When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
So when you compress the springs the car ride his higher ? When you look at the spring from the side of the car, it works just like tightening a bolt or screw ?
In my mind if you compress the springs the body will come down, so i find it odd ! There must be something i don't understand in the way the suspension works to confirm the results. I would just love to understand the concept !
If you push the spring up, the sprung mass will rise with the spring. The spring carries the weight of the car, not the struts. If you shortened the spring, the sprung mass (chassis) would sit lower to the ground. You are not shortening the spring, but raising it and everything that sits on it.
If you push the spring up, the sprung mass will rise with the spring. The spring carries the weight of the car, not the struts. If you shortened the spring, the sprung mass (chassis) would sit lower to the ground. You are not shortening the spring, but raising it and everything that sits on it.
Thank you Walt. If I understand I am raising the spring,( Not compressing !) when I tighten the adjusting nut ?
Thank you for everyone's help. I finally got it to where I am comfortable with it. I wanted to get it to Factory height, but I ended up doing min in the front 170mm +- 2 between sides and 173 rear +- 2 from side to side. I have driven close to 70 kms so far which is about 45 milles and she doesn't pull at all, which is good !
I will confirm that the height did not go further down and if not i will get it aligned.
That the suspension doesn't move a lot as you adjust. If you lift the car to make adjustment easier, plan on 75-100 or more miles of driving before you measure, and for sure before you check alignment. Jeff's Excel sheet s a great guide that lets you determine in advance how many turns of the collar will be needed to get to target height. Even then ithe car needs some suspension movement to settle up or down on the final height numbers.
With my car at 173 in front, I can adjust the collars without lifting the car. Just turn the front wheels one way or the other for access. The rears are pretty easy, plenty of access. If you need to unload the suspension to get the collars to turn under the lower spring perches, plan on resettling with the 75-100+ miles of driving.
-----
My car has been sitting on stands all winter, suspension extended. Coming off the stands last week and driving some reminded me that I also needed to drop the tire pressures from winter-storage pressures down to summer-driving pressures. That and a couple hous of Cascade Lakes Highway touring have things settled enough that the car isn't skittish at all. High (45-50) tire pressures and the extra front toe-in that comes with unsettled suspension made the car a little busy at first. It's back to it's wonderful self again after the adjustments and some cruising.
Confused, you set the height and then drove 45 miles?
Or you drove for 45miles and confirmed you are at your 170/173 readings?
Because you cant adjust, drop the car, measure, and then drive without significant serious change.
I have adjusted the height then drove it a little, then came back and re-adjusted it again and again. From the last adjustment I have made I have driven at least 45 miles and that it where I re-measured and that is where I got my numbers.\
Yesterday I drove it another 30 kms or 18 miles or so and I will re-confirm that the ride height measured has not changed. If it has not changed since i will get it aligned.
That the suspension doesn't move a lot as you adjust. If you lift the car to make adjustment easier, plan on 75-100 or more miles of driving before you measure, and for sure before you check alignment. Jeff's Excel sheet s a great guide that lets you determine in advance how many turns of the collar will be needed to get to target height. Even then ithe car needs some suspension movement to settle up or down on the final height numbers.
With my car at 173 in front, I can adjust the collars without lifting the car. Just turn the front wheels one way or the other for access. The rears are pretty easy, plenty of access. If you need to unload the suspension to get the collars to turn under the lower spring perches, plan on resettling with the 75-100+ miles of driving.
-----
My car has been sitting on stands all winter, suspension extended. Coming off the stands last week and driving some reminded me that I also needed to drop the tire pressures from winter-storage pressures down to summer-driving pressures. That and a couple hous of Cascade Lakes Highway touring have things settled enough that the car isn't skittish at all. High (45-50) tire pressures and the extra front toe-in that comes with unsettled suspension made the car a little busy at first. It's back to it's wonderful self again after the adjustments and some cruising.
Yes DR. Bob, I did exactly what you suggested for the fronts, I had the wheel turned so I could get some access, but with the weight of the car and how low the front sat, I gave in after a while and raised the car to lift it a great deal so I could do minute adjustments on the ground afterwards.
75 to 100 miles WOW, it's that long for the suspension to fully settle ! Well I guess I am not ready for alignment just yet ! I will do some more long distance driving this weekend and re-measure to see where it sits.
The whole point of changing my suspension was to be able to adjust the ride height within range of specs, plus stop my spoiler from bottoming out when hitting certain depressions by lifting it. I am sure before re-adjusting the height my front must have been between 130 mm to max 150 mm !
The front spoiler would sit at about 3-1/2 inches from the ground or so, really LOW . I could not even get my hydraulic jack underneath to lift it to put on jack stands. I would have to lift at the jacking point as high as possible then drop down slowly so i could just barely get my jack underneath the front far enough in to start lifting !
Yes of course my shocks were finished after 33 years and 142,000 kms .
You can see how low it sat with the pictures.
You can see the stance, it's way low in the front and higher in the rear, the same stance of what people used to do with muscle cars ! This was the way I purchased it.
Time and distance to settle depends on a whole lot of factors.
I can get mine to settle at least partway by pushing the car up and down, while it is sitting still.
Driving on roads with good dips helps too. "Bumpy" may or may not help. You need bigger bumps to push the suspension up and down as much as possible. Smoother ones rather than sharper ones.
I have found that stabbing the brakes to make the front end dive down helps too.
Time and distance to settle depends on a whole lot of factors.
I can get mine to settle at least partway by pushing the car up and down, while it is sitting still.
Driving on roads with good dips helps too. "Bumpy" may or may not help. You need bigger bumps to push the suspension up and down as much as possible. Smoother ones rather than sharper ones.
I have found that stabbing the brakes to make the front end dive down helps too.
Thank you Joe, i have done some of those sharp braking sessions, and I will redo the pushing down of the front end to help also. Yes, it does make sense that bigger bumps will help to settle the car.
That reminded me there is a road barely used in my area which goes downhill and when you reach the bottom it immediately goes uphill, so i will be able to squish the car suspension properly if I reach a certain speed to create enough G-Force.
At my previous home north of Los Angeles, a ritzier neighborhood had managed to get speed bumps installed to try and reduce through traffic in the neighborhood. I tried a dozen laps, each lap with 8+ speedbumps, at 30 MPH or so. The residents were already fed up with the thumping from cars that were going through, so I was not looked upon favorably when I was pulling speed laps trying to settle the suspension. The whole thing was for naught -- the suspension didn't go down much. I drove it a few times up and around Angeles Crest Highway, which happened to be very local, and that did the deed.
If you know and can measure the target ride height, adjust to that and align the car. Then, just keep up with the adjusting height as the car continues to settle. At some point it will stop settling and you'll be able to stop adjusting.
The workshop manuals have a suggestion for pulling the front end down. Short of setting some more anchors in teh workbay floor I haven't come up with a way to do this. If I had a four-post lift it would be a snap.
There is a business near me that has "speed humps" in their driveway. Not the 'speed bumps' that are only a foot or so wide. These are maybe 6 feet across. I can hit them at maybe 15mph and get a really nice 'squash' on the springs, without the hard jolt a typical speed bump would give.
There's also a stretch of country road where the culverts running under it (more accurately, the fill around the culverts) have settled over the years and there are some nice, smooth, wide dips. Not sharp or 'jolty' at all. just a nice smooth drop & rebound. Again, and almost perfect 'squash' of the springs without a hard bump.
06-14-2018, 10:10 AM
Confirmation for ride height adjustment
