Ride height too high

[David H.]

Re: Ride height too high

Terry, the car ride height was high when I bought it in June. That is the whole reason that I have changed the rear springs along with everything else. Unfortunately nothing I have done has changed the ride height at all. It’s still at 3” higher than it should be. I guess if you wanted to put humungess tires on it, that would be a good thing, but I want to put it back to original size tires.
I’m not sure I made myself clear on this but the front ride height is fine, it’s just the rear height that is high by 3”.

[Stephen L.]

Re: Ride height too high

A long shot.... Are the rear shocks incorrect and they are supporting the car at their shortest/collapsed condition. Can you actually "bounce" the car to see if the shocks are in the middle of their travel????

[David H.]

[Terry D.]

Re: Ride height too high

So you measured the frame height and it is the same as your other car? Can't tell in the pictures but could the rear wheel wells be radiused? They did that back in the day to put big slicks for racing.

[Stephen L.]

Re: Ride height too high

I agree with Terry. Hard to see in the photo of the black car but the radius appears different...

Another easy check: measure a point on the frame to ground dimension. Then do the same on the other car to see if there is a discrepancy.... Also measure the diameter of the tires on each car to factor in any differences (probably small) that can affect that measurement.
Example: Tire on car "A" dimension is 30". Tire on car "B" is 28". Then the resulting dimension differential is diameter/2. 30/2=15 28/2=14.. discrepancy = 1"

[David H.]

Re: Ride height too high



Photo made a little lighter.

Dave

[Patrick H.]

Re: Ride height too high

Terry, the car ride height was high when I bought it in June. That is the whole reason that I have changed the rear springs along with everything else. Unfortunately nothing I have done has changed the ride height at all. It’s still at 3” higher than it should be. I guess if you wanted to put humungess tires on it, that would be a good thing, but I want to put it back to original size tires.
I’m not sure I made myself clear on this but the front ride height is fine, it’s just the rear height that is high by 3”.

You may have replaced bad springs with bad springs.
New or not, $10 says it's the springs. This happens all of the time - look around car shows and see all the older cars (not just Corvettes) that look like they are high enough to have 4WD under them. This is true even at NCRS meets. New springs are not made to the same specs as the old ones, no matter what a vendor says.

Get a set of original springs and see if the car rides at the correct height. I bet it will.

[Thomas H.]

Re: Ride height too high

You may have replaced bad springs with bad springs.
New or not, $10 says it's the springs. This happens all of the time - look around car shows and see all the older cars (not just Corvettes) that look like they are high enough to have 4WD under them. This is true even at NCRS meets. New springs are not made to the same specs as the old ones, no matter what a vendor says.

Get a set of original springs and see if the car rides at the correct height. I bet it will.

I agree - everything is pointing to the springs.

When I bought my basket case 58 it had aftermarket springs and sat too high. Found some originals, put in new liners and viola the car sits just like the AIM specifies.

Same deal on my 71 - had some funky 9 leaf spring in it. Found an original and boom - sittin pretty.

Now the grooved springs for the C1's can be hard to find, especially ones in good condition so some hunting is in order.

OR - call Eaton springs and discuss with them. I have heard of a few people that were able to get springs from them where the car sat at the correct ride height. Again Eye to Eye and arch measurements are one thing, but spring rate comes into play also. These cars don't weigh much in the rear so if the rate is too high, the car will sit high irregardless of arch or eyelet measurements.

Tom

[David H.]

[Thomas H.]

Re: Ride height too high

Couple things that you may or may not have in your arsenal

Tom

[Terry D.]

Re: Ride height too high

David
You keep saying ride is 3 inches to high. Where are you measuring that? Maybe I missed it but did you measure frame height of both cars at frame where spring attaches at both points? Do you have access to a seamstress tape? They are cloth and roll up, measure from top of wheel opening to trunk and post results, that wheel well looks radiused to me, but I've been wrong before!

[David H.]

Re: Ride height too high

Tom, thank you for these. I do have these.
I used the second one to check the new springs. The new springs measured perfectly to this diagram.
The first one I will use today to check center of the wheel to bottom of the axial.
Yesterday I put the car on the floor and used ratchet straps to pull it down to my lift as far as it would go. Then I tightened everything down. The springs the drag rails and the stabilizer. It looks like I only gained 1 inch on the measurement from the floor to the bottom of the fender.
Today I plan to release the ratchet straps and see if the car goes back up. My feeling is that it will bounce back up where it was at 3 inches.

[Bill S.]

Re: Ride height too high

that wheel well looks radiused to me, but I've been wrong before!

I think you are on to something. Check the wheel well on the red car vs the black car. The red car has a "wind split" in the quarter panel just before the wheel opening that does not seem to be on the black car. I would measure from the ground to the top of the tire on both the red and black cars (assuming both have the same size tires) and see if that measurement is the same. If it is then the difference is between the top of the tire and the top of the wheel well.

[David H.]

[David H.]