Ridetech coil overs how to adjust ride higher?

[oakhill510]

I have a set of ridetech coil overs in my 69 Camaro. I am using some ebay tubes control arms. That being said, I can't get y coil overs to go any higher. It reached a point where it just spins and doesn't move up anymore. I talked to Ridetech and told them my application which is 69 Camaro with a 5.3 motor. And after doing the measurements and what nots, I have the correct coil overs. Any ideas?

[Schwartz Performance]

When you say it just spins and doesn't go any higher.... Do you mean that the collar does thread up, but it just compresses the spring & doesn't raise the car up?

If the geometry or mounting point of the shock is different than ridetech then it will change things...
If the lower shock mount is further inboard than ridetechs, the spring rate they spec will be different than your needs.

-Dale

[dhutton]

It’s not going any higher because the shock is fully extended. Those control arms likely have a two inch drop built into them and your shocks are too short.

Remove the coilovers and set the car at ride height using a jack. Measure the length of the needed coilover at ride height and go from there. The measured length should be the length of the needed shock when centered in its travel. For example, if you measure 12 inches then your coilover shock length needs to be 14 inches extended and 10 inches compressed assuming a shock with four inches of travel.

Another option would be to get some lower control arms without two inches of drop built into them. Ridetech for example.

Don

[stab6902]

I agree 100% with Don. Your most economical fix is to get non-drop lower control arms. I've heard of people getting away with using stock type control arms with coil-overs, but they weren't designed to carry the weight of the car on the shock mount. Getting the matching Ridetech lowers would be the easiest.

Obviously don't drive the car with the shocks "topped out" like that... it'll ride horrible, be unsafe, and probably damage your nice expensive coil-overs. You want at least 2" of available extension travel at the wheel. More is better.

[oakhill510]

Good morning everyone,

I heard everyone replies. Noted on control arms could have a 2" drop. As for measuring the car height without the coils over in them, I did that with Ridetech already. I have the correct coil overs. Of course, there could be a human error and I could have the wrong one or need stronger springs.

By keep spinning, it doesn't compress the spring anymore. Like its not catching anymore threads. I don't think I stripped the coil's threads.

It seem like I topped out but as you can see in the pic, I still have a lot more threads left to go.

[dontlifttoshift]

Is the bump stop on the upper control arm hitting the frame?

Step 1 Place floor jack under crossmember and jack up the car. Does the suspension move or do the tires lift off the ground?

Step 2 to support step one. What is the current height of the shocks as pictured? What is the extended length of your shocks?

[dhutton]

Good morning everyone,

I heard everyone replies. Noted on control arms could have a 2" drop. As for measuring the car height without the coils over in them, I did that with Ridetech already. I have the correct coil overs. Of course, there could be a human error and I could have the wrong one or need stronger springs.

By keep spinning, it doesn't compress the spring anymore. Like its not catching anymore threads. I don't think I stripped the coil's threads.

It seem like I topped out but as you can see in the pic, I still have a lot more threads left to go.

Did you measure the car height at ride height or did you measure the coilover length at ride height. Huge difference... Did you tell Ridetech your lower control arms have a built in two inch drop?

Almost positive your shock is fully extended. If you are cranking on the coil adjuster and the height isn’t increasing then the shock is usually fully extended.

Don

[SSLance]

Almost positive your shock is fully extended. If you are cranking on the coil adjuster and the height isn’t increasing then the shock is usually fully extended.



Has to be right? And now I'm concerned the threads on the shock body are stripped where the collar was turning but not moving...

[Steve Chryssos]

It sounds like you have already confirmed suspension travel -- Extended, ride height and compressed. If that's the case, I would not be overly concerned with adjusting springs until the car is finished. That way, full weight is applied to each corner. That would be approximately 900-1000 pounds per front corner including glass, body work, radiator, interior -- everything. We also strongly recommend against using ebay A-arms. A-arms are safety critical components. Same is true for ball joints.

With that said, we will be able to help dial-in the correct rate and length springs once the car is together. We can even help fine tune the installed length of the coilover itself as well as spring caps (flat s deep). Good article on all of that here. https://www.ridetech.com/info/customizing-coilovers-with-the-right-combination-of-parts/
Thanks,
Steve

[dhutton]

I can understand waiting for build completion when a car sits too high but when it is sitting too low it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me....

