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 Ride Height Adjustment 
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Joined: March 24th, 2009, 9:18 pm
Posts: 248
Location: 15340 Mourjou France
Post Ride Height Adjustment
Help would be appreciated.

I'm trying to adjust the ride height on my '82 Red Special. In fact it doesn't look too bad with someone heavy in the driver's seat, but empty it looks distinctly lop-sided.

The problem is that one of the adjusters won't screw into the knife-edge end far enough. All of the adjusters (including this one) are free to move, as I had all four undone to replace the rubber gaiters. But this one seems to come to a complete stop when - I think, and judging by the others - it should be able to go in a further 2cm or so. There's a limit to the amount of brute force I want to use.

Two questions. Any idea what the problem might be? I shall have a really thorough attempt to clean up the exposed threads this afternoon: perhaps it's that.

If I can't get this adjuster any shorter, can achieve the same result by shortening the other one (in this case the rear one) that goes into the same suspension can? Or will that just make it "differently" lopsided?

Thanks in advance.

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Dennis usually in the Cantal

1964 HY 72 (Type H, campervan) - LHD
1969 AZU 250 (formerly French Post Office van) - LHD
1982 Red Special - RHD
1983 Burgundy/Black Charleston - RHD
2017 Skoda Octavia Estate 1.4 DSG - LHD


May 23rd, 2019, 1:37 pm
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Joined: February 11th, 2009, 12:32 am
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Location: Chichester, West Sussex
Post Re: Ride Height Adjustment
I've cut 15mm off the ends of all of mine to get them higher.
Make sure the thread is clean - maybe run a dye over it.
With the car jacked up you should be able to adjust the tie rods by hand - I did mine in the carpark at work this morning :lol:


May 23rd, 2019, 6:42 pm
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Joined: March 24th, 2009, 9:18 pm
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Location: 15340 Mourjou France
Post Re: Ride Height Adjustment
samfieldhouse wrote:
......
With the car jacked up you should be able to adjust the tie rods by hand - I did mine in the carpark at work this morning :lol:


Thanks.

With the car jacked up I was able to adjust them by hand. But this particular rod would only go just so far. It seems to meet a hard stop.

As a temporary measure I have screwed out the rod on the other side of the car. So it's a bit less lopsided, but probably also not where it should be.

I'll do some actual height measurements tomorrow, and see how wrong it is.

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Dennis usually in the Cantal

1964 HY 72 (Type H, campervan) - LHD
1969 AZU 250 (formerly French Post Office van) - LHD
1982 Red Special - RHD
1983 Burgundy/Black Charleston - RHD
2017 Skoda Octavia Estate 1.4 DSG - LHD


May 23rd, 2019, 7:57 pm
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Joined: April 20th, 2017, 10:55 pm
Posts: 107
Post Re: Ride Height Adjustment
Your problem might - and I emphasise might - be due to a spring being broken within the suspension cylinder on the side too low.


May 24th, 2019, 6:15 pm
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Joined: March 21st, 2013, 12:04 am
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Location: Exeter, Devon
Post Re: Ride Height Adjustment
Is everything standard, or has one been replaced. If I recall, there are different size parts available.

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May 25th, 2019, 12:44 am
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Location: 15340 Mourjou France
Post Re: Ride Height Adjustment
I haven't changed any of the suspension components myself, but it's quite possible a previous owner has done so. I had the rod entirely undone (to put the new gaiter on), and it didn't look different from the others, but no, I didn't actually measure its length overall.

As for a broken spring, that too is possible, but the problem I am encountering is that I cannot screw the rod into the knife-edge end here as far as I can on all the other three. So although there might be a broken spring inside the cylinder, I don't see why that would stop it screwing into the knife-edge.

If I had a die, I'd try cleaning the thread on the rod, but I doubt if I can get anything to improve the state of the thread inside the knife-edge.

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Dennis usually in the Cantal

1964 HY 72 (Type H, campervan) - LHD
1969 AZU 250 (formerly French Post Office van) - LHD
1982 Red Special - RHD
1983 Burgundy/Black Charleston - RHD
2017 Skoda Octavia Estate 1.4 DSG - LHD


May 25th, 2019, 9:28 am
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Joined: October 22nd, 2014, 10:59 pm
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Location: South-Limburg
Post Re: Ride Height Adjustment
You can use a screwtrhead file for that too. Try measure how deep the hole in the knife-edge end is. It might be an casting error.


May 25th, 2019, 10:26 pm
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Post Re: Ride Height Adjustment
It may well be that the spring canister is wrongly positioned.

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May 26th, 2019, 8:34 pm
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Joined: March 21st, 2013, 12:04 am
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Post Re: Ride Height Adjustment
Is the eye end different from the others

https://www.ecas2cvparts.co.uk/advanced ... &x=11&y=34

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May 27th, 2019, 9:04 am
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Joined: March 24th, 2009, 9:18 pm
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Location: 15340 Mourjou France
Post Re: Ride Height Adjustment
The eye ends are all the same.

But ..... ummmm .... it has just occurred to me that I might have discovered a previously unknown scientific fact: that grease is not very compressible.

It's possible (and I can't remember) that in order to keep my hands a bit cleaner, I put a generous quantity of grease into the threaded hole in the eye end, rather than all over the rod itself. Others will know better than me, but is that hole blind? I mean, does it just have the opening at the end where the rod screws in, and no vent near the knife-edge?

If so, once the rod end pushes the grease down the hole, the rod will become progressively more difficult to turn.

I'll take it out and see what's inside it, and then try again.

This might not be immediately. The car is over my home-made pit, and the 5cm thick oak boards that cover it are a bit of a trial to remove, particularly when they have to be extracted from under the car. My reversing skills aren't up to putting the car over the pit when it's open.......

Thanks very much for all the suggestions, though. I'm sure I'll get to the bottom of it eventually!

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Dennis usually in the Cantal

1964 HY 72 (Type H, campervan) - LHD
1969 AZU 250 (formerly French Post Office van) - LHD
1982 Red Special - RHD
1983 Burgundy/Black Charleston - RHD
2017 Skoda Octavia Estate 1.4 DSG - LHD


May 27th, 2019, 5:04 pm
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