BarrettN

Thanks - I wasn't even thinking about rubbing - I'm only running 13s (IIRC 13x5.5 et18 - the Alpina look 13" rims) so I think that's less of an issue. I was as much interested in handling and ride quality. I've looked at the stance thread (ok, I haven't read the whole thing, 1,200+ posts!) but what I saw was more ride height, rubbing, and wheel offsets being discussed over handling and ride quality.

I will come to no surprise to those who have followed my ride height thread that I'm in the market for some different springs. I'm curious to hear feedback on what aftermarket springs are out there and how people like them. I have Bilstein HDs on my car, ideally I'm shooting for a daily driver firm sporty ride. Something that on a BMW today would at least be a M-Technic but better towards a M series suspension, but nothing that requires a kidney belt for daily driving. I suspect that the IE stage 1s will fit the bill, are there others that I should be considering? Both IE and H&R mention their springs lower 1.25" - am I right in assuming that this is based on the pre-73 spring height? I'm particularly interested in hearing from any of the lucky few with multiple cars who regularly drove different setups back to back - when you reply if you don't mind sharing a bit more such as what dampeners, size of tires & rims, or any other factors you feel made an impact, that would be much appreciated. Barrett

And if all that fails, pm me - there's an 02 local to me being parted out and the owner has been really reasonable on pricing, I need to go get a few more things off of it so it wouldn't be a problem to add one more to the list.

When you figure it out, please let me know!

Well, under the threat of being replaced the missing calipers reappeared. The springs on front match the diameter as well as the paint markings for rear springs. But the springs on the rear are still a mystery, they have no paint markings that I can see, and measure approximately 13.3 mm (!!) in diameter. Some previous owner had made some nice upgrades - Recaros, Getrag 5 speed (240), a 3.91 or 3.90 LSD, even a Hirschman red tipped antenna. New carpet set, dynamat under it and inside the door panels, they were doing things right, but it looks like things went off the rails before it was ever finished. The car had no driveshaft when I bought it. I don't think the car has moved under its own power for over 10 years. I find things like the stock driveshaft center bearing mounts removed and some hacked together made out of angle iron further down the driveshaft tunnel. It's stuff like this and these springs that make me wonder if someone later who really didn't know what they were doing got their hands on the car later.

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.

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.

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!

Tires are 185/70/13s

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!

My brother also suggested that I check that possibly the tops of the springs are properly seated in the upper spring perches. If the weather cooperates I'll be looking at it this weekend. My main focus is getting the other car I have out of my garage so that I can get this one in.

No, I haven't - I'll give that a shot. No driveshaft yet & it's been raining, I'll be concentrating on the car that's in my garage currently so that I can get this one inside out of the weather. It's been sitting outside for several years, but that's no reason not to get it inside asap now.

If you're willing, let me know when you're free to Skype sometime and I can show you what's in the car. Maybe looking at it live you might see the problem.

Good suggestion, I'll check which are longer - I have done very little on the car so far, this would have been done by the previous owner.

I may have figured out the answer as to what caused this - I went back and looked at pictures from when it was just sitting on four flat tires, and it wasn't sitting this high - still kind of high, but not this far. The car sat 48 hours on jackstands with no weight on the suspension while I had the tires mounted. I guess sitting with no weight something bound up in the suspension. I'd kind of thought of this and did bounce the front of the car up and down some there in the driveway, but it didn't drop down any. I suspect that once I take ti out and drive it some it'll settle - if not, I'll follow Simon's advice and see what loosening the bushing mounts gets me. I can't wait to have this girl running!

I just got tires (185/70/13s on 13x5.5 rims) on my car, when I bought it the poor thing was sitting on four flats. Maybe it's just me, but to me it now looks like it sits really high. A PO put Bilstein HDs on it - given how high it sits I'd have thought it still has stock springs in it, but I don't see any paint marks on them. Is there any way (diameter of the spring, # of coils or height, gauge of spring material, or ?) to identify what springs I have? Is there some other factor that determines ride height I'm not taking into account - maybe the strut tops are put together wrong?

Agreed - "The transmission mount isn't tightened to the crossbar" - all this is as I got the car in the current un-running, draglink rubbing state. I'm just getting started troubleshooting the problem, but my thought was that the higher the output end of the transmission, the better. I'm assuming that the whole engine\transmission assembly would be pivoting on an axis formed by the engine mounts, right? The problem is that the top of the tunnel is pretty much out of space for it to go up more, it's almost touching on the driver's side. It's hard to get a picture that shows how close it is, maybe I can get a tape up in there where a person can then see scale.

