Champagne

Hi all,

my passenger front corner seems to have sagged about 1/4". All the rest is up to spec. and the car still drives straight. Tires wear evenly.

My plan was to give that spring a couple of turns. I have the right tool, and I marked the shock for reference.

The problem is that after 2 full turns, I'm still at the same place as per my reference mark.

How is that possible?

Paul

Randy V

Hey Paul, where ya been?


That does sound strange. Are the rear adjustments at the same height on the shock? If the left rear is raised more than the right rear the difference in preload could be the reason.

Champagne

Hey Randy,

I've been here, quiet but present.

The rear height is perfect on both sides and the driver front is right on spec. Passenger front is just a bit low. I'm just puzzled as to what is turning.

Paul

Garth S

Which reference point are you using? The top of the fender is easy, but lacks the precision of using the cast suspension tabs as discussed in the WSMs.
The adjuster thread pitch is 1.5mm: ie., 1 turn will raise the suspension at that corner 1.5mm, or 0.060"; however, as Randy mentiones, the diagonal link is important. Adjust to get ride heights equal side to side - at both ends.

Simon Jester

When I put the adjustable shock perches on my '79, I noticed that for small adjustments of the front end, the car had so much stick that I had to drive it a bit for the ride height change to be apparent.

When I tried to corner weight adjust it, it was a lot more sensitive to being driven.

Champagne

Thanks guys,

the ride height as been checked by both methods. The car was aligned by Devek on my last trip to the west coast. When I came back, I did take measurements in my own garage as reference.

The car now sits about 1/2" too high up front because it as not yet settle from being lifted. But I still seem to be 1/4" lower on the passengers side. Exactly the same as before I gave that spring 2 full turns.

Paul

Beth

Hi Paul-
All I can offer is that when we adjusted the rideheight on my '87 we figured we needed about 8 turns according to what we had read. To get to the correct right height we had to go about 15 turns!!! (no wonder I was always bottoming out) Drove the car aboout 5 miles after each 5 turns, but we turned a lot more than we had expected. On the last 2 wheels we sprayed WD-40 on the spring and it helped a great deal. Things were seized up and the WD-40 helped loosen the connections. But we experienced the same as you, sometimes 2-3 tunrs showed no results.

Champagne

Hey Simon, Beth,

you guys are starting to make me feel better about this. If it's then possible to make small adjustments that will only appear after the height as settled, then it makes sense.

So I guess I will just have to drive and drive until it settles and see.
Life is though.

Thanks all

Paul

SharkSkin

Well, these cars do love to be driven...

Gregg K

Two full turns is an entire 1/8 of an inch. It's very close to 16 threads per inch. I know, shame on me. I don't have a metric pitch guage, so I just climbed under the car with what I have.

UKKid35

Your adjuster nut and sleve may have seized so now the sleve is spinning on the shock and preventing any height adjustment. One day I'll replace mine which do the same.

slate blue

Having just done this, it isn't an exact science, seems to be some trial and error. Think of the car as a tile. Yes a tile if any of you have laid tiles you will know that when you move one corner it moves all the others. Often it will put the others out. You sound like you are on the right track, just kept going, remember the tile effect, raise one corner and you lower another.

Slow process, this is why corner balancing a car can be very expensive.

Simon Jester

Corner balancing can be a real challenge. The equipment I have from my racing days was way under capacity for the 928. I wound up making a balance beam system to allow the scales a 3/1 leverage advantage on the wheels.

With the ride height set near perfect on all four corners, the cross-balance was over 10% off. When I had the corner weights set up (it took three weeks of trial and error and driving off the adjustments) the ride height varied nearly 10mm at the measuring points from side to side. I bet the car or springs are a bit tweaked after 25 years of service.

The good news is the car handles MUCH better than it ever did. Rock solid and very quick in the corners.

GlenL

Echoing Paul:

Make sure the adjusters are not seized to the collars.

Champagne

Thanks again guys,

I have to admit that I didn't look and see if the sleeve was turning or not. I will get back under, lubricate more and give it another try.

If the sleeve is indeed turning with the adjuster, does that mean that the shock is shot?

Paul