Suspension adjustments?, What the!!!! Options

[Gearren]

I just finished replacing all the suspension bushings, ball joints, installed Bilstein shocks, 140 lb springs and turbo tie rods...What a job! I'm getting it ready to take it to the alignment shop. I have 2 questions/concerns.

If I set the front axle ride height at the Haynes spec, it seems like the body of the car is way up off the wheels, higher than the rear ride height. I elected to set it at 6 3/4" at the center of the torsion bar cap, which gives me a 3/8 difference between the front and rear ride heights. Is this OK? Am I missing some sophisticated geometry concern by setting the front height this way?

Second question involves the right vs left rear height. I set both struts the same, with the height clip in the fourth ring from the bottom, but the right rear sits 1/4" lower than the right. In order to correct this left/right imbalance, should I set one strut clip higher or lower than the other? (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/confused24.gif)

[nebreitling]

QUOTE

I just finished replacing all the suspension bushings, ball joints, installed Bilstein shocks, 140 lb springs and turbo tie rods...What a job! I'm getting it ready to take it to the alignment shop. I have 2 questions/concerns.

unless you have a trailer, be sure to give it a 'rough' alignment just to get it to the shop. or spend a few hours doing your own 'home' alignment, it's surprisingly easy.

QUOTE

If I set the front axle ride height at the Haynes spec, it seems like the body of the car is way up off the wheels, higher than the rear ride height. I elected to set it at 6 3/4" at the center of the torsion bar cap, which gives me a 3/8 difference between the front and rear ride heights. Is this OK? Am I missing some sophisticated geometry concern by setting the front height this way?

take that page of the haynes and rip it out. lower the sucker. just make sure that your A-arms/tie-rods are no lower than parallel to the ground, else you are going to have some gnarly bump-steer. but you should definitely set the car up with a bit of rake, ie the front slightly lower then the back.

QUOTE

Second question involves the right vs left rear height. I set both struts the same, with the height clip in the fourth ring from the bottom, but the right rear sits 1/4" lower than the right. In order to correct this left/right imbalance, should I set one strut clip higher or lower than the other?

that's a little odd. make sure that the front end is even right-to-left. raising one corner affects the other three, so getting the car level can be a bit of trial and error. also check to see that your springs are seated correctly. but i wouldn't set the shock clips differently (unless i was running oval race tracks, lol)