Rear Spring Bolts/Ride Height (1970)

[Mark Stavropoulos]

The rear end of my '70 conv. (small block, std. susp.) sits too high. I have just completed a frame-off resto. I have the orignal rear spring in with new liners and all new bushings. The spring bolts are new, about 6 5/16" x 1/2" (9/16" necked down in the center), grade 8 with a "C" headmark. I bought these long ago so I don't recall if they are GM or aftermarket. They appear to be too long. The rear spring has a very predominant arch. I would need to decrease the bolt length ~1" to flatten the spring. Do I have the wrong spring bolt? Do shorter ones exist for this application? I also have new shocks on the car. Could they be wrong; too long thus jacking up the rear of the car? Help!!

Thanks, Mark

[Chuck S.]

Re: Rear Spring Bolts/Ride Height (1970)

Mark,

There were extensive threads on the subject of rear ride height and spring hanger lengths about a week ago. One thread post by Joe Lucia ran down the history and applications of Corvette spring hanger bolts. Do a search to see all the comments.

Correct length for your spring hanger bolts is 6.25" from the bottom of the head.

Chuck Sangerhausen

[Terry M.]

Re: Rear Spring Bolts/Ride Height (1970) *TL*

Shock absorbers (unless they are air shocks) will have no effect on ride height. There is a slight chance the wrong shocks (as in too long) would not compress fully, but I doubt such a situation exists for Corvette applications.

Have you read the Spring story in the Spring (no pun intended) Corvette Restorer? The second part of that story will be in the Summer issue. The first part explains why replacement springs cause high ride height. The second part will tell you what to do about it.

The spring you used was an original GM spring right? or is it the one that was on the car when you bought the car? Did the car sit high before the suspension work?

Terry

[Mark Stavropoulos]

Re: Rear Spring Bolts/Ride Height (1970)

Thanks for the response. I "believe" the spring is the original. I don't recall the rear of the car being so high in the past. I rebuilt the spring that was on the car. The look of the spring and the way the liners were worn through in a few places lead me to believe this was the original (or at least very old) spring.

I am still waiting for my spring "Restorer" much less reading about part two of the story! I'll do search on the "Discussion Board" and see what I can gleen.

Thanks, Mark (Too tall in the ass)

[Terry M.]

Re: Correction *TL*

Mark,

I am sorry, the Spring story was in the Winter issue - the one with the arial view of the Sun Valley meet on the cover. I hope you are not still waiting for that one.

Sorry for my mistake.

The Summer one - with part 2 of the spring story is not printed yet, so that one will take a while for everyone.

Terry