Pass. side front end won't lower anymore!

[vanderbott]

Forgive me as posting this is my last resort. I read every thread on here about lowering the front end of my '78 SC. So here it goes...

I could never get my desired height of 25" on both sides of the front using just the adjusters so I tried re-indexing the finger on t-bar adjuster to no avail. still too high on passenger side.

As of this moment I have the front end on stands, wheels off, and adjusters off. Tried jacking control arms to same height and then placing t-bar adjuster in halfway. driver side went well but passenger won't allow anywhere near. the car starts to raise.

Also tried adjusters off with wheels on... lowered the car and drivers side was low enough (meaning i would be able to adjust it to desired height) but again passenger side stuck at way too high.

I realize settling occurs but this isn't the first time I've tried. The passenger side always has much more wheel gap (25" 3/4). I do also realize that i need to corner balance when finished here.

I thinking maybe the bump stops are of different lengths??? or something else?? IDK anyone have some clues? lmk -mason

[DRACO A5OG]

No worries brother, we are here to help, if we can

You need to re-index the front torsion bar.

Simply remove the end cap and reposition to desired location and that is it . I just eye balled mine to make sure both sides are sitting in the same position.

OK, not so simple, need to remove front sway bar to allow the cap to come off.

Jim

Crap sorry re-read, you did re-index. strange. take pic of both end caps. they should be pretty even/close in position so you can lower it. If the adjustment bolt is bottomed out, that means it still needs more re-indexing. I had to raise my right front wheel with a back up jack to get my end cap in the desired position

Damn, kept on reading, sorry. OK you do know the rears will effect the front ride height as well? are the rears even? I bet they aren't.

I would try the jack trick and see if it levels out but I bet you have a bit of a sag in the rear driver side. Shoot I do and My re-index is perfect per Wil Firch's index program. If you are playing with the rears you do not want to increase height in driver rear to compensate, it will through the corner balance off

[vanderbott]

yeah that's why my thinking was i'll just raise up front, remove adjusters with the wheels still on, lower the car back down to approx. desired height and then sneak under and replace t-bar adjusters. but the car wouldn't come down anymore on the pass side.

rears are pretty close at 25" 1/4 with rota fox 17" wheels

[pete3799]

I'd pull the strut insert and check..... it might be seized or hitting the bump stop as you said.

[vanderbott]

ok, i'm gonna try removing the strut like you said. i did hear occasional tire "smaking"on that side and you'd think i'd really feel a seized strut... oh well i guess i'll find out.

[vanderbott]

Pass side Bilstein strut seems not to be seized but I went ahead and tested out the stroke between the two sides and found the driver side had a much longer stroke... like two inches more.

The way I quickly measured the stroke of the struts was by compressing them with a jack to the point the car started to raise. then extended them all the way to the bottom. the measurement was made from bottom of metal dust cover to a Sharpie line made on strut body (pic to come). I found 6" of stroke possible on drivers and only 4" on passenger.

Boggled by this I began to disassemble the Bilstein upper strut hat assy. and found no bump stop? oh yeah and I found I have US spec ride height spacers in front so i guess I'm tossing those?

[wente]

Adding to Draco's comment... I second the idea that you might also have an imbalance in your rear weight distribution that's causing the passenger side tire to lift. It may be that in this case your left rear wheel is not be applying as much force as the right rear, so it's twisting the car and lifting the passenger side like a diagonal teeter-totter. I just went through this last week and found that one of my rear wheels was carrying 50lbs more than the other. It was finally made right by Roger Kraus racing doing a good corner balance and alignment for me. I spent hours with strings and wrenches trying to do it myself, but nothing beats a good hunter rack with scales when it's time to dial it in. you could lift the rear end with a floor jack on the engine case and measure the fronts to eliminate the force of the rear wheels... If it evens out in front, you probably need to mess with the rear height settings... good luck!