Axle Height, How low is your teen? Options

[BMartin914]

Just finished installing a set of turbo tie rods and adjusted the ride height and toe afterward. Axle height is per my Haynes manual 3.5" - 3.75" = a(center of wheel cap to road surface) - b(center of torsion bar cap to road surface) and looks REALLY high.

Front wheels have significantly more fender gap than the rear.

I am trying to get it adjusted to a good ride height before I go for an alignment. Is it best to just try and get the front and rear fender gap as close as possible?

What do you have your axle height set at for optimum ROAD performance? Best compromise between handling, tire wear and stance.

Any suggestions are more than welcome. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif)

Ben

[ChrisFoley]

Just finished installing a set of turbo tie rods and adjusted the ride height and toe afterward. Axle height is per my Haynes manual 3.5" - 3.75" = a(center of wheel cap to road surface) - b(center of torsion bar cap to road surface) and looks REALLY high.

Front wheels have significantly more fender gap than the rear.

I am trying to get it adjusted to a good ride height before I go for an alignment. Is it best to just try and get the front and rear fender gap as close as possible?

What do you have your axle height set at for optimum ROAD performance? Best compromise between handling, tire wear and stance.

Any suggestions are more than welcome. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif)

Ben

You can pretty much ingore the Haynes manual settings (and the fringe radical statements by previous posters (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) ), except as a point from which to move in the direction of lowering the car. How low you go is a matter of personal preference. However, as you lower the car other things are affected and need to be changed at the same time. Since you are starting from the stock settings I suggest lowering about 1/2" to begin with. You can probably get away with this without needing rack spacers or any other changes, except camber & toe. See how the front looks in relation to the rear after a change like this. If you like it, then get the alignment done at that ride height.
One note: the factory made the ride height settings high to meet headlight height regulations in the '70s. They were far from optimum in other regards.