Ride Height, where should it ba at?

[Bruceynz]

Hi Guys,

What have you guys found works best for ride height, I have just had all my front suspension apart, I have not touched the rear end yet but used this for my reference, I have made the front body sit the same height as the back so the car sits flat,(measure just in front of back wheel to sill and same up front) but there is about 1/4" difference at the back between sides. Anyway can I go lower in the front, is there any negative issues I may run into to, should I run it flat or should I run it with the nose a bit higher. I have never been able to set the height Chrysler way, measuring under the car to the ground so many inches on the bottom arm from memory.

Thanks
Bruce

 

[80mirada]

I always run a little down on the nose, 1-2" measured at the front and rear of the rocker panel. It gives it a more aggressive stance. If you look at most modern cars all of them are nose down to an extent.

 

[Bruceynz]

So lowering the front doesn't effect any of the steering geometry?

This is how I have adjusted at the moment, does it look about right? I think its sitting slightly lower at the front.

 

[80mirada]

It has an effect on the alignment, bur a small amount of lowering is negligible. Chrysler suspension geometry is very predictable, FFI upper control arms are designed to allow significant lowering

 

[AJ/FormS]

A crooked front end can shift weight from one front corner to the opposite rear corner, making it seem like the rear is crooked.
The best front height, is one that puts the LCA in such a place that generates the least amount of toe-change during about 2 inches of suspension travel. In this way, you will have a car that doesn't wander around in the lane with every change in the road surface.
Really, only your alighnment guy can figure that out, and only if you ask him to, and it will cost extra.
But generally, this ride-height occurs when the LCA pivot points are dead level. The points are hidden tho. The inner point you can sorta see, but the outer is in the center of the LBJ. Chrysler has been pretty good about giving us a way to get close by giving us a spec. They take a measurement from the floor to the underside of the inner pivot, and from the floor to the underside of the LBJ, and subtract the two.So you get a number like 1.3 or 1.8 or 2.2.
If you set the ride height to the correct number, theoretically you will be in the LCAs sweet-spot. Sometimes, this will see the rear height too low, cuz the springs are bagged out. A soft,low, rear height will contribute to wander, and handling issues, especially if the rear shocks are also bagged out.It's usually not too noticeable at slow speeds, but out on the freeway, as air gets under the front end, it can be pretty annoying, and as speeds increase it gets dangerous.
The sweetspot can be up to 2 inches of total body-travel,or a maybe a bit more.This gives you an inch of jounce, and an inch of rebound to work with.The car will definitely handle better from dead level to an inch down in the front, so long as it falls into the sweetspot.If it doesn't, then the rear likely needs to go up.
Because the control arms are different lengths(and they have to be) the sweetspot is rather small. After which, the front alignment angles start changing.The caster not so much, but the camber can change fairly rapidly. When the camber changes, so does the toe. If you are travelling around a corner, this toe-change is not very noticeable, unless you are on snow or ice. But if you are travelling in a straight line, say at hiway speed, toe-change is felt as wander. Incessant wander with accompanying constant steering corrections is very tiring, and aggravating. Undulating, or rutty asphalt roads especially, are the worst.