Kevin G

I recently purchased my first 911, a 79 911sc. My wife noticed when she was following me home that the rear of the car sits lower on the drivers side. I measured both sides and the right side sits a 1/2 inch lower than the left side. Any ideas on what I should be looking at to fix this, or possible problems causing it.

Steve, 914 guy

How big a boy are ya?

Face15

sgt154,
I believe that problem can be caused by old, worn torsion bars. I'm sure you'll get more advice from the smarter guys shortly though.

Hladun1

The ride height is adjustable (unless you're torsion bars have sagged to a point where the adjustment is out of range). There are two large bolts on the plate portion that runs from the torsion bar to the wheel. The back bolt is an eccentric that allows height adjustment. I've done it, but its not easy because you have balance the front end while you're doing it and the suspension puts a lot of weight on the bolt so it is very, very hard to turn. If you want to tackle it I can tell you more.

Kevin G

Thanks for the replies, to Hladun1 I looked it up and figured out which two bolts you are talking about, one you loosen the other is for adjustment. Any other info would be appreciated.

Thanks Kevin

Roland Kunz

Hello

The adjustable spring plates (?) came with the 84/3,2 l. Previous cars need to pull the torsion bar to set it to the new hight, yet i think your rubbers are worn out and the torsion bars are not the problem. They don´t act like coils and will lose tension over the years. They don´t get weak they brake.

Right now your main problem is that the car doesn´t handle like it s/could ( but still handles much better then some other cars did new ).

Adjustable springplates are retrofitable and much cheaoer then the original ones. You only need a 24mm and a thin 32mm open spanner and can adjust the load balance. They are not direct used to adjust the hight.

You also can remove the remaining rubbers and install some polygraphite bushings.
They make the car more "sportiv" ( hard & loud ).

Grüsse

Hladun1

Kevin,

It sounds like you have located the adjustment bolts. The front one is in a vertical slot and is not used for adjustment, but it holds the plates together. The rear bolt is the one in the eccentric. You do need a special thin wrench to hold/turn the bolt from the backside. I think Roland is right on the sizes. You have to unload the suspension by raising the car and disconnecting the sway bar. You also have to raise the front with a special balance tool to load the two back wheels equally. This is largely a trial and error process. The eccentric bolt likes to turn when you tighten it so you have to hold it with the thin wrench. It's a two person, half day and several beer operation.

My car is a 78SC but I don't know if the adjustable suspension is after-market. It does sound like your car has it. Maybe someone can clarify which cars actually had them.

I don't agree with several of Roland's comments. You can adjust height with the eccentrics; I did it on my car. Torsion bars due creep with age and yes they can fail (brake?). But it’s also possible that yours are just out of adjustment, the plates can slip relative to each other.

Geoffrey

If your car has the factory adjustable spring plates, they can be used to make fine adjustments to the ride height, but only allow for minimal adjustment. The torsion bars are splined with 44 splines on one side and 40 on the other. These are used to make major changes to the ride height. If it were me, I would pull the spring plates out of the car and look at the rubber bushings on the spring plates. More than likely they have not been changed and the pockets they fit in are rusty and have signficantly warn away the rubber bushings. If they are worn, I would remove the rust and replace them with Netrix (rubber) bushings available for about $65 from many different supply houses such as Automotion. Then I would replace them and set the ride height to the way I wanted it. The process is outlined on the Pelican Parts web site.

pjt

I had the same problem when I first got my 1980 911sc last year. Totally confused about it because I was unfamiliar with the torsion bar type suspension and needed to get back into mechanic mode after about ten years of boring cars and trucks(bought an old house and have become an expert on carpentry, plumbing, electrical instead). Anyway, after researching I ended up doing the following. The torsion bushings were pretty shot so I replaced them with the neatrix from performance products ( I think weltmeister makes them). They have a good tech article on pelicanparts.com on how to replace. Now if you're going to do this kind of work you should invest in the Bentley manual (which is good but not always comprehensive). If you go the route of replacing the bushings you need to pull the torsion bars out. After 20 years they can get a little difficult, but they will come out. My drivers side came out easily but the passenger side was stuck so I followed the Haynes manual advice and put a four foot rebar through the driver side hole and banged it out with a hammer. Make sure both sides of the car are up on jacks at the same time so the spring plates are both fully extended, otherwise you won't be able to get the spring plates cleanly off the bolts because of the sway bar tension. Get your angles correct when you put it back on (following the bentley manual) and you should be within about 1/2 inch both sides. Then you can adjust with the eccentric bolts. They can get hard to turn depending on which way you go so you need to play with the bolts - turn then hold and tighten- readjust your wrench, hold then loosen, turn and tighten, etc (if anyone knows of an easier way please advise). You need that special spring plate adjusting wrench to get in the back there. Also, you may need to replace the torsion bar plate caps - mine were starting to rot out at the tops. They're only about $15 each at the dealer. Now after you do all this, you probably need to align and corner balance. There is some good DIY advice out there if you want to try it. I probably will and then will bring it to a shop to see how close I got it. I just finished the wife's new bathroom so I finally have all the time in the world. Once you get everything down and frustrate yourself to hell, the car is surprisingly easy to work on.

Clark Griswald

The adjustable spring plates showed up from the factory beginning in '77, so your car has them.

To do the job right, you must replace the bushings and they are likely a primary cause of the sagging.

You can skip the bushings and dial in the spring plates for a quick-fix, but it is a band-aid that will only restore the appearance not the handling.

Do the job right, replace the bushings and yoiu will be pleased with the results. I wrote the above referenced article. If you want to discuss, feel free to send me an email. Here is the link:

<a href="http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/911_suspension_bushings/911_suspension_bushings.htm" target="_blank">http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/911_suspension_bushings/911_suspension_bu shings.htm</a>