Ride height on my 68 KR

[Steve Meltzer]

Sometimes the enemy of good is better! When I refurbished the original A-arms/control arms, their ball joints, and their grease fittings, I was careful to mark which side of the car each component came from. Now, I see that the car is sitting half an inch higher on one side than the other. I doubt that I switched springs, but I guess it's possible. Before I tear into this and swap the springs around, any suggestions? And yes, the tire pressure is equal on all sides. Thank you, steve

[TA Coupe]

Did you let the suspension fully settle before tightening the bolts for the front end?

    Roy

[Lincoln tech]

Lower on the left side ? Lift the rear side of the lower side and recheck front height, problem maybe caused by rear spring sagging .

[Steve Meltzer]

Thanks guys! I did not do the work myself, although it was done at my house, by professional mechanic. I will check with him. I will also put a jack under the lower side which I believe is the left, but I will check this morning. Thanks again steve.

[shelbydoug]

I wasn't following this thread so if this was said already, I apologize.

You won't see the actual ride height of the car until you put some mileage on it.

Sometimes just going around the block a couple of times will do it but suspensions need to settle into their ride heights.

When you disassemble the suspensions completely and just reassemble them, they won't be at the actual final ride heights.

[Steve Meltzer]

You won't have to twist my arm too hard to get me to take it out and drive a little bit. Especially with the good weather we're having here in Houston. Thanks and I will report back steve

[shelbydoug]

When you are running out of gas and need to come home, try to get the camber set at -1/2°. Toe in, which is always just an "approximation", so no need to use a digital computer to set it to within .001", set at 3/16" total.

Positive caster is better the more that you can get but I think about 1-1/2°+ is all you will be able to get without the tires hitting the front fender lips when turning.

You can get up to about 2-1/2°+ but the tires will definitely hook on the fender opening moldings.

With power steering you can live with only the 1-1/2° but the car probably will start to wonder at around 130mph. Considering you will also start to get lift there, that is probably the practical top cruising speed you should consider?

The '65 R models dialed in as much castor as they could get but the fender lips were already trimmed back. It gets tough to steer with no PS with 2-1/2° and more. It only wants to go straight, so with those cars you can't be afraid to steer with the gas pedal as well.

[Steve Meltzer]

I drove the car about 30 miles this morning, and it didn't change the ride height whatsoever.Then, using a floor jack, I gently raised the low side of the car on the rear frame. It took about three or four soft partial pumps to get both rear wheel wells to measure equally. With that done, both front wheel wells were now equal.?? Coincidental weak rear spring? I want to be sure my methodology is correct and if so, do you rebuild these or replace them or? thanx steve

[Lincoln tech]

I told you so  It was probably leaning when you bought just didn't notice it. Why is it always the left side? 

[Bob Gaines]

I drove the car about 30 miles this morning, and it didn't change the ride height whatsoever.Then, using a floor jack, I gently raised the low side of the car on the rear frame. It took about three or four soft partial pumps to get both rear wheel wells to measure equally. With that done, both front wheel wells were now equal.?? Coincidental weak rear spring? I want to be sure my methodology is correct and if so, do you rebuild these or replace them or? thanx steve

I would suggest replacing them with a type that is made the same . I use ones sourced from Virginia Mustang and then take the assemblyline metal stamped bottom plate and transfer it to the replacement set. Of course this a short answer and there is more involved such as as matching the patina of each, metal straps as there are different types etc.

[Steve Meltzer]

Since it's leaning to the left side, I suspect it's political in origin. Here's my next question: immediately after refurbishing the control arms and ball joints, I had the car aligned by a pro. He never said anything about the car's ride height, one way or the other. Is it possible to correctly align a car, if the rear springs are mild-moderately defective? I would think not, but I don't know. What is your best advice? Thanks, Steve.

[Lincoln tech]

Since it's leaning to the left side, I suspect it's political in origin.

I never thought of it that way but but it could be true  Yes it is possible to perform  a good alignment with that much ride height difference ( did the pro give you print out of the results? not that makes too much difference because it can be manipulated ) 2 options === Replace the springs or leave it alone. I do think that most manufacturers would consider that as acceptable.

[shelbydoug]

The rear springs can be re-arched to make them equal.

Personally, I have my '68 since 1972. I have the original rear springs in the car.

I always found them to be inadequate. They would bottom out too easily and in the days when it was my everyday car, putting anyone brave enough to venture to sit in the back seat, the car would ride on the bump stops.



The original rear springs are described by Ford as "competition springs". The natural pose the car would take was to have the nose up because of the arch of the rear springs.

At some point I experimented with solutions and the one that is still installed in the car is what many of the R models used, i.e., they installed an extra long leaf in the rear, taking off the clamps.



It does disable the "ass down" stance and makes the car look level. It ends the bottoming out. It does not make the ride harsh. In fact it softens the ride.



The other thing that works well with this solution is switching to Cure Ride rear shocks.

If you do your research you will at some point come across the fact that SA did a project with Cure ride and that rear shock valving was a result of it.

Of course none of this is Concourse correct but neither are radial tires so at some point you need to make a decision on which way to go? Either it can look original or you can make the car a lot more enjoyable to drive?

[Steve Meltzer]

I will have to cogitate on this a bit to decide what I wanna do. Is it possible that this condition could arise from one of the accessory components in the rear suspension besides the springs themselves, like a bushing or such? Thanks again, Steve.

[Lincoln tech]

What is the guy that does all the work on the car say ?      You can install longer shackles on LR spring just like in old days