Rear ride hight

Mad4slalom

CCCUK Member
Morning All. I see that a lot fit longer bolts to lower the rear ride hight. A lot of c3’s seem to sit down a bit more on on side or the other. Min seems to on the drivers side. My bolts are 6 or 7 “ from memory . The nuts where they sit are nearly at the end of the threads. If I wound Up the nut on the drivers side, that should raise that side ? . Anyone else had similar and corrected or improve it in this way.? (Vette has newer composite spring , newer rear shocks and the chassis was re jigged at a frame shop in the usa when the body was off) any thoughts appreciated👍
 

Corvetteville

CCCUK Member
My 78 was leaning on the drivers side. Longer bolts were fitted and adjusted, which leveled it up. However it still felt somewhat soggy, due to it most likely being the original spring. A NOS one with the correct number of leaves was fitted. All good now.
 

Forrest Gump

CCCUK regional rep
How much difference are you talking about? Have you checked the ride height at the front side to side?
There are so many factors that can affect the ride height at each corner of the car.
The first things to check though is that the floor is absolutely level and tyre pressures are even side to side.
As you have a composite spring you can be fairly sure that that is okay. Supposedly they won’t ever sag (instead just snap completely!!) Your bolts are set the same so the problem lies elsewhere.
Try disconnecting one end of the sway bars front and back (if there is one at the back) These could be bent or not set correctly, and will affect the ride height if wrong. Check there’s nothing amiss with the front springs too, the front affects the back.
Really, a cars ride height is taken as a chassis to the ground measurement at each corner. Then if it’s a competition car, corner weights come into the equation too. This might all be correct but the car still looks wrong when viewing the wheel arch gaps or wheel arch to ground measurements. So it’s down to how the body and panels are aligned and sitting on the chassis and if any areas have ever been repaired etc.. Adjustment to these things is difficult or impractical, so rightly or wrongly……most people end up adjusting those rear bolts if there’s nothing else obviously wrong on the car! I would’t want to see too much difference in the bolt lengths though - you’re hiding a problem elsewhere.
 

Mad4slalom

CCCUK Member
How much difference are you talking about? Have you checked the ride height at the front side to side?
There are so many factors that can affect the ride height at each corner of the car.
The first things to check though is that the floor is absolutely level and tyre pressures are even side to side.
As you have a composite spring you can be fairly sure that that is okay. Supposedly they won’t ever sag (instead just snap completely!!) Your bolts are set the same so the problem lies elsewhere.
Try disconnecting one end of the sway bars front and back (if there is one at the back) These could be bent or not set correctly, and will affect the ride height if wrong. Check there’s nothing amiss with the front springs too, the front affects the back.
Really, a cars ride height is taken as a chassis to the ground measurement at each corner. Then if it’s a competition car, corner weights come into the equation too. This might all be correct but the car still looks wrong when viewing the wheel arch gaps or wheel arch to ground measurements. So it’s down to how the body and panels are aligned and sitting on the chassis and if any areas have ever been repaired etc.. Adjustment to these things is difficult or impractical, so rightly or wrongly……most people end up adjusting those rear bolts if there’s nothing else obviously wrong on the car! I would’t want to see too much difference in the bolt lengths though - you’re hiding a problem elsewhere.
Thanks forest , i will check what I can , floor is pretty level, bolts set pretty much the same. Wheel arch to floor is an inch lower on drivers side rear, ie 28 v 29 inches. And 1/2 an inch lower on the drivers side front .
I dont have much thread left to lengthen the passenger side but I can shorten the drivers side by winding nut up some threads. Can I wind up with vehicle on ground? 👍
 
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