C2 Ride Height Help

[George C.]

I have just replaced the aftermarket front coil springs on my 65 small block roadster, with NOS coils. My problem is the left side of the car sits about 3/4 inch lower than the left. This problem also existed with the old springs and I had hoped this would cure the problem. The problem is not body shims, as I have taken measurements at various places on the frame. The ball joints, control arm bushings, everything else is new, including having the trailing arms rebuilt.
Can someone help me with what else to check? Does the upper control arm rubber bumper have any effect? It appears the left side upper control arm sits closer to the spring tower. Could the rear spring cause the whole car to sit lower on one side, I have tried tightenng and loosening the spring bolts on each side but it doesn't seem to have any affect.
Any and all suggestions on where to look are appreciated.

Thank you all as always,

George

[Wayne W.]

Re: C2 Ride Height Help

Yes the rear spring can make it do that. Also make sure that you have the front springs in the towers correctly. Many people get one in wrong at the top and the car sits that way.

[John H.]

Re: C2 Ride Height Help

As Wayne noted, make sure the front springs are seated (and installed) properly; the end of the spring with the closely-spaced coils goes up, in the spring tower, and only the top end of the spring is "seated" (end of the top coil 3/8" from the stop in the tower) - the hole in the recess in the lower control arm is just for water drainage - has nothing to do with spring seating.

[George C.]

Re: C2 Ride Height Help

Wayne, John,
Thank you both for your responses. I do have the closer coils to the top. I read in the service manual that the end of the bottom coil should be 3/8 of an inch from the stop in the lower spring seat. Or in other words leave the drain hole exposed. This information led me to ignore the top of the coil, so I will check that, if I can see it.
I will also play with adjusting the rear spring bolts again to see if that makes any difference. From reading in the archives, longer spring to trailing arm bolts will lower the ride, so I will see what I can accomplish by more adjusting at that point.
Since you didn't mention the upper control arm bumper, can I disregard that as a possible cause? In my original post I noted that the right side, the low side seems to sit with the upper control arm against the rubber bumper, while the right side seems to be free of the bumper by a little bit, is this normal or aceptable?

Thank you,

George

[Wayne W.]

Re: C2 Ride Height Help

The upper control arm bumper should have no effect. I think you have the spring in wrong on the high side. It should be up into the tower and relatively centered. When assembled the spring will be arched outwardly. It is possible, even easy to get the spring out of the socket at the top. When this occures the spring will be straight, up and out, at the top. This side will ride very high.

[George C.]

Re: C2 Ride Height Help

Wayne,
I made a mistake in my previous post, the upper control arm bumbers are well off the control arms. In fact the high side shows about 1/2 an inch clearance between the top of the bumper and the bottom of the upper control arm. The low side shows about 7/8 clearance. I re-measured from the floor to the bottom of the front fender wells at the center of the wheel, I have 26 3/16 on the low side and 26 3/4 on the high side.
I need to get it back on the lift and check on the spring seating as you suggest. More to follow.

Thank you again,

George