ride height, how high or low Options

[41ghost]

took the car all apart this winter and put a 911 frontend on and 5 lug in the rear also, with many other changes too. what is the correct or a good ride height with 16" wheels if the wheels matter. where do you measure from , the longs?

[Ferg]

I measure from the lifting doughnuts to the ground.

For a street car (from memory...) I like 4.25 front and 4.5 in the back. Any lower and I've run into issues.

Ferg

[So.Cal.914]

I don't think there is a set formula, if your going to Texas and your going to 4X4 it

leave it at stock height, (IMG:style_emoticons/default/hide.gif) but if your a high peformance driver and enjoy

your car put it as low as you can get away with. My .02

[r_towle]

took the car all apart this winter and put a 911 frontend on and 5 lug in the rear also, with many other changes too. what is the correct or a good ride height with 16" wheels if the wheels matter. where do you measure from , the longs?

If you would like to go as low as possible, when sitting on the ground, on the wheels, you want your front a-arms as close to level as you can manage, with the wheel end of the arm just a tad lower than the middle of the car...

You never want your a-arms with the wheel end of the arm higher than the middle of the car.

From there, you want to match the rear of the car so it is almost level.
If you are on a level surface, you can put a 4 foot level on the longs and adjust it from there.
If not, measure the front and rear of the long to make it match the floor.

Now you are close.
You will need to find a good alignment shop and you will need to have the car corner balanced to set the final ride height based upon the corner balance.

When you raise or lower your car, you need and alignment to get the wheels set up correctly, and with 16 inch wheels you will need to do it anyways.

Rich

[41ghost]

that sounds like a good way to do it. i'll get back to it tomarrow and see what i can come up with.

[brp914]

check your haynes manual - the difference between ground to center of hubcap and ground to center of torsion bar should be set to 90 +/- 5mm. the more you deviate from this the more problems with bump steer you will have.

[flesburg]

Rich has it right for front height.

Only one addition. Your rear trailing arms should be as close to level as you can get them. You do not want the hub to be higher off the ground than the pivit point at the forward end of the trailing arm. This can be measured with the car on the ground.

Then get it four wheel aligned, (toe, camber and caster in the front, and toe and camber in the rear) and corner balanced with you setting in the drivers seat. You can only achieve good corner balance with adjustable height spring perches in the rear.