Raising Front

[johnboy89]

I'm looking to get my front up a bit, front is slammed way down (done by previous owner).

I believe it has the Wedge kit in it, what I don't know is if the factory shims have been removed, my guess is they have.

So going forward should I just re-install factory shims and see what the ride height is like? I wouldn't be against putting it back to stock ride height either. If so are these shims/rubber bushings still available?

Thanx

[JimZRyd]

Is your rear lowered as well? I'm in the process of putting coilovers on my 94. Finishing up the rear and will be moving on to the front this week. I could check it out and send you some pics of a stock set up if you like.

[mike100]

The rubber bushings are cut off when the lowering wedges are installed. Putting both shims on top of the spring does help to raise it 3/8 of an inch or so. I have previously mulled over how to machine a delrin or hard rubber bushing of sorts to restore the use of previously altered springs (since there are so many of them with the wedge hack mod), but i've never actually tried it. In two cases I was able to find replacement springs.

[johnboy89]

I'm going to have to jack the car up, looking last night on the lower control arm, appears the rubber bushing is still there? I don't see any wedges either? Are they not visible from the top?

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by mike100

The rubber bushings are cut off when the lowering wedges are installed. Putting both shims on top of the spring does help to raise it 3/8 of an inch or so. I have previously mulled over how to machine a delrin or hard rubber bushing of sorts to restore the use of previously altered springs (since there are so many of them with the wedge hack mod), but i've never actually tried it. In two cases I was able to find replacement springs.

I need to pm you about and unrelated issue. Just posting to remind myself

[batchman]

Originally Posted by johnboy89

I'm going to have to jack the car up, looking last night on the lower control arm, appears the rubber bushing is still there? I don't see any wedges either? Are they not visible from the top?

They are underneath, flanking the oil pan, about 18" apart or so IIRC.

HTH,
- Jeff

[mike100]

you can see the main rubber spring mounts in the center of the spring. There are also rubber pads on the end that should be present. The middle ones are trimmed down to alter the mounting height and preload of the spring (basically letting it un-arch itself for a softer preload). This results in the car dropping down. Further preload is increased by adding aluminum shims to the top of the spring bushing which pushes the center down even farther increasing the initial tension (raising car). Different models have different spacer depending on desired ride height and vehicle weight and spring type. Convertibles have 2 shims for the extra ground clearance, ZR-1's have 2 due to the weight of the LT5 (best I can figure). Other models have a single shim.

Not shown here, but the other side of the rubber bushings are completely removed- I was changing this spring for stock that I traded for.


Here you can see the shims removed and mounted on the bottom (just going along for the ride- nice of the last owner to have not thrown them away- they are normally on top of the bushing pack)

[batchman]

Thanks for posting that pic, Mike - but I have a question for you. Is the jack supporting something engine-wise allowing removal of the diagonal brace? I have to do my LCA bushings and while I gather pulling that is not a problem on a regular 350, I was not so sure about LT5...

Thanks,
- Jeff

[mike100]

The jack was just there to get the car up extra high due to the heavy arch in the stock spring...just allows enough space to twist it out of there. The diagonal crossbeams come right out on all C4's as the actual motor mount tab is welded to the frame...the supports are just extra triangulation that is removable.

[johnboy89]

This helped Mike, but other than getting a stock spring is there anything I can do do bump it up.

Thanx