Alright, I was attempting to lower the front of my car and I started on the drivers side front bolt. I then started turning the bolts counterclockwise and I keept getting interferance with the shock so I loosened the bottom part of it to give myself more clearance. I must of not had the socket on the bolt correctly because I have rounded off the bolt and I am not completely lowered on that side yet but its pretty far. My questions is where can I find a stock bolt to replace that one? Is it ok for me to ride to a shop with that one side somewhat lower than the other to get my car fixed by the local vette shop? This really sucks and it wasnt as easy as people have said. The bolt is really pretty hard to turn. Guess this teaches me to work on my own car


Thanks hopefully someome will have some advice.

 

Ugh, where do I begin...
I'm assuming the front end was on jack stands. Then you used your floor jack with a puck or two on the lifting plate to lift the end of the spring up enough so the rubber bolt head wasn't touching the lower control arm anymore. (stick something thin between the rubber adjustment bolt head and the lower control arm to make sure there is no contact)
Once your sure there is no pressure on the adj. bolt to hinder turning the bolt, get a 10mm 6pt. boxed end wrench and a visegrip pliars.
Put the boxed end of the wrench on the stripped hex head and clamp the visegrips (with a tiny piece of rag in the jaws) really, really hard onto the threaded portion of the bolt. Try turning the bolt that way. Maybe soak the threads with some WD40 or some other penetrating solvent for a while before trying to turn the bolt.
If that doesn't work. take the spring out and put the visegrips on the head of the bolt and muscle the bolt out. LS1howto.com will show you how to change a spring. It's a little scary the first time you try it but it's not that hard to do.
Good luck! Bob

 

Once you get the pressure off the springs, you should be able to turn the bolt by hand easily. Put it in the position you want and then dont worry about the stripped bolt.

 

Ok thanks for the help guys, I wasnt aware you had to take pressure off the spring. So I should jack the control arm with my jack to relieve the pressure?

 

Yes, jack up the and make sure you have jack stands under it. Put a wood block (piece of 2 x 4) between spring and jack. The body of the car will be lifted up off of the jacj stands on that side as the springs are very stiff.

Make adjustment and release pressure and then do the same thing on the other side of the car.

 

you can buy new ones from hardbar that are a very hard metal with large bolt heads instead of those dinky factory ones. hardbar is a forum vendor. their bolts come with a harder bushing and have alot of travel to them so lowering is easier and has more travel than the stock ones. i think they are around $50 or so shipped. make sure you have the pressure off the spings and its lots easier. and you wont rip your factory bushings like i did!!!!!!!!! thats how i know about the hardbar set
i had to get some. check out you bushings!!! if they are ripped they will eventually scrape up your alluminium lower control arms!!!! and cause a scraping squeek noise. HARDBAR is a supporting forum vendor.

you need the spring to not have any pressure on the control arms!!! dont jack the control arm, jack the spring up like said in the post before me. you do this after the car is on jack stands by the frame rails where the jack pucks go. dont jack the spring so high you cause the car to move far off the jack stands though!!!!!!!!!! it could fall. the spring will want to push down on the lower control arm unless you remove the pressure downward by lifting the SPRING UP OFF IT!!!!!! that will allow access to the spring bolt and bushing. when they are off the control arm there is no pressure on them. that bolt is the only thing that causes the spring to hold the car up. it is its downward force on the control arm that causes the car to be suspended. thats why the bushings need to be in good shape or else they will allow the bolt to push directly on the control arm with all the cars weight. metal to metal, and they slide with up down motion against each other. also you will need an alignment after any change in the suspension height. wait for a few hundred miles after the change for things to settle into there permenent position though!

 

Do I need to take the pressure off the rear bolts as well?

 

No. They work differently in an opposite direction and have a nut.

 

you do need to support the car though. the frame of it so as to not have it fall if you are planning to remove the bolts and add longer ones. that is usually only if you are going to lower more than the stk ones will allow. the car will fall a lot if you let the bolts come out. be carfull not to get them even close to end of threads.

