Originally Posted by cenzzo (guest) (Post 8624302)

This explains how to lower or raise the front end, but not how to lower your car predictably a certain amount in the rear. For example, how do you lower it an inch, or 1 ½ inches? And the torsion bar spline comment was limited to the 84-86 Carrera. The 87-89 Carrera splines were actually 46/47. And you canâ€[emoji769]t really significantly lower your car using the height adjustment bolt, the closest to the torsion bar, since that is set at its lowest point from the factory. It was only designed to add height, as the suspension got more of a set with age, not to lower the car.

For what it's worth, I've found that the way to efficiently disassemble the rear suspension, dial in a lowering amount, and reassemble it is as follows. I didn't invent this I just read the Bentley and they don't give you lowering methodology, but they do give the facts about how height is adjusted and I took it from there. I'm not a mathematician, but I took a few minutes to figure it out, and I've done this more than once with repeatable success.

First, you should know the height you want your car to end up at. So, while sitting on a flat surface, determine the amount you want your fender lip to be in relation to the tire. Let's say it's at 25" from the ground, and you want it to be at 24, one inch lower, just for the sake of this example. After removing your body work, etc., detailed in many manuals so that the swing arm is totally relaxed, take a protractor and note the angle of the swing arm. Let's say it's 34 degrees.

Then place the protractor on the door sill, and note that angle. Let's say it's -2 degrees. Combine these and you get 32 degrees. With an 88 Carrera, and the 46/47 spline configuration, you have a minimum 0'10" adjustment capability which equals .055 or 1.4 mm. So, to lower your car 1", you'd need 1 inch/.055 = 18.9 x 10"= 189/60= 3.15 degrees. You then subtract that from the 32 degrees to get 28.85.

Now, remove the remaining bolts from the torsion bar cover, pull that guy out, and remove the swing arm. Rotate the torsion bar, and re-insert it, place the swing arm on it, and look for the 28.85 angle or close enough. It may take a few tries to fine tune it, but now, when you button everything up in reverse order and put the car on the ground, it's going to be perfect. Then repeat the process for the other side. If you did want to finally tweak it absolutely perfectly, you could adjust that height adjustment bolt on one side or the other to do that.

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Originally Posted by DRACO A5OG (Post 8626106)

Thank you Gentlemen,

The reason I ask is that when I indexed the rears. I verified several times that both sides were spot on even but when on the ground after corner balance with me in the car, my passenger side front sat lower causing the driver rear to go up. So Annoying after I killed myself trying to index it perfectly :eek:

I was hoping if I indexed the driver rear a tad higher in anticipate for the front corner balance, could I even her out to closer than it is now? Am I just being too OCD?

Originally Posted by Elombard (Post 8626868)

The problem with the whole counting splines thing is every time I go to pull the spring plate I can never get if off with out the T bar coming out of its inner mount so I lose my place....its a long day. But satisfying when you get it right.