Ride height

[Jeze2903]

Hi, just fitted Springs/Gaz shocks from Rally Design, and the car appears to be sitting very low, particularly at the front. Chassis looks about 3" from the floor.
The shocks are, eye to eye, 13" open and 9" closed. Front springs are 9" long, 350lbs.
Anyone got any ideas?

[mr henderson]

Adjust the spring platforms upwards, til you get the ride height you want?

If that closes the springs up to much then you might need some different units.

[Jeze2903]

Hi. The spring are hardly under any compression now off the car

[mr henderson]

So why not just wind the platforms up until the car rises to the correct height? I'm not quite seeing what you are getting at.

[snapper]

We have in the past used trolley jacks back and front lifting the chassis to the height we would like, usually having the bottom wishbones level, then wind up the spring platforms to take up the slack. Keep winding until the chassis is just off the jacks.
At this stage at least the ride height should be correct.

[Jeze2903]

Ah, the pennies dropped. I shall go and adjust up the dampers now, what a fool. Thanks guys

[Enoch]

I had the same problem with my car. You may also notice at the front that your track rod ends are at an acute angle - they should be almost level. Turning up the seat on the shocks may not be enough, if you turn them up 1 inch it does not necessarily raise the car an inch. I had to put 1 1/2 inch spacers in my shocks to get them high enough, that method also gave me full travel on the springs, I thought I would get a better ride that way than if the springs were at 50 per cent compression at rest. My shocks are now at 14 1/2 inches eye to eye with 9 inch 350 pound springs on, the bottom of the lower rails at the front are 115mm from the floor. I don't know how it drives like that yet but I think it is similar to other cars that are on the road eg Spud's.
Hope that helps,
Enoch

[Jeze2903]

Hi Enoch, Thanks for that. Would you happen to have a pic of the spacers fitted to your car? I think I may have to go that route.

[Enoch]

Hi Jeze, I don't have any photos. On my shocks the top mount is a 1 3/4 inch diameter solid piece of steel. I cut it in half and inserted a 1 1/2 inch long 1 3/4 inch diameter piece of steel fully welded to the two halves of my shock mount. Different designs of shocks may well need a different solution. The ideal solution would have been to have had the right size shocks in the first place but I got mine cheap and was determined to make them fit :-)
Enoch