Normy

Snag- this job is easiest if you take the wheel off [use a jack stand]. The spring purches take a LOT of force to turn, even if they are clean, so I recommend a pair of gloves.

Also remember that you are dealing with a lever arm situation here. 1/2 inch of movement of the perch means WAY MORE than 1/2 inch change in ride height!

Good luck-

Normy!
'85 S2 5 Speed

SteveCo

Snag;
Normy's right. Raise the car and remove the wheel to adjust the ride height. It takes alot of force to move the adjuster nut...at least initially and even with lube. Doing it with the wheel on may be possible but definitely more problematic.

If you do not have the ATV adjuster tool yet, consider a set of Vicegrip Model 11R locking pliers. That's what I used after a suggestion from someone on this forum. These fit the slots on the adjuster perfectly, lock in place to save your knuckles from busting and are more generally useful than the ATV adjuster tool. Picture attached below. The pliers did not damage the adjuster nuts any more than the ATV tool would.

FYI, there has been much debate about the adjustment rate. I found the lift factor varied from the bottom of the adjuster to the top, but generally eight full turns = 1" of spring lift = 2" of vehicle lift. Take your time, guesstimate your first adjustment in terms of # of turns (I'[d suggest 8 turns first if the adjuster is at the bottom of its range), make the adjustment, then drop the car and drive it for about 5-10 miles before assessing the results of your work. Then measure the ride height as per the factory method. Took me 3 time to get the right ride height using this method...slow but very accurate.

Regards,
SteveCo in St. John's

SNAG84Sa

I've ordered the adjustment tool from a local Honda atv store, will be in tomorrow. When I got the car aligned, I had to remove the front spoiler in the parking lot no less to be able to get the car on the lift. In the process I removed the fender wells. Doing that has given me quite a bit of room to work with. As for the strenth to turn the nut, well I think I'll probally need more patience. The nut turning the nut and the nut doesn't have a choice!

Gretch

I modified a suspension tool I took from either one of my sleds or one of my ATVs, and I don't remember which one. The modification was done on a bench grinder and was designed to have the arc of the tool more accurately follow the arc of the 928 shock adjustment nut. I also put a bit more of an inside edge on the tang part of the tool that fits in the slot on the nut. It works so well, that it has been moved to the 928 tool kit from where ever I stole it from . To get more leverage on it, I used a large vice grip tool clamped down tightly on the end of the metal handle of the tool.

Be patient turning the nut. Once you get it moving, you should go at a pace where you keep a firm grip on the nut with the tool and maximize your torque based on the tool's position.

Feels real good to do it yourself.

DG84S

Snag,
I bought the same vice grips as Steveco, removed the wheels and had no problems. My front height measured <130mm when I started and I'm darn close to spec now. For a height gauge, I took one of those flat sticks used for stirring paint, cut two lengths, overlapped them and used one of those large spring steel paper clips to hold them together. It was easy to reach under the car and extend the sticks until they the touched floor and proper lower arm flat spot, pull the sticks out and measure with calipers (or tape).
1" = 25.4MM
170mm = ~6 11/16 inches.

SNAG84Sa

There was one thread that measured from centermost point of fender through the middle of the rim and recorded 27" on the front. Mine at this point measures 24 1/3" so I am dang near riding on the ground. I'm VERY careful where I go sticking to only well known roads and I have hidden/taken all extra keys away from the Mrs. At any rate, hwo accurate is that measurement? My tires BTW look basically new(16").

GlenL

Fender measurements are not accurate. The way the fenders are made, and to a lesser extent mounted, there could be easily a half inch of difference without being noticable as being "off." The aluminum is really flimsy.

I cut some wood pieces to the heights I wanted for the floor-to-pad method. Then it is a quick check shows how the work is progressing.

Gretch

One other note of import. The surface the car is sitting on MUST be flat. (Most garage floors are not flat). Variations in the height of the floor at the four points of contact with the tires will make any measurements you take meaningless. take a long level and check the floor side to side between the two front tires and the two rear tires. If you are showing a level surface in both measurements then you will be pretty close on your measurements, even if the front to back measurement is slightly off level.

Steve J.