 

supporting the frame a little with a jack will take some of the pinch off the spring. makeing it easier to turn. dont lift it off the ground though. that will cause pinch the other way.

 

Turn the bolt on top clockwise...or...turn the bolt on the bottom counterclockwise. or go to http://www.ls1howto.com <-I use it.

 

No, no, no! Do NOT jack up the control arm!

Place a small block of wood on the jack, and fit the block between the lower control arm outer braces to jack the SPRING, independently from the lower control arm.

Although you really do NOT need to jack the rear at all, or take pressure of the rear spring, if it's your first time, it is easier if you do jack it, as well as remove the rear tires so you can see the threads on the bolt.

And, it may be too late, but a 10mm socket sucks on the front bolts because it's a loose fit. When I first tried a 10mm, I could see that stripping was going to be nearly inevitable. I found that a 3/8" open-end wrench is a MUCH better fit, and is what I always use now. Makes for a snug fit so stripping is impossible. My 3/8" wrench is tiny, about 5" long, so it requires a bit more effort to turn the bolts, but it's still pretty easy.

As far as turning by hand is concerned, I've lowerered, raised and adjusted the front of my car plenty of times, as well as lowered someone else's, and I can tell you that it's not possible to turn those bolts by hand unless you have really, REALLY weak base springs and/or collapsed bushings, or unless you drop the lower control arms. Although I've never tired it, maybe removing the lower shock mount will aloww the lower control arm to fall a bit more to allow hand-turning, but I have F45 shocks, so I have to unbolt the lower shock mount to even get at the lowering bolt, but I still was not even close to being able to turn the bolts by hand.

 

This tech tip has some good pics where you can see just how the lowering bolt works. I found this because when I lowered mine, the front only went down about a half an inch and I want to cut some off the bushing so it will fall about an inch. When I lowered my fronts after I relieved the pressure on the spring it took a couple of turns on the bolt with a ratchet before I could turn it by hand, even though I had jacked the spring up enough to begin to lift the car off the stand. The guy in this tip is cutting the bushings off the bolt, because he has to remove the bolt to do this you can see from the pics how all this works.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/techti...D=90&TopicID=1

 

Alright guys thanks for all of the help! Today I lowered the rear without any problems whatsoever and I havent even drove the car and can already tell the difference in the height I took the front left tire off again.....this is the only front bolt I have attempted to lower so far which I stripped. OOh and by the way I ordered from Griots Garage a socket set that supposely didnt scratch up your lug nuts, well it does just not the ends of the lug nuts but the sides.....anyone know where I can find a 19mm socket for an impact gun that DOESNT SCRATCH whatesover? But back to the lower, someone suggested that I take a vise grip and put a towel inside of it to get some grip and turn the bolt.......well that worked for about 1 turn and then it wasnt turning anymore and I know it is not completely lowered yet because I have seen a picture of the thread after being lowered and you see a portion of the thread that has no black paint on it and that hasnt shown through on mine yet. Any more suggestions on how I can get this bolt completely lowered? Also anyone have any suggestions about the lugs? Thanks a lot guys hopefully I can get this resolved

 

 

are your lugs that pretty? on the 'other suggestions', yank the spring and put the adjuster in a big vice, turn spring, throw adjuster into the scrap pile

 

PM sent on your lowering issue, post it up here if it works.

As for the lug nut issue. Impact guns will almost always mar your lug nuts. Impact guns use a rapid hammering motion. If you're worried about yoru lugs, undo them by hand, with slow solid motions. Sometimes i've seen masking tape used, but that depends on the fit between your socket and lugs.


Chris

 

Thanks for the info thus far.

 

nope! You would have had to remove the c-clip to get the bolt off anyways, no worries at all about that.

 

YOUR PM BOX IS FULL
Hold the bolt in place and turn the nut around the bolt. That is the normal pattern, righty tighty, lefty loosy