Don

[dhutton]

By keep spinning, it doesn't compress the spring anymore. Like its not catching anymore threads. I don't think I stripped the coil's threads.

This statement strikes me as odd. If the spring is supporting the weight of the car it won’t compress any further as you turn the adjuster. The top of the spring will move up, increasing the ride height of the car until the shock is fully extended, at which time the spring will start to compress again....

Maybe you should crank on the adjuster a little more to see if the ride height increases.

Don

[oakhill510]

Alright guys,

It hit me last night why my car is so low, the front wheels are small lol. They are 15" wheels with the control arms 2" drop. I believe my ridetech spindle are 2" drop as well. Does that means a total of 4" drop???

Anyways, I had put on my rear 19" wheels in the front and it raised my car by 2" or so. The pavement is a little uneven. I havent bought the wheels for the fronts yet but they are going to be 18".

Thats good news so far for me so far. Now my crossover tube has a little more clearance from the ground. This still doesn't explain why I can't adjust my coils higher unless it really top out.

[Josh@Ridetech]

Like a few people are suggesting on here, we need to make sure you have the correct shocks and springs for your car with the control arm configuration being used. We need to figure out what ride height you're shooting for (jack the car up to the driving height you want and measure from the center of the T-bar up to the hole in the subframe). Next, we need to figure out if the shock/spring combination you have on those control arms will get you what you're wanting.

With the shocks fully extended, what do they measure from the center of the trunnion mount up to between the delrin ball halves?

Also, go to this link and grab the measurements we're looking for on Step 2.

https://www.ridetech.com/info/tech/spring-rate-calculator/

You can post the measurements on here if you want and I'll help get everything sorted out. Let me know if you need any help!

[oakhill510]

Hey Josh,

I believe it was you who helped me out with choosing the correct coil and shock for my car. I had contacted you via email about installing the ridetech coil overs with ebay tube arms and your reply was that it might sit too high and that I might need universal coils overs.

In order for you to get me the right universal coil overs, you needed measurements and sent me the link to the measurements.

After I gave you my measurements, it turned out that the coils overs I have are the right ones and that I didn't need the universal ones. What I did needed was a T-Bar to mount the the coils over onto the ebay tube arms.

We last spoken via email in July 2019.

[dhutton]

Alright guys,

It hit me last night why my car is so low, the front wheels are small lol. They are 15" wheels with the control arms 2" drop. I believe my ridetech spindle are 2" drop as well. Does that means a total of 4" drop???

Anyways, I had put on my rear 19" wheels in the front and it raised my car by 2" or so. The pavement is a little uneven. I havent bought the wheels for the fronts yet but they are going to be 18".

Thats good news so far for me so far. Now my crossover tube has a little more clearance from the ground. This still doesn't explain why I can't adjust my coils higher unless it really top out.

What wheels, control arms, and spindles were on the car when you measured for the coilovers?

Generally 18” tires have a lower side wall than 15 inch tires so I would not expect much change. If your 19’s raised the car 2” that means they are 4” taller which is a lot....

Don

[oakhill510]

Good morning,

I didn't have any wheels on when I did the measurements. Just had it on jack stands and had everything squared and straight. The spindles I had on was ridetech tall spindle for 69 Camaro.

[dhutton]

Good morning,

I didn't have any wheels on when I did the measurements. Just had it on jack stands and had everything squared and straight. The spindles I had on was ridetech tall spindle for 69 Camaro.

Which lower control arms? If it was the factory arms your coilovers are most likely two inches too short....

Don

[oakhill510]

Its an ebay tublar arms.

[Josh@Ridetech]

Hey Josh,

I believe it was you who helped me out with choosing the correct coil and shock for my car. I had contacted you via email about installing the ridetech coil overs with ebay tube arms and your reply was that it might sit too high and that I might need universal coils overs.

In order for you to get me the right universal coil overs, you needed measurements and sent me the link to the measurements.

After I gave you my measurements, it turned out that the coils overs I have are the right ones and that I didn't need the universal ones. What I did needed was a T-Bar to mount the the coils over onto the ebay tube arms.

We last spoken via email in July 2019.


Ok, good deal (sorry, too many days since we talked then :)). That makes me question if we're on the same page when we're talking about measuring the ride height.

