Adjusting front ride height….

Discussion in 'Mech Tech' started by smeato, Jul 24, 2021.

  1. smeato

    smeato Supporter

    I’ve fitted my trailing arms to my new front beam and set the adjusters to the maximum height. I’m going to have to preload the springs to fit the spindles which shouldn’t be a problem, but if I want to lower the bus at any point won’t the adjusters rotate upwards when I loosen the grub screws? If they do, how do I get the preload back on, do I have to remove the spindles again?
     
  2. Zed

    Zed Gradually getting grumpier

    Probably.
     
  3. smeato

    smeato Supporter

    .
     
  4. Zed

    Zed Gradually getting grumpier

    Sorry that was a bad answer. I did think about it and TBH it's hard to say. It will want to "lower itself" as you describe but you may be able to overcome that without removing the spindles.
     
    smeato likes this.
  5. smeato

    smeato Supporter

    Anyone got any ideas?
     
  6. smeato

    smeato Supporter

    Did a bit of Googling, to no avail. I’m just going to take a stab in the dark and set it a couple of notches lower than stock, worst case scenario, I’ll have to split the ball joints and take the spindles back off if the height needs adjusting…..
     
  7. smeato

    smeato Supporter

    Thanks for everyone’s help btw :thumbsup:
     
  8. Have you got the toothed adjusters on the beam? my underrstanding is you loosen the nut ON the grub screw so the toothed plate comes loose and leave the fat grub screw well alone.

    If you lower the bus via the adjuster you`ll get less pre-load. as you lessen the pre-load enough it should hopefully affect the static sag position of the bus once its on its wheels and this will be how it is lowered. you cant add pre-load as there is no mechanism to do this - just the suspension will sag to the ride height of the bus. to raise it back up to full height you`ll have to fight the torsion bar spring which may be an arse to do!

    My bus has zero preload on the beam torsion bars at max lowered position when the suspension is unloaded. i didnt realise there is a max extension to the front suspension to allow pre-loading hte torsion bars. I (and 2 garages) cant move my adjusters as they appear to be siezed solid or welded in place.
     
    smeato likes this.
  9. Ours moves freely down with its own weight when all together and to raise just lower onto ramps so you can get to the centre adjusters but it is fully greased and new.
    What beam is it ours is a transporter Haus...
    Sent from my Nokia 3.4 using Tapatalk
     
    smeato likes this.
  10. We had similar.. had to extend the grub screw long enough for a jack to fit betweet and the floor pan.. finally shifted a bit...
     
    smeato likes this.
  11. smeato

    smeato Supporter

    Yea I’ve got it sorted now. The issue I had was that I initially set the ride height to maximum before I fitted the spindles but in that position, the trailing arms are at such a steep angle that the ball joints are beyond their limit of travel and you have to put the springs under tension to get the correct angle for the ball joints to line up in the spindle and I was worried that if I needed to adjust the ride height down, the preload would rotate the centre bosses too far and I wouldn’t be able to return them without splitting the ball joints and removing the spindles again. As it turned out, I did need to adjust the ride height down but the preload was a lot less than I was expecting and it wasn’t aproblem. I was probably overthinking it……
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2021
    Zed likes this.
  12. cunning!. i`d be worried about lifting the floor with the jack! I`ll have to have another look and see if i can squeeze a bottle jack onto the nut.
     
  13. Zed

    Zed Gradually getting grumpier

    People have snapped the bolt clean off doing this...then you're stuck - go steady.*

    *These will probably have been adjusters fitted to old beams and not as free as they might be.
     
  14. Zed

    Zed Gradually getting grumpier

    This is the bit inside.
    P1010054_zps5aqhpvdk.jpg
     
    paradox likes this.
  15. good point - maybe i`ll leave well alone! mines on coils at a decent height. I`d like to have it riding more on the torsion leaves but i`d rather not snap bits off either as i dont fancy trying to drill the bugger out and retap another grub screw.
     
  16. But if its on its bottom to start with and breaking your spine on bumps it's muck or bust time! ..and I did bottle it on going any more once we won a bit back. We did add heat too..

    Ours had just been done got pics and everything of the restoration, looked great, it just seemed to have "set" in the meantime. Probably go for a stock beam eventually when we can be bothered to get that last bit of lift back
     
  17. Zed

    Zed Gradually getting grumpier

    I wasn't saying don't do it!
    More to be aware of potential pitfalls - people have managed to snap the bolt and get in a mess they might have avoided...maybe because it just didn't occur to them. I wasn't there, I don't know exactly how gung-ho they were being.
     

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