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I have been reading/searching past posts on ride height for the Rear wheels. I have adjustable spring plates, and was hoping someone has a photo of the allen key(bolt) that can be adjusted to change ride height.  I am looking to RAISE the ride about 1/2-1" total on the rear wheels.  AS part of the adjustment, I may need to change the toe of the rear wheels, is this as easily adjusted?  the drivers rear is toed in much more than 8 degrees, just by eyeball.  The tire to wheel well isn't even close to the other side.  If anyone has photos of this Id appreciate it. 

Secondly, I seem to have an uncomfortable amount of (slop) play in the steering, is this bushing, strut/shock related usually or is there a way to reduce the play in the wheel?  I know general questions, but figured Id try myself before taking it in. 

Thanks all

Paul

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Paul  - here is a picture of the adjustable spring plate on your car. To raise your rear ride height, get the rear wheels off the ground (jack stands) and turn the allen bolt clock-wise (as tightening a bolt). Its a trial & error process.

IMG_20141204_121112

Turn the allen bolt several turns, put car back on ground and drive it around the block to settle the suspension & wheels. Continue adjusting (wheels off ground & on jack stands) until you get the ride height you want. Hope this helps you.

 

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  • IMG_20141204_121112
crhemi (Bill) poboiinhawaii posted:

Have you looked at your spring plates? It's in plain view...

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDe...uctCode=ACC-C10-4010 Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Look for the metal block and allen bolt. Adjust from the underside.

 

As far as your steering, to many moving parts to guess from here. Could be any number of things.

Toe or camber?

yes I've liked, read threads on all types of adjustments, was looking at the wrong area. thank you!

 

MusbJim posted:

Paul  - here is a picture of the adjustable spring plate on your car. To raise your rear ride height, get the rear wheels off the ground (jack stands) and turn the allen bolt clock-wise (as tightening a bolt). Its a trial & error process.

IMG_20141204_121112

Turn the allen bolt several turns, put car back on ground and drive it around the block to settle the suspension & wheels. Continue adjusting (wheels off ground & on jack stands) until you get the ride height you want. Hope this helps you.

 

thank you, was looking in totally wrong area.  thank you that helps a lot

p

And I believe that what you consider "rear Toe-in" is probably more a camber issue at the top of the tire, rather than toe-in at the front.  Your eye could not see 8º degrees of toe-in unless you're at about ground level way behind the car.  

Camber, on the other hand, is when the top of the wheel/tire moves in and out as the wheel swings in an arc as the suspension moves.  It sounds like you have a CMC-bodied car and those, like mine, are notorious for having the body skewed slightly to the passenger side - they're almost ALL that way which gets your driver's tire about 1/2" or less from the wheel well lip, versus the passenger side which will probably be more like 1"+ from the lip.  This really can't be easily corrected, so we all just live with it.  Adjusting rear ride height can be done with your adjustable spring plates for about an inch+ of travel, dependent on several things back there and shown up above.

Rear toe-in can be adjusted, but it takes a qualified technician with an alignment deck to do it (or one with a string adjuster and he/she knows how to use it).  Rear toe-in, either swing arm or IRS suspension, is accomplished by inserting wedges between the rear wheel hub flange and the spring plates and at most I think you can squeak 3º - 4º that way, but that's it.  It is almost never done on a swing-arm car.

The rear toe specs are 0.0 +/- 0.25 degrees on IRS, -0.08 +/- 0.16 degrees on swing.

8.0 degrees of toe-in would be ridiculous, the front of the tire would be 3.5 inches further in than the rear. You'd be driving down the road sideways.

Toe is adjusted by sliding the axle or trailing arm forward and backward in the slotted holes on the spring plate. This adjustment is very limited and a real pain in the ass.

Last edited by justinh

Justin:  How many times have you seen a car (Or more often, a pickup or bigger truck) going down the road on an angle because they did something with the rear axle and didn't get things lined up right on the springs?  I'll admit it - I did that with a school bus rear end once. Thought it was pretty cool, but my Dad, who owned the bus, absolutely did not.  

"You get your A$$ out there after supper and line it up RIGHT!"

It only takes one of those incidents to make you more careful forever after.

Paul, Back from WV and looks like Gordon supplied you with the right info .  

Crab walk story:  In my early novice days of hauling a overloaded 48' flatbed lumber trailer I nailed a high curb when entering a NJ lumber yard, unknown to me I bent the rear tandem axle supports which in turn created a "crab". The next day one of the other drivers hauled that very same trailer down though the super narrow streets of Hoboken NJ where he wiped out a pile of rear view mirrors and a few car doors all within the same day.....

 

Last edited by Alan Merklin
Gordon Nichols posted:

Justin:  How many times have you seen a car (Or more often, a pickup or bigger truck) going down the road on an angle because they did something with the rear axle

Plenty, but the amount collision damage required to be 8 degrees off would be plainly obvious. My point is that the 8 degrees you are both quoting is one hundred times larger than the actual alignment value.

Thank you Justin. I saw the same thing and for me it's like nails-on-a-chalkboard. 

I think there are certain types of people who are really sensitive to numbers, particularly order-of-magnitude kinds of mistakes. And there are other people, who are the majority, who simply don't notice these kinds of things: "Oh, I said a billion when i meant a trillion? Whatevs. I meant 'a lot.'"

The weird thing is, this sensitivity seems uncorrelated with actual math ability. I have none, for example. I just notice misplaced decimal points for some reason. It's a curse.

I believe It may be camber and there is definitely an asymmetry between the driver and passenger rear wheels.  here is what I was sent with the car when I purchased it.....{.Although when I hear wheel rub squeak I swear its coming from the passenger rear side.  }
"Swing axle suspension with adjustable torsion spring plates and ball joint axle beam, 4 wheel disc brakes. I have done an initial alignment of 1/8” toe in . Depending on your driving, you may want to have the front end aligned, specs are:  Camber -5 degrees, caster 5 degrees, 1/8” toe in (there are adjustable eccentrics)"

Im going to raise the ride height a little this weekend and see how that feels.  Im thinking I may need new shocks and have to really dig in to the steering box and joints to see where the slop is.

Thank you all for the information so far, very helpful and humbled by the generosity of information with this group!

Paul

Ok front end, adjustable eccentrics are for camber, and it should be 0 to -0.5 degrees. Top of tire leaning toward each other. FWIW, that's about 1/4" and can beroughly set on a flat surface with a carpenter's square on the ground and edge touching the bottom of the tire.

Rear end, should actually be set based on ride height(as long as you don't have positive camber) on scales. The adjustable spring plates would let you corner balance the car, it is important that all the wheels are balance as much as they can be with respect to each other.

If the one rear tire is toed in more that the other, like a person who walks pigeon-toed, that can be adjusted with the slots in the spring plates. Some cars need to have the slots elongated, and that is a real pain in the ass.

I set my car up with 1/16" total toe front and rear.

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