Well I just got a new cat back fabbed up and put on and I'm very happy with it, but I'm not happy with my fender gap. On my sloped driveway sitting uphill, the front driver's side fender is sitting at 28 inches, the front pass. side is at 27.5 like it should be, and the rear fenders are at 28 driver and 28.5 pass.
The car seemed like it sat lower before I took it in. My fist used to fit snugly in between the tire and the fender on both sides, now I can move it freely in the driver's side gap though the passenger side is still about the same.

Before...acceptable


Now...4x4



Since then I have loosened the sway bar end links and rolled the car back and forth and I've driven it a bit, with some of the driving taking place on really rough roads. It still hasn't settled and it has me scratching my head. I tried feeling the springs to see if they were indexed properly but I couldn't really tell and I didn't really worry about it because I figured only cars with suspension work need that checked.

So does anyone have any idea what could be wrong? Could the spring really be out of index just from the car being on a lift? And if so, can I adjust the spring just by lifting and supporting the car and yanking on it, or do I need a spring compressor?

Thanks.
Joe

 

To index most likely need compressor the inside kind and go through your a arm i've heard some get away without them but i never have. first get under there and check the rest of the suspenion who knows what the cat guys were doin under there i've heard uf some shady installs before

 

Seems odd that the drivers side front and pass side rear would be sitting higher. There is no common link between the opposite corners of the car. How is the condition under the vehicle, check for any rust and weak spots on the unibody and front undercarriage, It could be possible that it was tweaked when put on the lift.

 

It's as close to mint as I've seen on an unrestored 20+ year old rust belt car... other than some light surface rust on the sway bars and some of the other suspension components, the subframes and floor pans are Ziebarted and rust free. No accidents, nothing else that would make me think the frame's tweaked unless one side of the lift severely malfunctioned... but even then I think there'd be more evidence like dents or scrapes on the jacking points.

It's had this problem before when I jacked it up... it sat like a monster truck but I got in and rolled it backward and forward and steered back and forth and it settled like it was supposed to... for some reason it just hasn't this time. If nothing else I'll take it to a frame shop and have it looked at and if it checks out good I'll just deal with it, save up, and get some Koni's and some weight jacks later this summer.

 

No.

No.

Compressor.

I'd suggest driving it around the block a couple of times to see what happens.

JamesC

 

I would get underneath the car and see if they "tweeked" the chassis by lifting it improperly. Look for any fresh dents or scratches, on the LCA's etc.

 

There were scratches on the jacking points where it looked like it settled onto the posts on the lift but there weren't any dents or scratches anywhere else around them so I couldn't find evidence that it got majorly tweaked on the rack. I drove the car around town a little bit today and it still has the height difference but it really isn't noticeable other than that one side is a bit higher.

So is it possible for the car to have a tweaked chassis without ever being in a wreck, jumped, or dropped off a lift? The only thing I could possibly think of is that the passenger side didn't have an endlink last year on the sway bar because it rotted off but it's long been replaced and I never noticed the gap until a couple of days ago.

And if it is tweaked, how imperative is it that I fix it? And if it isn't could autocrossing on steet tires tweak it at all? I really want new Koni's and I figure even if it is tweaked a little bit I want weight jacks so I could just use those as a band aid until I get SFC's... then I'll have the frame pulled and get them welded in.

 

I'm not sure what to say, maybe one or two spring's is stronger than the other's?

 

Welp, got it figured out: went under the car today to wipe some of the grease off and noticed the sway bar got jacked out of place. Loosened the end links and the points where it and the wonder bar attach to the frame. Tried shoving it in the right direction and it wouldn't budge, so I put a paint stir stick up to the side that was off and hit it with a BFH... all is well now and it's as close to even as a 26 year old car's going to get.

I hope this thread helps someone else, but man I'm ecstatic that the car's not seriously messed up.