front ride height adjustment

[GMR911]

Hi, trying to get my front end back to original height after front end rebuild. Which way to turn the adjuster screw to raise or lower the car. If the adjuster lever goes down, does that raise or lower the front end. Since I did not re-do the rear end yet I am trying to get the front end back to about 27 " at front wheel well . It now sits about 26 ". Thanks Jerry

[Oh Haha]

27' seems kinda high. What year car are we talking about?

Counter-clockwise(left-loosey) will lower the front. Clockwise will raise the car.

[GMR911]

It is a 77 911, with USA standard height. How many turns to raise it 1/2 "?

[Oh Haha]

The truns will depend on where you are at now. Did you remove the end caps? If so, install them with the adjusting screw stop all the way at the top of the housing. This will give you a good amount of adjustment. You may ahve to turn them quite a bit to get to 27". If possible , try to get then as evev as possible. Do you have any 911 manuals?

[GMR911]

Also the rear heights are about 26.25 ". I am not trying to lower the car at this time, just tryin to get back to original ride height for now. Bring it for a front end alignment tomorrow.

[Wil Ferch]

Clockwise ( "worms-eye-view") raises....about 1/4" / turn....

- Wil

[911 Rod]

This adjustment will change the balance of the car.
It could be where it is for a reason.

[911 Rod]

Originally posted by Noah
It's not. To set the "balance" of the car, you need to have your car corner balanced. Having done suspension work and fiddled with your ride height, a corner balance is in order. Do a search -- there have been dozens of threads.

?

Adjusting the torsion bars is how you corner balance your car.

[Wil Ferch]

Short form answer...if you adjust the height, adjust both sides the same way to maintain whatever corner balance you have now. If you ( instead) raise or lower just one corner..it will affect the opposite diagonal the same way.

So.... raising the RF will add weight to the RF....as well as LR.... etc. Lowering the RF will lower the RF weight as well as LR weight.

- Wil

[GMR911]

Thanks again for all the responses. I plan to do the rear-end work this winter, have looooong winters in upstate NY, so plenty of time to do it. Right now I want to just get the front end somewhat close to where it was before and balanced so I plan to get the front ride height back to abought 26.75 " and even side to side and a front end alignment. Of course it looks pretty good at 26" where it is about now. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks Jerry

[GMR911]

By the way I am seeing conflicting ways of turning the screw to raise and lower the car. There is a tech article written on pelican and it says clockwise lowers the car? Seen a few conflicting opinions? Jerry

[Wil Ferch]

That's why I said "worm's eye view"...it would be opposite rotation if "bird's eye view".....

Which Pelican Technical Article are you referring to?

- Wil

[GMR911]

The tech article is called "911 torsion bar replacement". Will I guess I don't understand "birds eye view". This morning I went out to raise the car abit and turned the bolt clockwise and it lowered the car. So I went the other way, counter-clockwise to raise it? Am I missing something here? If the adjuster lever is raised does this raise or lower the car? Jerry

[Wil Ferch]

It's been my experience that CW raises the car as I had indicated. "Worm's eye view" means you're on your back looking up...clockwise.

If, instead.... you were a bird looking down (bird's eye view), the proper rotation would be CCW. You're still turning the screw in the same direction, but you have to know "viewed from where"....

The article says CW lowers...which is wrong if you're looking up...but would be correct if you were topside, looking down ( and it would be an odd way to describe it that way).

- Wil

[Wil Ferch]

PS - - I would not adjust the height with the car weight on the suspension. It just seems to wear out the adjuster/threads more with the car weight on it.

- Wil

[87coupe]

Birds eye view, worms eye view, why confuse the poor guy w/ this terminology. Set your socket to loosen (counter clockwise) to lower it, or set it to tighten (clockwise) to raise it.

[Wil Ferch]

I thought it was pretty clear....worms eye view is looking up, bird's eye view is looking down...pretty hard to screw up !!

It's frustrating that he says he's turning it the opposite way to raise it. Quote...." This morning I went out to raise the car abit and turned the bolt clockwise and it lowered the car...."

- Wil

[POKDUB]

Jerry,

Dont get hung up on the rotation direction of the adjust bolt. The adjustment is so easy that you will quickly see whether the suspension goes up or down.

With an 11mm socket it is a 5 min job to balance height

[71T]

Worms don't have eyes...

But seriously, what effect does just lowering have on other alignment settings? Does it inrease/decrease camber, etc... I'm thinking about lowering to my ideal height then taking it for an alignment. Will this cause poor handling if I lower an inch or so? Can I restore my alignment fairly well by just turning the adjustment screw the same amount in the opposite direction to raise?

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I thought it was a similar enough topic.

Thanks

Colin

[Wil Ferch]

lowering will tend toward toe-out... 1/4" or so won't be a big problem, but 1" will. Lowering quite naturally increases negative camber...might be a good thing for a more aggressive street/track setting.

Yes...just count number of turns and you can "go back".....

- Wil