71 Eldo: Ride Height measurement

[wbdeford]

Anyone know a quick and dirty way of measuring ride height, and what the measurement should be?  The shop manual says to measure at the shocks, but that is kind of tough to do with the car on the floor.

[Scot Minesinger]

Put all four wheels on wood blocks then you can slide underneath easy.  I think level is most important on this adjustment first.  What is status of back end?  New springs, ALC functional?  That drives the height setting in front.

[TJ Hopland]

I don't have my 73 handy to check plus I think there were some changes for 73 so it may not be the same as your 71.     I remember checking mine when I first got it against the manual but don't remember having to crawl under the car to do it.   I may have just forgot, that was 20 some years ago when crawling under the car propped up on 2x4's and paint cans would not have stood out as unusual or a bad idea. 

If you do have to make adjustments to the front jack the wheels off the ground to lessen the tension on the bolts.   They don't always like to move so the easier you can make it the better chance you will have of not breaking or stripping anything.   I snapped off one of those bolts one time and have read about people stripping them.   

[wbdeford]

Thanks for the idea on the blocks....would have given that a shot, but I don't have four.

I figured out a way to measure the shocks with the car on the floor.  Before that, I measured (with the wheels off) the distance from the center of the lower mounting hole up to where the base of the cylinder.  Then with the car on the floor, it was easy to get under there to take a second measurement and add the two measurements together.

[wbdeford]

If you do have to make adjustments to the front jack the wheels off the ground to lessen the tension on the bolts.   They don't always like to move

Yes, I jack it at the frame so the lower control arm will rotate downward, though not quite to the point of the tire leaving the floor--but still enough that torsion bar will easily allow the nut to be turned tighter.

[wbdeford]

Current state of the front wheels. Look reasonably close to correct?

[wbdeford]

I received a recommendation to try to have the rockers at the same height all the way around the car, so I'm going to go with that.  I think I am fairly close already.

[TJ Hopland]

You wonder why they didn't give you the measurement points off the frame to ground?    I can see if it was in a frame shop for repair you would want more but for a basic ride height it would seem simple.   

[wbdeford]

Maybe those frame to ground measurements are somewhere else in the manual.....but I haven't been able to find them.