How do I lower the front suspension?

[72_914]

How do I lower the front suspension? I know this has been discused on here before, but I wanted to make sure before I tried it. Thanks in advance for advice.

[oredith]

I don't know much on the topic.. but i do know that there was a big discussion on that about a week or two ago on rennlist (www.rennlist.org). if you go into the archives, and seach for "randy wentzel", it should be one of the most recent topics..

[TFI]

you fill the front trunk full of sand or rocks or something. your HP/weight ratio drops, but your car is lowered.
-OR-

you could run the bolts out on your torsion bars until your car is lowered as much as you desire. if the bolts get to where your car isn't low enough and the bolts are gone you could pull your torsion bar and put it back in one spline over and then adjust it again with the adjuster bolts.
when you lower your car the steering gets this problem i've heard refered to as "bump steer" according to a parts catalog i read once you put spacers underneath your steering rack to compensate for the height difference that changed the angle on your tie rods.

i think that might have been my 3 cents

-jim-

[oredith]

i like that sand & rock idea.. i think i'll try that at the next auto-x..

[neilca]

Another method for lowering the front with minimal impact to the geometry is to cut the spindles from the strut tube (this is actually one giant spot weld on the back side of the spindle) and raise the spindle on the tube. This is generally reserved for massive lowering ie 3 or more inches. This leaves the lower control arm parallel to the ground thus reducing the bump stear.

Bum stear is when the toe in/out of the wheels changes as a function of the up and down motion. These toe changes really make a car handle badly.

neil

[John Rogers]

If you lower the front end, the alignment will go off, you'll end up with some toe-out and coupled with bumpsteer the car can get a little squirelly.

[mike mueller]

The mods that oreo-death, oops, oredith was talking about is the relocating of the spindles. I'm doing two sets right now, one for Randy W. (roadglue) and one for myself.
I'm going on the mellow side and only lowering the car one inch for now.


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Mike Mueller
Antioch, CA
1970 1.8
http://www.pelicanparts.com/MotorCity/mmueller/personal.html

[oredith]

what size tires are you running on the front, mike?.. and are your phone dials 15 or 16's?.. i know with my current 195/50R15's and the front lowered by removing a bump-stop ring, i'm actually having to pull a "rice-boy" (no comment from those who know what i look like!) on some speed bumps because i can't stand the sound of my floor pan scraping the thing..

BTW, the lowering wasn't my idea.. a very reputable alignment shop did it to achieve the proper alignment height..

[This message has been edited by oredith (edited 04-12-2000).]

[72_914]

Thanks for the advise. The reason I need to lower it is to even it out with the back. It looks a little silly with the front higher than the back. Just for some history, I bought this car as a roller, just finished re-doing parts of it and just put the motor and trans in. It looked fine before the motor was in.

[mike mueller]

Jeff,
16's f/r
I've got 205/55-16's on the front, so I'm sitting pretty tall compared to your setup.

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Mike Mueller
Antioch, CA
1970 1.8
http://www.pelicanparts.com/MotorCity/mmueller/personal.html

[NOTRIGHT]

i read the reply on cuting the weld and moveing the spindel up on the strut tube
sounds good but today i was installing new
stuts and was looking at the lower ball joint
and from the joint to the wheel there looks like there is no moore than 1 to 1and a hafe inches in there is there any other tricks to doing this if you move it up to high how will you put the wheel back on the car

notright

[mike mueller]

If you said there is about 1 to 1 1/2 inches right now, once you move the spindle up one inch you'll have 2 to 2 1/2 inches of space between the spindle ring and the arm.
When you jack up the car now, doesn't the suspension and wheel drop down ?? The only time you'd have a problem is if your tire/wheel combo is so large that it's a tight fit in the wheel well.


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Mike Mueller
Antioch, CA
1970 1.8
http://www.pelicanparts.com/MotorCity/mmueller/personal.html

[TFI]

Mike,

if you move the spindle up, the lower ball joint will go down, thus making the distance between the wheel and the lower ball joint smaller. i think that was the one and a half inches bing noticed.

-jim-

(then again i might have read it wrong too)

[NOTRIGHT]

you got it tfi
from the wheel to the ball joint if there is only lets say 1and a 1/2 inch and you move the spindle up 1 inch then you only have 1/2 inch from the wheel to the ball joint
i dont know just how much space there is i did not mesure it but it does not look like more then 2 inches
if im looking at this and missing something pleas let me know i would like to lowere my car to

notright

[Gruppe5]

If you are Raising the spindles on a Street car beware of the clearance problems associated with the a-arm to the ground and to the inner wheel rim. Especially if using wide wheels with deep offsets....

[mike mueller]

I miss-interperted your post, yes the distance between the a-arm/ball joint and rim will be closer, but on Randy's car with 15" we are only going one inch +/- .38 or so.
I've got 16's so I can go a little more before any clearance problems.....I drew up a quick example of this modification, but I didn't take into consideration the a-arm sitting so close to the rim/tire...

http://members.rennlist.com/mueller/strut.html


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Mike Mueller
Antioch, CA
1970 1.8
http://www.pelicanparts.com/MotorCity/mmueller/personal.html

[oredith]

i liked randy's interpretation more.. http://www.roadglue.com/stockstrut2.jpg

[mike mueller]

I like Randy's version also. I spent 20 minutes makeing a 3D solid model version, and
Randy takes about 5 minutes or less to "modify" my original drawing, and his is better ....

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Mike Mueller
Antioch, CA
1970 1.8 http://www.pelicanparts.com/MotorCity/mmueller/personal.html


[This message has been edited by mike mueller (edited 04-19-2000).]

[This message has been edited by mike mueller (edited 04-19-2000).]

[randoid]

Why don't we just put a very sharp edge on the leading edge of the A-arm? We could go as low as we like and if there is a ground clearance problem with the A-arms, they will just slice up the obstacle.

The A-arm may need sharpening from time to time though! :-)

--
Randy
randy@roadglue.com

[Joe Bob]

Be advised that ANYTHING that hangs below the level of the bottom of the wheel rim, is not only a safety hazard BUT is also illegal....while growing up in the SF Valley (LALA Land) the local cops had a little measuring device....it consisted of a adjustable piece of paper that was on the end of a broom handle....they measured the side wall of the tire....and then ran it under the car....if it hit anything, the ticket book came out....the explanation was if you got a flat tire, you would ot be able to move your car out of traffic, thus being a safety hazard....my opinion at the time, was just another way to pull you over and abuse teenagers....then I grew up.....