The only thing that makes sense to me is that you're topping the shocks out now when you're trying to compress the spring (the shock can't physically get any longer). With the car at driving height, what does the shock measure from t-bar to the hole in the subframe? After that, jack the front end up and let everything hang freely. Does the shock dimension change? PM me your email address, I'd like to pull up that conversation just to refresh everything we talked about.

***edit - I just searched my email with your name on here hoping it would pull something up...and it did. Now, I've got all the info and notes I made so no worries!

Looking back at the invoice, the dealer who originally placed the order for the shocks did buy them for the Ridetech tubular control arms. From the notes I still have on your account, we verified that you still needed a 12.75" driving height on the shock, which is exactly what the shock we use is, so we left that as is. The only thing that you still needed was a t-bar to mount on a factory style lower mount, so we got those ordered up. I'm thinking those ride height measurements we took before might not be what you needed to accomplish what you're trying to hit now.

Trying taking those measurements mentioned above and let me know what happens.

[oakhill510]

I'm glad you found records of our emails. When you say at "driving height", is that the height I want the car to be at? In order for me to get to the height I want it to be at, I am going to have to jack up the car or, wait until I order the 18" fronts. It's going to be awhile before I order the front wheels. I am using the money to narrow the rear end as my next task.

But yeah, If I jack up the car to the height I want to be at, will the measurement be accurate? Or should I wait until I have the 18" wheels installed?

Also, I can get you measurements with the 15" wheels I have on now and get you the measurements when the car is jacked up. Let me know. Thanks for helping me. I know its an headache on your side since the coil overs wasn't made to be installed with the ebay arms.

[Josh@Ridetech]

I'm glad you found records of our emails. When you say at "driving height", is that the height I want the car to be at? In order for me to get to the height I want it to be at, I am going to have to jack up the car or, wait until I order the 18" fronts. It's going to be awhile before I order the front wheels. I am using the money to narrow the rear end as my next task.

But yeah, If I jack up the car to the height I want to be at, will the measurement be accurate? Or should I wait until I have the 18" wheels installed?

Also, I can get you measurements with the 15" wheels I have on now and get you the measurements when the car is jacked up. Let me know. Thanks for helping me. I know its an headache on your side since the coil overs wasn't made to be installed with the ebay arms.

No problem at all!

Correct, the driving height you're needing it to be at.

The best thing to do would be to get the wheels and tires on the car that you're going to end up with and then measure the driving height on the shocks. Either that, or put something on the car that will have the same overall diameter you're going to end up with, see if everything is sitting how you want it to, and then measure the shock height.

[dhutton]

Wheel diameter is irrelevant. It’s tire diameter that matters. Research and compare the 15 and 18 tire diameters. Then make the adjustment.

Don

[Josh@Ridetech]

Wheel diameter is irrelevant. It’s tire diameter that matters. Research and compare the 15 and 18 tire diameters. Then make the adjustment.

Don

Correct, overall tire diameter.

[Peter Mc Mahon]

But what about the spring won’t adjust anymore? Is the shock body stripped?

[dhutton]

But what about the spring won’t adjust anymore? Is the shock body stripped?

99.9% sure it is not stripped.

Don

[Josh@Ridetech]

99.9% sure it is not stripped.

Don

Agreed. It's probably compressing the spring more, he's just not realizing it because the ride height isn't changing.

[David Pozzi]

Do not loosen the spring adjuster clamping Allen screw too far. If you release it too far and apply too much pressure, it will slip over the threads. If it does this, do not tighten the Allen screw unless you are absolutely sure the threads are engaged properly. You don't want to damage the threads!

Always jack up the car to adjust the spring height.

[oakhill510]

Hey Josh,

Still need your help here brother. I know you're busy with other stuff as well.

[Sbeck09]

One way to cheat the shock to be longer would be to buy the extended upper mount Ridetech sells. Otherwise this sounds like you'll need a new set of longer shocks from them. At this point you are just adding preload to the spring when you turn the collar, but only making it handle harsher without adding height. Plus having the shock constantly slam up like that will cause premature wear.

[Josh@Ridetech]

Hey Josh,

Still need your help here brother. I know you're busy with other stuff as well.

Were you able to get any of the dimensions I mentioned above?

[oakhill510]

Oh man, I don't know what happen. Until I sent in the last message about still needing help, I didn't even see all these responses from you and other guys. My apologies.

I understood everything you said in your last message. I'll wait until I get the front wheels and tire on so I can know where I want my height to be. Thank you all for all the replies. Appreciate it very much.