High ride height - springs or ?

[Jimmy]

3 minutes ago, coloincaalpine said:

Well..............Just leave it as is and move in another direction with it !

Sincerely,

Don Garlits

 

"Barn Find Tii! Reportedly all original"

-Bring A Trailer

[albatcha]

Once on an old hyundai I lifted the car to do work then after lowering it the struts were frozen in the fully extened position, it was riding high and with positive camber. When I pushed down hard on the fender it would not compress at all except for the tire. Then after driving for less than a week at some point they unstuck themselves. When you bounced the front did the suspension compress? Or did just the tires bounce.

[BarrettN]

You are all making me self conscious - I've got to figure this out and get it fixed, then post pics here so this thread can die before I die of shame! 

[Jimmy]

We're on your side, but we get bored waiting for pictures. So we keep ourselves entertained by goofing around. No shaming involved.

[Conserv]

2 hours ago, Jimmy said:

 

Actually, I think OPs car has more gap between the top of the tire and the fender lip. What's your tire size?

 

 

 

+1

 

BarrettN’s is much higher than rcf925’s without an engine!

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

[rcf925]

2 hours ago, Jimmy said:

 

Actually, I think OPs car has more gap between the top of the tire and the fender lip. What's your tire size?

 

 

 

 

I'm running 13x6 wheels

[NYNick]

31 minutes ago, BarrettN said:

You are all making me self conscious - I've got to figure this out and get it fixed, then post pics here so this thread can die before I die of shame! 

I'd be self conscious also. That car ain't right.

[BarrettN]

Tires are 185/70/13s

[coloincaalpine RIP 2021]

Yep!    All in good fun. You'll get it figger'd out.

dq

[BarrettN]

OK, I spent some time looking at this over the weekend - those of you that have enjoyed the entertainment value of this thread will be happy to know that I only eliminated some possible causes, but only just maybe now have found the cause.

 

 

First, for the doubters - yes, there is an engine it! OK, it's missing the airbox, exhaust, driveshaft, and battery, but that's not going to make 3"+ difference in ride height! You are all just hating on my because I picked up this abandoned beauty for such a great deal

 

 

I measured from the ground to the rocker just in front of the jack point - 10.5", so about 3" high compared to others.

 

I loosened up the nuts on the radius rod and the control arm, then did my best Greg Louganis impersonation bouncing up and down on the end of the bumper, but while the car moved up and down (it's not frozen in place), the static resting height didn't change. (OK, I stole this picture, it's not from my car - but these are the locations I loosened)

 

 

The numbers on the strut tube reference back to tii struts.

 

 

I did note that the strut top looks to be assembled with the spacer below, so I could drop them a little bit by reassembling the strut tops, but we're not talking about a huge difference - and having the strut assembled as it came from the factory obviously isn't the cause of this problem. 

 

 

 

I then measured the height of the spring unloaded and under under load - 9.5" unloaded, about 2" less under load.

 

 

I could see that the both ends of the springs are seated correctly (and that the spring has white paint marks - I can't tell the underlying color). It wasn't until posting this just now that I went out to look up the color codes, I see "White 750-776 lbs" listed for rear springs - so it's looking like maybe the front and rear springs were switched? I've misplaced my calipers, I may have to go to Harbor Freight and pick up a cheap set so that my good ones will appear (because that's how it works when you misplace a tool - go buy a replacement and the lost tool immediately comes out of hiding) and I'll be able to measure the wire thickness.

 

Here's to hoping that the paint codes on the rears match up to what should be on the front - I'd hate to think that somewhere along the way springs were lost and they kludged together whatever they could. Even better, this could explain why I can't get any clearance for the steering idler link!  

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by BarrettN

[M3M3]

have you rolled the car back and forth several feet yet?  this is a must do anytime the car is jacked up high enough to get the wheels off the ground.

 

you can get a sumo wrestler to bounce on it all day and it ain't gonna do jack until the tires have had a chance to get back in their tracks.

Edited February 25, 2019 by mlytle

[Jimmy]

14 minutes ago, BarrettN said:

Ok, I spent some time looking at this over the weekend - those that have enjoyed the entertainment value of this thread will be happy to know that I only eliminated some possible causes, but couldn't find the cause. 

 

I measured from the ground to the rocker just in front of the jack point - 10.5", so about 3" high compared to others. I then measured the height of the spring unloaded and under under load - 9.5" unloaded, about 2" less under load. I can see that the ends of the springs are seated correctly (and had white paint marks). I losened up the nuts on the radius rod and the control arm, then did my best Greg Louganis inpersonation bouncing up and down on the end of the bumper, but while the car moved up and down (it's not frozen in place), the static resting height didn't change. I did note that the strut top looks to be assembled with the spacer below, so I could drop them a little bit by reassembling the strut tops, but we're not talking about a huge difference - and having the strut assembled as it came from the factory obviously isn't the cause of this problem. 

 

I think you have rear springs on the front. You probably have rear springs on the rear too.

 

More info here

 

 

[M3M3]

and what Jimmy said.  looks like front springs should have two colors on them.  you just have white.  that appears to be a taller REAR spring.

[BarrettN]

Well, here's to hoping that the front springs are in the rear. Jimmy, you wrote "You probably have rear springs on the rear too" - can you tell me why you think the rears also have rear springs? I suppose it doesn't matter, now that I know that there are rear springs on the front, as soon as I get home from work today I'll be looking at the rear spring paint markings and we'll all know for sure.

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by BarrettN

[BarrettN]

In case anyone is wondering - I usually start writing a post on my phone, because that's where I have the pictures, then save it and edit it on my laptop to move pictures around, etc - and that's how you end up with more than one version of my original post. The current version shows the "tweaked" version - and in this case, the extra info I found while editing it on the spring markings.