Yet another ride height question...

[alpine60]

I am trying to set the REAR ride height using the "factory-recommended" way.

Instead of measuring at the fender lip, I'm taking the difference between the wheel hub and torsion bar cover. The reference I'm using is 16mm +/- 5mm (ROW rear height for 1980 SC).

The pictures I've seen (including Bentley's and a tech article here on Pelican Parts) show that the torsion bar cover sits HIGHER than the center of the wheel hub. When I did my measurement with the car sitting on the ground, it is the other way around, i.e. center of cover is lower than that of the wheel hub. As it sits right now, the difference is NEGATIVE 20mm -- both sides are equal by the way.

I'm confused...should the measurement be taken with the suspension loaded (car sitting on the ground) or unloaded (wheel off the ground)?

[Flieger]

Should be loaded. But if your car is lowered you can easily have a negative height without having the car too low. 12mm +/-5 is about .25 inches - .75 inches

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by alpine60

I am trying to set the REAR ride height using the "factory-recommended" way.

Instead of measuring at the fender lip, I'm taking the difference between the wheel hub and torsion bar cover. The reference I'm using is 16mm +/- 5mm (ROW rear height for 1980 SC).

The pictures I've seen (including Bentley's and a tech article here on Pelican Parts) show that the torsion bar cover sits HIGHER than the center of the wheel hub. When I did my measurement with the car sitting on the ground, it is the other way around, i.e. center of cover is lower than that of the wheel hub. As it sits right now, the difference is NEGATIVE 20mm -- both sides are equal by the way.

I'm confused...should the measurement be taken with the suspension loaded (car sitting on the ground) or unloaded (wheel off the ground)?

As you see see from this chart a 911 can be set up at many different heights depending on the use

[alpine60]

Thank you Flieger and Bill.

Bill, quick question...how do you interprete the values of "adjustment of radius arm" -- these are the diagonal lines sloping to the right.

The y-axis values make sense to me. Thanks.

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by alpine60

Thank you Flieger and Bill.

Bill, quick question...how do you interprete the values of "adjustment of radius arm" -- these are the diagonal lines sloping to the right.

The y-axis values make sense to me. Thanks.

Thats just the angle of the trailing arms

Most will concentrate on the heights which listed on the left

[Arne2]

My car was at -15mm. Not unusual at all. Details here:

Yet another ride height thread

[Tidybuoy]

I've only measured my car by the "fender lip" method and plan to measure the factory method at some point. But, just for kicks, I just went out and measured and here's my car's settings at the rear:

Tires are 205/50/16's.

Ground to Center of Fender Lip - 24.5" (set around Euro height).

Ground to Center of Wheel - 11 6/8"
Ground to Center of Torsion Bar - 10 3/8"
Ground to Bottom of Torsion Bar Tube - 9 1/2"

Sorry, I don't currently have a measuring stick in metric.


My guess is that the reason the chart shows the torsion bar to be higher is that it is based on US ride height which could be a couple of inches higher - only the torsion bar measurment would change as the wheel heght would remain static.


I have my front height set at 25.5" which gives me about a 1" rake.

[alpine60]

Thanks everyone. Now I know how high our cars were setup when they first rolled out of the factory.

[regency]

Opinions about my 911


I'm thinking the rear should be a bit lower.

Steve

73 911 T MFI Coupe, Aubergine

[JQ911]

Have the same question as well. Yours is just about right i think.

I'm just waiting for the guys to chime in as I plan to lower down my 86 just a little bit same as the euro height. Mine is somewhat higher and looks like a 4x4 set-up...lols

[Tidybuoy]

Originally Posted by regency

Opinions about my 911

I think your's looks just about right. I like the European ride hight but if it gets too low, it may look cool to some, but to me it looks sagging.

Although it looks like a lot of space in the 2nd photo, it looks like less in the 1st photo. If anything, I think the front could come up 1/2 inch.

That's my opinion......Vern

[Arne2]

Originally Posted by Tidybuoy

If anything, I think the front could come up 1/2 inch.

I agree. That's what mine looked like before I raised the front back up 10-15mm. See the thread I linked above for details.

[aoncurly]

Here is a before/after of my 81 911SC lowered to Euro height by TRE Motorsports:

[Tidybuoy]

The red car looks good at the new Euro height.

It's hard to compare an early 911 with a later because the later cars have lower front & rear valances. My friend has a '71 and I have a '74. His car is jacked up way too high in the rear and he's planning on lowering it. However, we recently took measurements comparing his to mine and while his car looks about 3" higher than mine, it's really only about 1.5" higher and that is purely due to the rear valence differences.

Regardless of which era car you have, the masurements from ground to fender lip are the same - this would also be the same for the factory measuring method. But the early car will look higher than the later car.

Vern