camboinc

can anyone offer solutions to closing the 4 x 4 gap between fenders and tires on my 79 930? do i need to lower the car or can i reduce the gap by using larger diameter tires ?

btw i just put the fuchs back on the car. had them refinished by a good buddy of mine. they look tasty!!


thanks,

brian

tug68

Your car is sitting a bit high. Did you do anything to the suspension recently?

srf506

I'd say it's really up there like a Paris-Dakar rally car! You sure don't want bigger diameter tires on it. Get a good alignment shop to lower it at least to stock heights.

tug68

My 87 at stock height:

A930Rocket

The fronts are easy to lower. Just look at the end of the torsion bar tubes. There's a bolt there that will lower the front end of each side. Keep track of how many rounds you lower it.

The rear is more involved unless you have adj spring plates. There are some bolts in back on the factory spring plate to lower it. The problem is you can only lower it so much this way. If it's not enough, then you need to re-index your torsion bars.

I would get the car corner weighted when done (or have them do tjhe lowering) as it can really affect the handling.

camboinc

some of what you see is from the street angle (i just realized).

however, i will try the adjusting thefronts first, then gander at the back.

i read another post that suggests swapping out sway bars for stiffer ones. the claimed result was imporved handling but no harshening of the ride.
any opinions guys ?

A930Rocket

If you swap out torsion bars to bigger ones, you're going to feel it. Bigger bars will help handling, but it's only part of the equation. And any time you swap out torsion bars, you need to think about shocks. They work together as a system. T-bars, shocks, sway bars, bushings, wheels, etc...

slownrusty

Based on how high your car is sitting in the rear you have to re-index the torsion bars. It takes about a Saturday morning if you take your time and have some mechanical common sense. If you do a search under my username I did a pictorial on this procedure to help out owners such as yourself.

Regards - Yasin

fullquack

UH OH....you said the "L" word....

Well my solution for the 4 x 4 look, was to do the t-bars, sways, bushings, tires & wheels, shocks, bump steer kit, blah,blah, blah. Yes, bigger t-bars make the ride harsher, as do sport shocks & bigger sways, but it does stick better....a lot better.
My end result might be too extreme for most peoples liking, but I'm not like most people..or so the voices in my head tell me.
Mark

camboinc

Mark - the car looks tasty! Thanks for sharing. Just want to get er down a bit. Roads are too nasty in SE Michigan to firm the ride up.

Brian

JFairman

You reindex the torsion bars to lower it large amounts and I kinda wonder why anyone would raise yours that high unless they were off roading.

There are 40 splines on the inboard end and 44 splines on the outboard end of the torsion bars. Turning the inner end 1 spline is a 9 degree change and one outer spline is a 8.18 dgree change.
This is so you can make small height changes by moving the inboard end one spline, and the outer end one spline in the opposite direction.
...as an example, sometimes you have to move the inner end 4 splines and the outer end 5 splines the other direction, or whatever.. to get it right.

It's tedious trial and error and takes alot of patience to get right.
Use a magnetic angle finder gauge on the top side of the spring plates while the car is in the air with the sway bar unattached to help speed up the process.

You will need a complete 4 wheel alignment and corner balance using scales under all 4 wheels after lowering the car.

A930Rocket

Or buy yourself the adjustable spring plates if you want the stock bar, but want to be able adjust the height and corner weights easily.

camboinc

thanks for the tips guys. sincerely appreciated.
brian