I am replaing the original leaf spring on my 1980 with a fiberglass spring. I need to know how to set the height of the rear end. Where to measure from and how high. Also, has anyone set the rear end lower than spec. What was the result? Thanks!

|UPDATED|11/14/2004 7:07:22 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

The AIM manual has the procedure with a diagram. Wish I could help further, but my AIM is not the same year as your car. I've heard of a lot of guys having problems with the rear sitting too high with certain TRW springs. I didn't have any problems when I did mine. Getting it to sit lower then stock may require longer T-arm to spring bolts. You also have to be careful with longer bolts as the spring gets really close to the sidewalls of the tires.

I changed mine out last winter with a VBP 330lb and could not be happier. Much better ride than the steel. It comes with a longer bolt to allow full adjustment of ride height to your preference. I had mine off this weekend to access the strut bracket, and after replacement I have mine set at LF 28.125", RF 28.375, LR 28.0, RR 28.375 from the ground to the outside center bottom edge of the wheel well (car body edge). Ride height looks good. I may still adjust the RR down a little. As already noted be careful with the bolt length and postion. I had a replacement steel I tried before the fiberglass spring that must of had an arch problem cause it came real close to the tire and was slightly below the rim edge. When I would jack the car up the spring would rub on the tire as the tire kicked inward. I worried about it on every cruise and hard corner. Changed to the VBP fiberglass after a couple months and now my spring is easily within the rim radius and lines up correctly with no clearance issues.

Thanks. I'm sitting at 27 1/2 and 28. 28 sounds like a good number.