Suspension improvement, or not?

[Crisis]

Gents, hope you can help me with something. I decided this winter to do some improvements with my car's(73 TR6)suspension. Therefore I removed and reconditioned all parts and replaced the worn-out parts with new. I decided I would try new springs as I felt this was a good opportunity to replace the 35 year old stock springs. I went with Goodparts firmer and lower (1") front and back. I'm not afraid of the stiffer ride. Was pretty proud of myself as I put the car back on its wheels for the first time in 7 months yesterday until....I think its now too low. The rear end looks fine. The front I'm not sure about. The car appeared to have too much room in the wheel wells prior to the replacement, and now I'm not sure the tires won't rub on the fenders. It looks great! My concern is that when I've got the wheels turned, and I hit a bump, the tire will damage the fender and vice-versa. I am going to try to attach some photos of the cars 'before' stance and the 'after' of the front and back. I can't believe 1" made all this difference. Should I drive this? Should I not even bother to back it out of the garage? I don't have any experience in the area. The length and strength of the spring determines the height, right?
Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Guest]

I have these springs in with 215/65/16s.
You can't fit your hand between the wheelwell and the tire on the drivers front on mine. It scrubs a bit at full lock on an adverse camber too.

What's more annoying (to me) is if you are hauling and hit a big bump, the smell of burning rubber tells you that it's bottoming out on the tire at the back.

I've done it twice in the last two outings. I'm thinking about trying the spacers to see how that works.

 

[Tinster]

I'm not being a smarty pants.

Are you positive you installed the top and bottom
spring seats?

If you DID- make sure they did not slide off the top
of the coil springs and are sitting there squashed and
crooked.

Easy to check visual and with fingers.

Make sure your trailing arms have bump stops, as well.

good luck,

tinster

 

[Crisis]

Thanks for reply Alana and Tinster. I'm riding 205/65/15's and with the car sitting flat on the garage pad the tires will not touch the fender, whether straight ahead or full lock left and right.
Thanks Dale I will check the seats when I get home tonight.
Alana, I can't figure out how to load pictures so I'll try to describe my situation. The top of the tire is highter than the outside highest point of the wheel-well. When pointed straight ahead, they look great; wheel and tire fitted tight inside. I like that. When wheels are turned they don't touch fender, but not sure what would happen at speed? Cut the tire, or push the fender up? Or, maybe I shouldn't worry about it and just go for it and pay close attention with ears and touch of the wheel?

 

[swift6]

Are you saying that the top of the tire is higher than the fender lip? That is too low from just a spring swap. You said that you replaced all of your worn out parts so I'm assuming bushings. Is it possible that you installed the lower control arms upside down? This would lower the car another inch or so pretty easily.

This is an enlarged version of the photo in my sig. It's lowered 1" by springs with 195/65 R15 tires. The smaller diameter tires lower the car another 1/2". It is ground clearance challenged.

 

[Crisis]

Shawn, love the look of your car! I don't think I could have installed the lower control arms upside down as I didn't remove the rear spring pan studs in the arm. They're still pointing down. It does seem like more than 1" lower(way more). I did not measure the springs before I put them in; maybe I should have just in case I received the wrong ones.

 

[LastDeadLast]

I'm running Goodparts front springs with 205/70 tires also. I do have a little rubbing on the front at full turn lock. Other than that, nothing. There is a small space between the top of the tires and the fender, so perhaps the control arms were installed upside down as Shawn suggested.

 

[Crisis]

Is it possible to install the control arms upside down? If you did, wouldn't the threaded hole at the inward end of the arm be pointing up?

Crisis

 

[swift6]

That threaded hole is all the way through the casting. If you didn't change it then it's possible that someone else did before you. Compare what you have to the exploded parts views in the manual. Moss, TRF, VB etc... Do the ends that bolt to the trunnion (outside edge of the arms) turn up or down.

Just speculating here, but it's possible that someone else had put in the "heavy duty" springs that actually raise the ride height of the car. Those have an increased spring rate but are the same height as the stock springs. So to compensate, they flipped the lower control arms.

 

[Guest]

You mean lower than this?

 

[Tinster]

Shawn- ya coulda simply stated "maybe some DPO just
Pedro-ized the suspension".

dale :lol:

 

[Crisis]

Hard to tell from the picture, Alana, but that looks about the same. But, you use a larger diameter wheel/tire combo don't you.

I'm going to check the lower control arms when I get home. Should they turn up or down?
Thanks

 

[Guest]

My tire was chosen to be the same as the stock diameter.

 

[swift6]

I'm going to check the lower control arms when I get home. Should they turn up or down?
Thanks

They should turn down.

If your looks like Alan's pic then you should be fine.

Here is a better 3/4 view of mine for tire clearance comparison.

 

[LastDeadLast]

And mine with 205/70-15s:

 

[Tinster]

I'm going to check the lower control arms when I get home. Should they turn up or down?
Thanks

They should turn down.

Crisis: Here are a few photos and text of how the lower
control arms SHOULD be installed. If reversed, they will
raise your front end by about an inch in height.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/523186/InstalLowerAarms


tinster

 

[swift6]

Kind of hard to see in the exploded drawing but they should turn down.
https://www.zeni.net/trf/TR6bluebook/index.php?zoom=1.2&page=110

If they turn up, it raises the trunnion and vertical link, which in turn lowers the body/chassis, reducing ground clearance and shoving the tire up into the wheel well. Just llike "dropped spindles" do to VW Beetles and Trucks that use them to lower the front end.

 

[swift6]

Crisis: Here are a few photos and text of how the lower
control arms SHOULD be installed. If reversed, they will
raise your front end by about an inch in height.
quote]

Dale, if they are reversed from how the factory intended, they will lower the ride height by raising the spindle. Spindle goes up = body/chassis comes down, spindle goes down = body/chassis comes up.

 

[Tinster]

Shawn:

I was thinking the stubs at one inch higher will
cause the front wheels to ride higher inside the
wheel wells. Thus scraping the insides over bumps
as well as rubbing sheet metal during very tight
turns like parking..

d

 

[Crisis]

Thanks guys. Checked last night and the arms definately turn down as they are supposed to. Maybe its my fenders? PO had installed fibreglass, but you would think they would be an exact replica of the steel?
Once I get the leaking carbs sorted out I think I'll just take a slow drive around the block and see what happens.
Thanks again.