redbird68

1st vette, learning how much i do not know. just getting acquainted, tuneup, service, calipers,radiator, heater core (fun). 71 ragtop smallblock with 75k miles, basically been sitting for last 20 yrs. shows its age, but clean and unmolested.

anyway, right(pass) side sits 1-2" higher than left at rear. also causes front to be uneven. have the car on 4 jackstands right now, putting in bilstein shocks. pushed up the rotor lightly with a bottle jack to make the upper shock bolt on left side, all good. suspension moved up like i believe it is supposed to. went to right side, tried same thing, the car immediately came off the jackstand. suspension did not move at all before entire car came up. pushed up at the end of the leaf spring, same thing happened. i looked hard at trailing arm, etc and could not see anything different from side to side.

any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

7T1vette

Your worst possibility is that the car has been in an accident and the frame is 'cockeyed'. Other possibilities: the rear spring is no mounted properly; the rear body mounts are rusting out; the rear suspension is not adjusted properly. Hope it's something simple...

redbird68

thanks 7T for the well wishes. i do not believe there has been any frame damage, no signs of an accident. body bushings all look in good shape, rear spring appears to be mounted properly. i do think it could be an adjustment issue. on my pontiacs, i know that control arm bushing need to be torqued after car is taking the load on its wheels, or could make the car ride high. is this also true of the diffrent bushings in the rear suspension of a vette?

Alan 71

Hi R68,
71 NICE!!!!
If I may I'd like to suggest you get the GM Chassis Service Manual for your 71. This is the manual that the dealer's service department used. There's one for each year. The larger vendors on this site sell it. It's well worth the $$.
I think you'll find LOTS of good information that will help as you get to know your 71.
The four bolts that fasten the spring mounting plate to the rear end carrier should be be loose until the car is sitting on it tires and then torqued to specs.
This could be part of you problem but wouldn't cause all of it.
I think you need to continue to try to see what's locking the right side. It could be the shock, or the strut rod setting could be so far out of position that its stopping the trailing arm from moving once it gets to a certain point.
Good Luck!
Regards,
Alan

PS: Pictures of your 71 would be enjoyed!

muskegonbrake

Check to make sure the spring end-link bolts are adjusted to the same height, that's the simplest thing to eliminate.

Andrew

C6DuffMan

Interesting, my 71 has the same problem. Well I assume it does from the pictures I've seen. (Car is being picked up for transport this week). You can see in the pics that a longer bolt was used to presumably lower the right side. Is this a common thing with 71s? Were the springs made asymmetrical to compensate from something? Mines a 454.

joewill

could be a locked up shock due to sitting for 20 years? are your old shocks disconnected?
can you reproduce the problem with both shocks off?

Alan 71

Hi Duff,
No, the spring's rate was symmetrical side to side.
There was very little adjustment allowed for. In fact if you look at the original bolts and nuts there are only about 2 or 3 threads on the bolt were the nut can be tightened in order to allow the cotter pin to pass through the hole in the bolt.
The spring in your picture still has the shipping clamps on it which in itself will cause the spring to act a bit unusual.
Cars sit at an angle for many reasons, or a combination of reasons.
Regards,
Alan

redbird68

hi guys....i have been trying to figure how to post a pic. made a photobucket account, tried to atach a few, hope it works.

i went ahead and put wheels back on, set rear end down on the tires. front is still on jackstands. right side is now only 1/2" higher than left, measured from floor to wheelwell lip. this is an improvement. now though, there is 5" clear over top of tire to the wheelwell lip. new tires are 245 60r15's on the original 8" rallys. car had 215 70's on it before, and tires fit better in the wells, as hopefully shows in the picture.

the shocks seem to be working, when i push down on rear end, it drops and then rises back up just fine. i will see what all looks like after i get the front back on its tires. still messing with the heater core, and need to get under car occaisionally. i will try to post a pic aftetr it sits back down.

thanks for all the help.

Alan 71

H rb,
An easy check for ride height is to use the Trim Height Chart in the AIM.
The dimemsions from the center of the wheel arch to the ground should be just a hair below 28 inches.
The tire you're using will affect ths number since it may have a different diameter than the original F70 tires whch were about 26.9 inches in diameter.
Regards,
Alan

redbird68

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got pics to work!!!!
i have heard that suspension can 'settle in' after rolling the car back a forth a bit following mods.....hope to get the car down on all 4 tires this weekend and see. will post pics of the results

Alan 71

Hi R68,
I really enjoyed looking at your pictures.
It's a beauty!!!!
Thanks for posting them.
Regards,
Alan

WKNR

Go to the front of the car opposite corner of the rear corner that is sitting low. check to see that the front coil spring is not seated properly in the upper A-arm. If not, rotate spring until seats in the proper mount hole. You will need to follow the spring removal procedure to accomplish rotating it.

a71vette

How do you know if it's not seated right? I just put the drivers side front control arms back together after replacing bushings, ball joints, shock,etc and it's sitting very high on that side now. I figured it just needed to settle in but now I'm worried that it didn't seat right. If there's a quick reference point to know for sure that would be helpful!

Thanks,
Paco