From what I've read, I thought that it's only the 265 that requires pounding out - can someone correct me if I'm wrong?

I think at this point I need to find someone who has a Getrag 240 and quiz them about where it sits in the tunnel and what if anything had to be done to it.

Wow - I haven't come across mention of that anywhere. And I suppose to machine the rib down properly the transmission needs to come out? Do you know anywhere where it documents how much need to be shaved off, etc?

I spent some time under the car this weekend and discovered a couple of things. (Please remember, this car is new to me and just getting sorted out). The transmission mount isn't tightened to the crossbar, and I found the driver side engine mount missing a nut. That being said, there really doesn't seem to be any room to move the output shaft end of the transmission more than just a little bit higher. From what I can see, while one engine mount may be missing a nut, both mounts looked OK. I checked the drag link for straightness in case someone had gotten a floor jack under it, but it looks straight. Any ideas very welcome - I really don't see any room at the top of the transmission tunnel, the drivers side is almost touching as it is. It's really hard to get a picture that shows how close the transmission is to the transmission tunnel. This picture is with my jack in the center of the transmission lifting gently and the wheels straight ahead - even with that, when I turn the wheel the drag link rubs. There is only about a hands width between the frame member and the oil pan, as suggested it should be.

OK, if you want a piece of resistance wire, PM me for my address and send me a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) and I'll send you a chunk. I took a piece of 3" PVC and used a dremel to cut notches in it to use as a removal tool - you can easily control and feel the amount of torque you're applying and reduces the risk of something slipping and bashing a terminal or something. My unit was pretty cruddy, I soaked it in carb cleaner first, then used a toothbrush on the nut on the end. Once clean, I soaked it in PB Blaster - I did not want to twist off that end! Note or mark the orientation of the top to the tube for reassembly. When removing the outer tube, twist it as little as possible. If you must twist it, turn the whole unit upside down. (There's circle molded into the plastic base of the tube that engages the float when it's all the way down - and if you twist the float, you put strain on the wires). Who knows, your unit might have intact wires and not be working right for another reason - no need to break the wires if you can avoid it. I'll edit this later and add a picture of the whole unit without the outside tube so it's clearer what I'm explaining. Here's what the underside of the top of my sender looked like I used a bamboo skewer and a scotch-brite pad with engine cleaner, carb cleaner, and finally electrical cleaner on it to clean it. I really should have broken out my dremel and found something small that would fit in there. I used solder wick to remove the old solder from the hook ends of the terminals - it will probably take more heat than you think, the sender makes a good heat sink. I'd recommend putting an overhand knot in both ends of the wire - it's so fine it slide through most pliers. I wrapped the wire around the tip of my multimeter probe to make some loops in it - it seems like the nichrome wire doesn't take to solder well, so I wanted a couple of loops around the terminal. Again, it'll probably take more heat to solder it than you expect. The wire holds its form, when you tighten the loops up by pulling the free ends it stays that way while you solder it. I found a pair of tweezers useful to maneuver the loops over the hook end of the terminal. With one end secure, route the resistance wire. The pictures below show the routing of the wire through the float contacts and around the crosstree at the bottom. Note that the wire only touches the plastic of the crosstree, it runs under the plastic ledge which keeps it from contacting the nut of the central shaft. For the second part of this you'll want a vise or some way to secure the sending unit - or six hands! The tricky part is soldering the wire to the second connector while keeping some tension on it. I did it by routing the wire and noting the approximate point where it would attach to the second terminal. I made the same loops as for the first connector, but a little further down the wire. I then double checked the routing of the wire, maneuvered the loops over the second terminal, and then locked a pair of visegrip pliers on the wire further down. I pulled the wire tight and let the visegrips hang to use their weight to keep tension on the wire so that I had both my hands free to hold the solder and soldering iron. OK - the important part - the results: Not quite the 0 ohms and 75 people report on a working unit. I'm going to disassemble the sender again and clean the contacts of the float to see if that's where the added resistance is coming from. I'm assuming that if you get 0 ohms with the float at the top normally that means the resistance wire is out of the circuit - the fact that mine shows 6.5 ohms with the float at the top implies that there's some additional resistance somewhere else and it's not due to the wire itself being off.

Shaggy, if Seth passes on the parts, I'm interested, especially if it's a Clardy.

I'd love one also - all my other VINs match.