I've been trying to lower the rear the last couple of days w/ no success. What's odd is the rear perch on the pass side the collar is all the way down while the driver side is in the middle. Once the car is driven and the susp is settle the driv side is lower than the pass side even though the collar on the pass is in full droop.
Measuring the 2 sides it's off by like a 1/8th". The rear is sitting aprox 28" from bottom of tire to wheel well. What gives? I've look under there to see if they are sitting where they are supposed to be and they are and I even jack it up w/ a friend and then lower it on a lift to make sure it has full contact and it does but I still get this slightly off even look and it won't go any lower!

I'm almost tempted to put my sportline springs in the rear and call it a day. The GC eibach springs are 150lbs for the rear and I know that shouldn't make a difference whether the car lowers or not. I even have 2.5" between the bumpstop and axle! Am I supposed to remove that thing between the spring that acts like a cushion (spring bushing?) don't know what it's called but I remember some guys removing it and then they said their rear would squeak or make aweful noises because of it.

Help!

Thanks,

 

you shouldnt set it by "height". set them even(collars). or better yet, put it on scales and do corner weights

 

I did it by even collars and that's when it's real noticeable. So something is wrong what I don't know........thanks for the tip w/ corner weighing it.

 

Assuming that your car is a Z28 (don't know about TA rear fenderwheels), 28" floor to fender lip is pretty high (about 1" higher than stock setting). My Z28 is at 26.1" and my collars are adjusted to within 1/2" of eachother.

My Global West rear collar set-up had similar problems. They initially sold me springs that were too long and I could not get the thing below stock height. When they sent the correct length springs, I could drop to a maximum of 1.5" under stock height by removing the upper rubber spring isolators and replacing it with heater hose around the 1st coil of the spring. My GW springs are softer than you 150lb GCs.

Other than some type of rare suspension binding (or carrying a block of lead over 1 wheel), the only 2 things that can result in significantly different ride heights are unmatched springs or swaybar preload. Assuming that your springs have the same shelf length and wire thickness, my guess is that you have swaybar pre-load, which is twisting the swaybar at rest. The only time that the swaybar should be in torsion is when the car is in a corner (or hit a bump on 1 wheel). I have found that swaybar preload interefered with my ability to adjust the rear height evenly. Also check your front suspension height to make sure that front swaybar preload is not throwing off the rear height.

Raise your car equally on all 4 corners on a level floor and rest the car on the wheels. Disconnect the swaybar links front and rear and then set your desired ride height, with your collars. Bounce the suspension and then install the swaybar links. I recommend longer Energy Suspension endlinks, with the bolts hanging down (to give you more adjustment room). Add washers to load the 2 sides of the swaybar evenly. If you are having to wrench the nut on 1 side harder or longer than the other, then you are preloading the swaybar. Phrased another way, if 1 side is tight and the other side has a 1/2" to 1/4" gap, then you need to add washers to load them evenly.

Rick R

 

Oh I forgot to mention (although you probably already know this); choose SB endlinks thatn permit the bar endlink flats to be parallel to ground, with the suspension loaded and at rest. This can be optimized by using longer Energy Susp links with extra spacers and washers from a hardware store. The point is to keep the bar attachments in the center of its operating range with the suspension loaded and at rest.

 

Are these LG Coilovers? I have the same ride height issue with the rear. The 28" you measured could be misleading due to rim size and tire sizes as well. Try measuring from the fender to the wheel center, and this will negate the effects of the wheel/tire. (I could let the air out of one tire to make my ride height even otherwise). Do you get any loud squeeking on hard sustained turns? I think mine is caused by the metal spring on the metal perch. Im going to get some rubber tubing and place it around the last coil to quite it down a bit. The whole track can hear me corner...

--Kevin

 

Thanks for all the tips guys I appreciate immensly. They are GC coilovers. I think I'll remove the isolator and see how that goes because there is alot of play if I remove that to adjust the collars so that may be the logical solution to this.

Preload of the sway bar? Funny thing is when I replace them it was on a flat lift and the lift had a jack so I didn't have to worry about that one bit. Now unless something has changed since that swap is anyones guess. I'll be swapping out my bar soon w/ a 21mm the 25 is too much for what I'm doing. The springs are the same in length and thickness as well but maybe just maybe I was supposed to remove the isolator. The front is fairly even w/ the left right being a tad higher but that's a simple fix. I'll give it a shot and post my results at a later time.

Thanks again!