Ride height help
 

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I am working on a 78 Silver Anniversary. I recently replaced the lower control arm bushings, lower ball joints, tie rod ends and sway bar linkage. I did my best to settle the front end. I then resumed installing my one-piece front clip. The clip is dry-fitted right now and it is getting close. (It has taken a LONG time to get to this point).

The problem I now have is the ride height in front, which appears to be the same on both sides (5 1/2 above the tire o.c.). I believe that this is about 3" too high.

The frame is 9 1/2" from the floor just behind the clamp in the photos, and 8 1/2" from the floor below the back edge of the door.

I have not tightened the front suspension yet because I wanted to make sure that the front end is in fact settled. I have looked at all of my available references (repair manual, and AIM) and done internet searching including a search of this forum.

I read that the rear spring may have collapsed when I had the front end of the car high up on jackstands with the rear tires on the floor. The spring is a fiberglass replacement so I don't think that is likely.

I believe that the front coil springs, which are original, were reinstalled correctly with the tighter coils at the top and positioned correctly in the control arms.

It is a little tough to settle the front end without the front clip attached.

So my questions are:

Should I jack the front end up and let it drop on the front wheels a couple of times to settle the suspension?

Will tightening the front suspension parts drop the ride height significantly?

Would it be a bad idea to finish the front clip install before resolving this issue?

Do the frame to floor measurements indicate that this is a suspension issue?

Thanks
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Is the engine installed?

Good question. Yes. I removed the stock radiator and fan shroud and installed an aluminum radiator and dual electric fans. I removed the old air conditioning condenser and the new one is not yet installed. So the front end is slightly, but not significantly lighter.

Looks very high to me too, are you sure those are the right springs?
Each spring a has a socket or notch in the lower control arm, double check that each is fitting into the slot.

Those were the springs that were installed in the car when I bought it. I am looking for the photos to see if the car had that issue initially. I will double check the springs.

The car won't settle without being rolled backwards and forwards. The tyres will hold it up higher.

Will try that - thanks

Did you tighten the bolts that hold the ends of the control arm bushings in. I never tighten them until vehicle is sitting at ride height.

I just checked. I did not put the passenger side in yet. Drivers side were in but not tight. I loosened them more. Thanks

This is absolutely correct. You may have to roll it several dozen feet. Or more.

Could the stabilizer bar be installed "backwards"?

My car had ridiculous gaps between the tire and wheel well lip when I bought it. I tried to get it to sit like it should have stock but noting worked, I ended up cutting a full coil out and it still want to my liking. I pulled the springs again and heated up the end of the coil to bend it flat so the coil would be able to sit in the control arm and frame pockets correctly. This gave the desired ride height but I didn't like the idea of the heated spring so I bought coil overs.

see if this works.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...-10-27_311.jpg

if not here http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...-10-27_311.jpg

Great info. and photos. I thought about cutting the springs. Coil overs may be the way to go for me too.

Thanks

Brad

Well, the stabilizer bar was upside-down. Correcting that only brought the ride height down about 1/2". Tomorrow I will raise the car up and tighten everything up. Then we'll go back to the front clip fitting.

Do you have the correct Chevrolet Service Manual? The dimensions for correct ride height are clearly shown. You measure the distance from the floor to the bottom of the ball joint, and from the floor to the inner pivot of the lower control arm. That is the only way to correctly determine your car's ride height. Fooling around with the tire to fender gap is a waste of time. So is setting your clip to the tire. Yeah, that should look right, but the foundation (the frame) has to be right first.

You have to seat the springs fully into the pockets in the frame. It's kind of tricky, but if they are just a little out of the pocket, the car will look like yours does in the photo.

Get it right, or you'll be chasing this forever.

:cheers:
Pete

I think most of your questions have been answered except "when to finish the front clip". Here's my experience on my 74, which is still a work in progress. The punchline is I asked my body body guy (45 year veteran of corvette body work) who told me that i need to get suspension finished, motor and trans in the car and weight settled BEFORE glueing and glassing front end. With that statement, i gave him the job. (I was out of my league in terms of fiberglass work.)
I did body mounts first. I may have screwed that up, but we'll see. I dont think i did shims correctly. I'll do another post about that once i confirm height measurements at all 4 corners.
Suspension was next. I used 550 lb springs. I cut them approx 1/4 coil, mostly for the purpose of fitting the end of each coil in the upper and lower pockets.
control arm bolts were only hand tightened until i got engine in and car to shop for alignment.
i was very happy with ride height in the front.
the rear was still too high. But i will be getting longer spring bolts when i swap out rear diff with a Dyer HD-10 (Traccdog2's) and will address rear height then.
i delivered car to body shop (Mike Carty in ATCO, NJ) when suspension was mostly completed. I'll do rear swap out when the car gets out of body shop jail.

i hope this helps with your project.

phil

i was concerned about possible frame issues. But body guy did all the measures and my from frame is within 1/4 inch side to side, which is within service manual spec.

Thanks Pete, I do have the service manual. I will check those measurements. I agree that the springs are the likely culprit. They look right but its tough to see especially in the upper control arm.

Brad

Thanks Phil, that helps a lot. Keep us posted on the progress.

Brad