Front suspension hight

[Ron.G]

The PO had the car aligned by someone without a clue. The rear tires were wearing on the inside, so the shop cranked up the front end to "fix" the problem.

Now the car is way high in the front. I'd like to drop it back down but I know it will effect toe.

How much toe will change if I drop it say inch and a half?
Which direction does it change? In or out?

I looked at the torsion screws last night and it looks to be screwed in all the way!

I'll get it aligned soon after I make the changes. Just wondering if it would be drivealbe if I did it. The passenger side tire is wearing on the outer portion of the tire.

All in all I'd say they did a nice job

[Wil Ferch]

I believe it tends to toe-out as you drop....might be considerable toe change for a 1.5" drop.....

You drop the front using the 11mm hex bolts....one on each rear-most pivot....about 1/4" drop per revolution ( CCW...worm's eye view). You may need to reindex the front suspension torsion bar "finger" if you run out of adjustment range...

--- Wil

[Ron.G]

Thanks Wil.
I think I can get away without reindexing. The are cranked in all the way so I should be able to back them out enough.
We will see....
Can most alignment shops do these cars?

[Wil Ferch]

No ( maybe toe like you want...but not full-on alignment).

Wil

EDIT: If it's only toe...do it yourself... do a search for a home brew I wrote about...easy....little tedious.

[stlrj]

Dropping the front will make it toe out which may not be such a bad thing.

Cheers,

Joe

[Wil Ferch]

Here's an excerpt of my Rennlist article on home toe and camber adjustment...maybe reposted in Pelican , too....

===============================
-Toe:
...for the toe gauge, you use a 1/2" or 3/4" diameter length of conduit,the length of which must at least span the width of the car. I drilled one end to accommodate a through-bolt ( laterally) , that sticks out on both sides... so when this is placed on the ground, it won't roll around. Place this conduit on the ground just in front of the tires, going across the car. Now ( the scary part!), push a "short" thumbtack on the front face of the tire tread(obviously on a tread block so as not to puncture the tire!)..let's call this the 9 o'clock position as you view the driver's side tire, for example. Do this for both front tires. Now, place a plumb-bob ( with string) over the shaft of the thumb tack and drop down until the plumb-bob touches the conduit. Mark this with a fine point pen. Take your time until the bob settles down. Do it again for the other tire. You now have a starting measurement!

Without removing the thumbtack(s), roll the car backwards such that the thumbtack moves up-and-over until it is located at the backside of the tire ( call this the3 0'clock position as you view the driver's side). Repeat the plumb-bob measurement. Ideally, the *total* dimension on the backside should be a small amount greater than the front measurement ( say... greater by 1/16" or slightly more), to establish "slight" amount of toe-in. If not correct, you must adjust the toe and center the steering wheel per normal methods.

- Camber gauge.
This can be plain-and-simple, for one rim size ( the example I cite is for a 16" wheel)...but a friend saw my device and went further to make an adjustable unit for various rim diameters. Your call. Anyway, I started out by selecting a 24" long carpenters water level made out of aluminum, like an "I" beam. Mine had three levels. Held vertically, you would see a "top" level, a "bottom" level, and one in the middle at 90 degrees from these two. Somwhere near the bottom ( held vertically), drill the aluminum frame of this level, to mount a threaded rod ( 6-32 works well)that projects about 3-4 inches from the "I" beam flange of the main frame. To better understand orientation, this rod projects out "to the right" ( say), as you view the water levels. Fasten it by lock nuts so it can't move . About 17" ( actually 425 mm) above this point ( for a 16" wheel) , drill another hole in the "I" beam frame of the unit, but tap the hole with a 6-32 thread tap. Fasten a set of lock nuts to "zero" the same projection as the bottom rod, but do not to allow it to project out less than this amount. However, *do* allow it to thread "out". With this, you can place the vertical water level against the rim ( touching the rim with both the upper and lower rods...necessary for body clearance), and with equal rod projections top and bottom, you would have both the top and bottom levels centered. ( Check this against a known plumb surface). If you have negative camber, you would need to thread "out" a certain number of turns of the upper rod... to re-establish a plumb condition. The neat thing is that you know the distance between the rods, and you know that with a 6-32 rod, there are 32 rotations to each inch of travel. Using "inverse tangent" trigonometry, you can easily measure camber to within 0.1 degree accuracy. I made a chart that easily converts "number of turns" of the upper rod, to equivalant degrees ( assuming the 425 mm distance between the rods for a 16" wheel stays the same). I checked this against the $200 electronic devices and found equivalent accuracy. Caveat: search out a good water level, and use one where the water miniscus ( bubble) doesn't quite touch both lines when centered. This helps view the plumb condition with better viewing accuracy.
Hope this makes sense,,....and hope it can help someone. -


--Wil

[Gunter]

Here is what I did: Set the fender-lip-to-ground-height where you want it, mine is 25"F & 24.5"R. I made sure that my adjusters are right in the middle; I indexed the rear torsion bar with the eccentric bolt in the middle. Then, if you feel like it, set your cambers, mine are slightly negative with the help of an 18" carpenters level. Being very close with where I want it, I went to a good alignment shop where they let me be right there and I tell the technician the final settings. It's all straight forward; you'll see it on the computer and you'll get a print-out.