Ride height (again) how much can you get with the eccentrics?

[mike635]

Realize that this has been discussed to death but I haven't found anything in the archives stating how much adjustment range you can get with the eccentrics. My car is too low (24" at the rear) and I want to bring it up to euro specs (at least). Can this be done w/o changing the torsion bar spline settings? I've ordered a suspension adjust wrench and have the tools to get the bolts loose so I'll probably just give it a try but wondering if I should just rip everything apart, move the splines, and possibly replace the bushings.

Related question - my car sounds like a dump truck in the rear end, drives me nuts. I've replaced the rear shocks, disconnected the sway bar (temporarily) and tightened a loose bumper shock, still have metallic groans at low speeds when the back end sways around in parking lots. Any chance this is a result of ultra low ride height??

Mike

[widgeon13]

check the spring plate bushings, they may be shot and if so it will involve replacing by pulling the spring plate and may as well re index the tbars at that time. You can do a prelim check on the bushing by looking at the end of the metal cap that covers the end of the tbar and see if the gap on the cover is uniform, if not, the bushings may be shot. How many miles on the suspension?

[mike635]

The car is an '81 SC with 144K miles so the bushings are probably shot. I have looked at the gap on the metal cap and it's not even although there appears to be some gap left at the top so I'm assuming there's not any metal to metal contact (yet). I want to replace the bushings but was hoping to put it off until next year.

Not sure what kind of noise you expect when the bushings are shot, I hear some soft clunks, occasional metallic snaps (sounds like two pieces of metal binding, then letting go) I've read the sometimes the torsion bar rubs on the inside of the housing but not sure what that sounds like.

mike

[kach22i]

My front end has been slowly saging down, kind of looked like it was pulling the back end up at the same time. I kept scraping drives and bumpy roads all the time, after a fill up of gas I had to back it into my driveway. I adjusted the screws up front and got many handling improvements.

The largest change is the annoying whine from the back tire is gone after raising the front. The sound showed up more on hot days and not at all on very cool days.

Even though our sounds are different I can say getting the car to the right height can change sounds and other things which you might not expect.

Front was 24", now 26"

Back was 25-1/2, still about the same.

I need to tweek the rear a little, only touched the front and the rears are a little uneven. They get closer to even with a driver in the seat, but still 1/2" uneven. I'm going to measure the factory way to be sure, was only using the inside of the wheel arch which is not as accurate.

Some may say I have my car too high, but I live in Michigan with pot-holes, and often park on the street downtown where A-Holes park by Braille. I'm tired of getting scrapes from plastic bumpers going over the top of my bumper. Recalling history, bumper height regulations are why the US cars sit higher than the Euro cars.

[mike635]

Yeah, I'm thinking that raising the height up will help some. I'm in Wisconsin so I know all about bumpy roads. My car has terrible bump steer (front height is barely 24") and an aftermarket front air dam this is just about trashed from scraping driveways. Takes the fun out of driving the car when you worry about stuff like this.

One other thing (that might get me kicked off this board!) call me an old guy but, I actually like the look of 911's at the US ride height!

Mike

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by mike635

I actually like the look of 911's at the US ride height!

High in the saddle, like John Wayne baby!



...........and I went down this brick paved road at 15 mpg, sounds slow but that's a constant speed on a wavy road which I used to have to stop on with SUV's breathing down my arse while I dipped into the swells at 2 mph.

NOTE: I like the race version of the Porsche 959 and the Lancia Stratos, so call me crazy.

[karleick]

You can get quite a bit of ride-height variation with your eccentrics if your bushings are good and your eccentrics are set close to the middle. After freshining my suspension, I set my rear height at 24.5" with my adjustable spring plate close to centered. My full range of adjustment is between 25.5" and 24". However, these values change slightly as I adjust the front height. I went through some trial and error to set my current height at 25" front and 24.5" rear.

Fritz