Adjusting Ride Height (Front) and Corner Balance Questions

[Tidybuoy]

I've got a couple questions regarding setting my ride height. My goal is to get the car set to standard European Ride height. The prior owner had the car set about an inch lower than Euro height but I prefer the look of just a small amount of space above the wheels.

So far: I set the rear to 24" ground to center of fender - just as a starting point. Then I measured correctly and set each side to be identical based on torsion bar height related to center of wheel.

After getting the rear set to 24", fender to ground measurement. I noticed that there was more space above the wheel on one side vs the other. This caused me to measure correctly and set by torsion bar height. I cut myself a small piece of steel bar (to fit under the torsion bar) so that I could quickly adjust each side to the exact same height - I have adjustable rear spring plates so raising & lowering is easy and quick.

For the front, I set to 25" from ground to fender but I'm thinking that if the rear had fender fluctuations, the front could as well.

My questions: is there a correct way to measure the front, other than fender to ground? Similar to the rear measurements.

Is the correct way to set the front is via corner balance? I'm wondering if the car is balanced left to right perfectly so that corner balancing is the proper way to adjust ride height.

I've been working thru my suspension (i.e., bushings, shocks, etc...) and my last task is to replace the ball joints. I won't get it aligned (and corner balanced) until then but I thought I would start to educate myself now.

[timmy2]

It is explained well here:
Pelican Technical Article: Lowering the 911 - 911 (1965-89) - 930 Turbo (1975-89)
Measurements are given and explained using the correct locations, not the fenders.

[tazzieman]

Originally Posted by Tidybuoy

My questions: is there a correct way to measure the front, other than fender to ground?

Yes , it's in the Bentley manual (an indispensable textbook) . The fender to ground measurement is not precise. And always go for a bumpy drive after fiddling as it takes a while to settle the car.

Oftentimes the ride height is a cosmetic thing.

Somewhere in the middle (not too low or high) + a good alignment - for the street you'll be fine. Corner balance according to the factory requires (from memory of the Bentley book) 2x68kg passengers (people are heavier these days lol) and a tank of fuel. For the track you don't have a passenger and maybe no passenger seat , etc so things are quite different.

There is art as well as science in the equation and don't expect it to go according to your plan 1st time! But tinkering and testing will certainly add to the education and appreciation of the way these cars are setup and how they can be tweaked. Hours of fun - if not for the whole family!