My 83 sc is lopsided

[hughc]

Looking at the car from the rear it is leaning slightly to the passenger's side and when measuring the distance from ground to the lip of fender I find a 15 mm difference from side to side.

Is this a difficult adjustment to make?

What's involved?

thanks

Hughc

[Trackrash]

This is not an easy question to answer, especially without knowing the history of your car. Are we talking original suspension? Bushings ever replaced? Yes, the torsion bars can be adjusted, but why would they need to be?

What you should consider, IMO, is to first find out why it is sagging to one side. Could be a weak torsion bar or badly worn bushings.

There have been cars with rust issues, particularly the rear torsion bar housings, so that should be checked out while looking.

Then how far do you want to take refurbishing your suspension. In my mind replacing all the rubber suspension bushings, ball joints, and shocks, and possibly new torsion bars, is the way to go, if they are original.

Once all the suspension components are up to snuff, an alignment and corner balance should be done.

[76FJ55]

Yes, as the previous replay state, you need a ride height and corner balance. but in the interim, have someone sit in the drivers seat and see how it looks.

[timmy2]

Ride height isn’t measured to the fenders. Body panels vary a lot on hand built cars.

[walt]

What Dennis said. Measure to the bottom of the torsion bar and see if you get the same result.

[JSV798]

I would check the position of the torsion bar holder in the torsion bar cover; it should be concentric, otherwise the large torsion bar bush is worn.

[OsoMoore]

My car body is 1/2 inch off centered, but of my wheels and frame are true. These hand-built cars will have a little variance.
As noted above, don't use the body panels for measurements of balance like this.

[hughc]

Thanks guys. I guess there's a bit of a learning curve there for me. Honestly, for the type of driving I do, mostly DD and highway cruising, I haven't noticed anything unusual in the handling but looking at the vehicle from the rear it is a little off putting.

I believe the suspension is original at 190 mi. but I'll have to go thru the dossier of work invoices to confirm. Personally I think my vehicle is in nice shape with no visible signs of any corrosion. So I have that going in my favor.

It seems the first step will be to get the vehicle on a lift and have a look for obviously worn bushings and such. Il do that with a second set of eyes, someone with a bit of early 911 experience and take it from there. Another job to put on the list.

Thanks again to those that responded and offered your comments.

Hughc

[Bill Douglas]

Maybe the previous owner had a very heavy girlfriend.

As mentioned earlier, the very first thing I'd do is look at the possibility of the worn torque tube bushing. If the end of the tube is sitting high in the cover, especially on the low side, this may be the culprit.

[avr924]

Don’t know your suspension set up, but brand new torsion bars have snapped, noticed my car looked odd sitting in garage one day, was still drivable and really not noticeable, started taking apart and 2 t bars broken, probably less than 500 miles on them

[Flojo]

could be everything… broken torsion bar, dead shock absorber, fully crumbled sway bar bushing… uneven ground surface…??

I'd suspect the shock first… as well it's rather easy to pull and test.

don't do an Alignement before you have not sorted out if it's a technical issue

[edit: when I replaced the Boge (that came with my car) with new Bilstein, suddenly the car sat 2cm higher… just saying]

[piscator]

All good possibilities, by I'm with Flojo. Shocks are the first thing I thought of.

Having just done a complete suspension refresh of my 1979 it's hard for me to picture those tough rubber bushings sagging over 1/2" as a result of daily driving. Mine were somewhat deformed, but not to that degree. I'm not saying it's impossible, just hard to imagine.

Can a solid torsion bar really fail from normal usage? You guys would know better than I -- but boy, those things are massive! I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the kinda force it must take to bend one!

Maybe it's a combination or body panel height, bushings, shocks and whatever else might contribute to the 15mm discrepancy.

[hughc]

Thanks again guys. I agree there might be some discrepancy with the body panels but as I've previously mentioned the car is noticeably lopsided when looking at it from the rear. Not a lot mind you, but noticeable. I had a 150 lb person sit in the driver's seat and the measured height difference was only 3 mm, so I guess the car doesn't look lopsided when I drive alone.
Maybe the previous owner did have a somewhat larger lady friend. They aren't too hard to come by.
All kidding aside, I did put the car up on jack stands and everything under there seems to be quite tight and in very nice condition, so my plan of attack will be to remove the shock absorber
on that side to check it out. Maybe even remove both units to compare them.
But since this is driving season I'll wait until the car is laid up for a few months before I attempt that job.
I must say that I would be extremely disappointed if I replaced the rear struts and found that the ride height had increased by 2 cm.
Anyway, thanks again.
hughc

[HarryD]

FWIW. My car har been corner balanced and is uneven and per the fender lips the right side is about 1/2” lower than the other but the corner balance is spot on.

If you are not familiar with these cars, bring it to a shop that specializes in air cooled 911’s and have them inspect the suspension, corner balance and align.

[nvr2mny]

If it's any consolation, our '82 has also been aligned and corner balanced and from the rear isn't level either. It's not that uncommon as has been posted above.