HOXXOH

How easy is it if you're only changing out the bolts and not the spring?
I'm doing the rear only. The service manual only discusses spring removal, which appears to be a pretty good task just to swap bolts.

cmonkey713

First jack up the car and place on jack stands, makes it much easier. Remove the wheel on the corner that you are working on, makes it much easier. Soak the bolts with PB Blaster or other such penetrating product. Place a jack under the spring and raise it up enough to take the weight off the bolt and provide enough room to un-screw the old bolt and remove it. When you install the new bolt put a little waterproof grease on the threads for future adjustment. Screw the bolts all the way up and see how you like the way the car sits, adjust as nessessary. Put the wheels back on and let the car down on the ground. You are done.

You may want to seriously consider a four wheel alinement after replacement and adjustment.

subfloor@centurytrans

What he said. It's pretty easy to do.

BWF07

You don't have to drop the lower A-Arms?

BlindSpot

I did fronts and rears with a floor jack and a bottle jack.

HOXXOH

Apparently I either didn't understand exactly the procedure or something is different with my '08 with F55 shocks.

I raised the rear of the car, put jackstands at the rear shipping slots, removed the wheels, and jacked up the spring as close to the end as possible. There was barely enough space to remove the bolt itself. If the rubber bumper had not already broken off, I couldn't have remove the bolt.
Here's a pic of the new bolt with bumper and the old bolt. The overall of the new one is 3.6". The old bolt is 2.1". The maximum space between the spring and A-arm I can raise the spring to install the bumper is 2.3" before the car starts to lift off of the jackstands. I need at least another full inch to even be close.

I've disconnected the F55 sensor rod and loosened the upper shock bolts to allow the shock to drop and gained nothing.

Any suggestions?

rkj427

HOXXY, out of town but found this on Google............

don't know if it will help, but possibly worth reading over for additional tips.............................

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...with-pics.html

HOXXOH

Thanks rocketman

That method is exactly what I needed to replace, not just adjust, the ride height bolts.

For future reader's who have the F55 mag ride system, be sure to disconnect the sensor rod as the first item to address.

HOXXOH

UPDATE:

The reproduction height adjustment bolts available from Corvette Central that I received had a thread issue. I'm not going to speculate on the cause, but the bolt itself was out of round by .020". That left the thread OD out of spec on the high side, which wouldn't allow it to be threaded into the nut on the spring.

I carefully noted the high spots and sanded them off with my belt sander until they were close to the low end of the specs. I could have chased the minor diameter, but tried it in the spring first. I was then able to hand thread it in far enough to use a socket on the top side to finish putting it in place.

This is just a heads up to check the bolt first, before deciding to chase the threads in the spring.

rkj427

glad you got it sorted out and hopefully finished up!

just a FYI for others who may also may want ot perform this task, pretty easy to save the links by adding them as "Favorites" to your web browser......... then you have them available when needed.......

Brandon Waldrop

Were you able to purchase these bolts separately without ordering whole spring?

1Willy1

not sure if its the same as the C5, (I think it is ) , but if so its very easy oonce you do it once

I know ill get attacked for this but after lowering both of my C5's I found cutting the bump stops in the shocks helps tremendously if your lowering more then an 1-1.5 inches

On my second vette I just cut them right off , made a world of difference

also lowering bolts are a scam, you don't need them, you can just cut the bushings down on your stock bolts if you want to go lower

Mikelofty

I did the bolts, they were pretty much frozen into the threads. So I was changing the springs at the same time.... now those springs were an adventure. I took off the upper control arms, shocks and sway bars, and still struggled to get the tension off enough to get them out. 5-6 hours the swap

BWF07

OK, maybe I am just stupid and don't understand the art of lowering a Corvette with stock bolts verses the aftermarket bolts, but here is my question.

To lower my '07, once it was off the ground and the spring jacked up, I turned the bolt until the pads were up against the spring and there were no threads showing below the spring. I also cut one rib in the rear. Now I am not sure what good longer bolts do except ti get the car higher. I did notice that there are no ribs/rubber pads on the aftermarket bolts and that it what appears to be the way that you can get the car lower. If that is what they do, why spend money. Just cut the pads off the stock bolts.

cmonkey713

Mikelofty has the worst case senecio . If the adjusting bolts are frozen it can be quite an adventure on replacement. I would soak the bolts with PB Blaster for a day or two, keeping it off the composite spring as much as possible. Unload the spring tension and see if they will move using a socket on the end of the bolt. work it one way and then the other several times until it moves. Keep applying the PB Blaster, If it still will move you may very well need to remove the spring which is a PITA and will require an alignment if the lower control is dropped.