I bought a Motion-Pro #08-0029 "Mono Shock Spanner". About $16. I got it at a Suzuki shop and I asked for a ATV shock wrench.

SNAG84Sa

Steve,
Mine looks like yours, how well did it work?

DG84S

Sterling,
When you see clean threads below the adjustment nut, it is moving upward(albeit very slowly because the threads are very fine), you are compressing the spring and lifting the car.

Steve J.

DG84S - It took me awhile to figure this out. Let's see - screw the ring up, it compresses the spring and lowers the car? WRONG! The car rides on the springs. Raising the ring raises the car.
SNAG - it can be a knucklebuster! It can slip off so don't be leaning into it. And wear gloves. But at least it doesn't chew up the ring like a monkey wrench.

tresamore

I bought the same as Steve J and it works fine.

Marc Schwager

I have to disagree with Normy and Steveco. I was able to adjust the fronts just fine without removing the front wheels. I used the Motion Pro tool that is pictured above. If you can do it without pulling the wheels, it take far less time to get the height right. If you remove the wheels, after you make an adjustment then you replace the wheels and drive the car about 25 miles to settle the suspension to see if you got it right. Then you do it again (and again) because it is still 1/2 a cm off. It is a much longer process.

I haven't figured out how to do the back wheels without lifting the car, so if you are doing both, I suppose it doesn't matter. Also, don't bother measuring fender height, there are specific places under the suspension to check the ride height that are very easy to access.

There was a great site that explained all this: http://www.928.org.uk/height.html

I just tried to reach it and got a dns error :-(

SteveCo

If you can adjust the ride height without removing the wheels, then by all means do it. Marc is correct that this will shorten the entire process...assuming you can access and move the adjusters insitu.

In my personal experience with a single car, I had to contend with 18 year old adjusters had never been cleaned or moved since leaving the factory. Regardless of tool used (I acquired a "C "wrench as well), I would not have been able to move the passenger front side adjuster without free the wheel removed. I soaked the adjusters with penetrating oil for two days prior to starting all this work too.

Since I was removing the wheels anyway, I took the opportunity to remove and clean the plastic inner fender liners, the entire suspension and undersides of the fenders. It is amazing how dirty this area was...lots of sand finds it's way behind the fender liners.

Once I got the adjuster nuts moving, they were relatively easy to turn with one hand, but the passenger side nut was difficult to get started. It required a very firm grip with two hands and a healthy push with both legs to move the first time. I considered using a cheater bar to assist, but it was not necessary. I found the locking pliers provided a secure grip that did not require help to stay in place, so I could concentrate of heaving. Once I had gotten over the fear of breaking something, a big push got things moving. The penetrating lube helped, I am sure...particularly once the nut was broken free.

On the rear, the "C" wrench might be a better choice than the vicegrip, as the quarters are quite tight. I removed the lower bolt on the sway bar drop link and swiveled it out of the way to make some room to work. Again, it is probably possible to adjust these without raising the suspension (ie: with the car on a lift or something), but you need to be very careful to protect both your hands and other car components form an errant slip. I like the locking pliers for this reason alone.

On ride height measurement, use the fender lips as a rough guide and have as-close-to-level a surface as possible. I found the concrete pad of a gas station a good place to check my driveway work. For the final measure measurements use the factory measuring points. I cut 3 short sticks in 165, 170 and 175mm lengths (you can use whatever lengths make sense for your target ride height...mine was 170mm) and simply find the one that fits the closest. Differences of 2-3mm will not matter unless you are racing in NASCAR.

One other thought: if your car is very low before starting this procedure, take care not to exceed the adjuster's range. I did this on one side of my car in the front. If I recall correctly, there are only about 20 "turns" or about 2.5" of spring compression from top to bottom. My car was at something like 125 or 130mm ride height in the front when I started...very low indeed. I overlifted the car on one side and ran the adjuster off it's threads. I was able to get it rethreaded without much problem (I was very lucky) and, in the end, I only needed about 12-13 turns to lift the car to 170mm. This is a long way of saying, be conservative and don't over adjust your suspension.

The best resource on ride height adjustment, besides the workshop manual, is http://www.928.org.uk/height.html.

Regards,
SteveCo in St. John's