corvette-kyle

I only have one jack, (that barely fits under the car), and a couple jackstands.. but I'm getting an alignment soon and want to lower the car all the way on stock bolts before getting that done. Stock height my rears are around 28' from the ground and my fronts are around 29'. I'm satisfied with the rear height but the front is way too high for me. I'm worried about if I lower it too much and then go over a bump at speed - won't the wheel rub against the top of the wheel well? It's already pretty close.

I jacked up the car using the front passenger location, and then took off the wheel.. I put a jackstand under the spring or whatever it is and then slowly dropped the car until it raised up, the bolt wouldn't budge at all. I kept lowering to see if it would help and eventually I had the car resting on just the jack stand - is this bad? even then the bolt would not budge at ALL. I soaked it with WD40 and tried various different ways to try and turn it but it simply wouldn't move. There is space between the bushing and the spring so it's not lowered all the way. The car is a DD so I don't want to lower one side and then have it off balance - I want to get this bolt working before I do all of them.

The car has 75,000 miles on it and has spent it's life mostly in Florida, and in Texas for the last 30,000. I don't know if that plays a rol in rust or anything but what can I do to get this bolt free? I'm pushing so hard on the wrench I'm half expecting the car to fall off the jack stand.

I'm also not worried about being too low for a DD - the roads where I live are pretty good and I don't leave this area much. The major thing I'm worried about is the wheels hitting the wheel well but I don't know much about the suspension so maybe that's irrelevant and won't happen. - I'm also planning on getting the fangs for the front and rocker panel skid plates just to play it safe.

Thanks.

SacCityCorvette

Hi,

You shouldn’t have a problem with the wheel rubbing against the top of the wheel well unless you have some over size wheels on it. As for the frozen height setting bolt, its probably rusty. Keep soaking it with the WD40 and if you can get in there and tap it with a hammer might help. Probably the best help would be to heat up just the bolt but don't get the flame on the leaf spring. Dont heat it up to much! Don’t do it unless you experience at that kind of thing. Maybe someone else has some tricks they can show us.
Also you mentioned Fangs, we are releasing next week our new C6 Fangs that don't need any holes drilled. You just clean and scuff up your skid plate and use the glue supplied in the kit and glue the Fangs on. Simple! We will have a installation video up on our website soon.

B y r o n

I may be mistaken but I think you need to take the weight off the spring not have the car weight on it. With weight on the sping the bolt won't/shouldn't turn.

Wayne O

Just turning bolts (even an equal number of turns) is no guaranty your car will setup properly. Frankly, there's no guaranty your car was setup exactly right from the factory. I don't know what you're measuring to but there are certain procedures to be followed and you don't measure to the body panel. I've only adjusted the stock bolts from underneath a drive-on lift (and the car sat dead level on the lift and we followed other steps first). We measure up to hard points on the frame. When I did it at one point I had to use a jack to put pressure on the leaf spring so the bolt would turn. If adjusting in the other direction I believe there's a spreader tool you use to relieve pressure holding a bolt. Under no circumstance do you want the tire(s) rubbing on or hitting the wheel well or bodywork.

Gearhead Jim

My experience was that it took at least 200 miles for the suspension to settle in after a height adjustment, and even at 500 miles it may have settled a bit more.

So, be sure to put some miles on it before doing the alignment.

SacCityCorvette

Your right B y r o n, I thought thats what he did when he says "I put a jackstand under the spring or whatever it is and then slowly dropped the car until it raised up".
You have to jack the leaf spring up until the pressure is off the adjuster.

corvette-kyle

Now I'm getting really confused... I set everything up like in this picture,


and then I lowered the jack until the metal thing in the middle comes up off of the control arm?, there is no part of the bolt touching anything other than the metal bar it is screwed into. Am i doing this right? If it's still confusing I'll take some pictures of my own tomorrow. Thanks!

CENT Z06

Be careful. The springs are made of fiberglass. It looks like your are resting the actually put the weight of the car on the springs.

SacCityCorvette

That looks like you doing it right. I like to put a piece of wood on the stand so you don't scratch the spring. The spring could crack at the point of a scratch, gouge or chip. Also get the stand as close the the adjuster as possible. If its not turning it must be rusted. Going to just have to work it.

Concepts

I'm having the same issue. Driver side bolt is stuck and now unfortunately striped. Do I got to remove the control arm to replace this bolt? I got a bunch of PB blaster on the bolt and I'm currently letting it penetrate. My issue is a lil different I need to rise the suspension as its rubbing on my inner fender liner after new wheels and tires and wide body.

corvette-kyle

This thread is really old but to anyone who is having the same issue I ended up having to have the entire rear suspension parts dropped and the rear leaf spring or whatever it is th bolts are mounted in replaced because the ride adjustment bolts had seized up so badly they would just not come out. The car is a 2008 and at the time had about 80k miles.

Concepts

I'm going to try welding a nut to the top of the bolt then cut it off after I break it loose and replace it with a new one.

Concepts

Got it broke loose. Wow that sucker was on there. Had to weld a nut to the top to get the leverage I needed. Combo of heat from the tack and extra leverage I got from the nut worked. Now just got to cut the nut off and remove and replace.