car, and I had plenty of thread left. I "tightened" (looking from below) the adjusting bolts, 3 and 1/2 turns, resulting in raising the rear about 1 inch maybe just a bit less.
I had checked the camber with eyeballing to a framing square on my garage floor. If anything it looked a little better after the adjustment, less out at the bottom. But that was with the car empty of passengers. I'll have to keep an eye on tire wear and possibly get an alignment in the future.
The difference in the ride was night and day. Much more comfortable ride over bumps on the rear suspension. I was actually looking for bumps to try out. I did not see any handling issues at all.
For now, I think I'll "put a pin in it".
Jim
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Not a bad thing to have a more comfortable ride. I'd actually like to lower mine a bit, but I'd scrape the front end every time I pull into my driveway.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 2,264
Likes: 455
From: Stella, North Carolina
My 99 Vert has the F45 adjustable suspension. The previous owner used the car for auto shows and had lowered the car fully on the stock bolts.
Anyway, I decided to try raising the rear, to see if it might improve the ride. I put the rear up on jack stands. I removed the rear wheels, so I could sit next to the car and make the adjustments, without having to crawl under. I found the stock bolts still in the car, and I had plenty of thread left. I "tightened" (looking from below) the adjusting bolts, 3 and 1/2 turns, resulting in raising the rear about 1 inch maybe just a bit less.
The difference in the ride was night and day.
Jim
Anyway, I decided to try raising the rear, to see if it might improve the ride. I put the rear up on jack stands. I removed the rear wheels, so I could sit next to the car and make the adjustments, without having to crawl under. I found the stock bolts still in the car, and I had plenty of thread left. I "tightened" (looking from below) the adjusting bolts, 3 and 1/2 turns, resulting in raising the rear about 1 inch maybe just a bit less.
The difference in the ride was night and day.
Jim
Racer
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 428
Likes: 30
Raising mine back up too, despite the look. Took it on a 100 mile country road trip yesterday, with a full tank, and a passenger. Too many times I could feel the rear rebounding off the bump stops on dips in the road. Needs more compression travel for sure. Very bad for handling, when no travel left, especially in a curve! Does anyone know the total wheel travel in the rear?
