The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Now frontend is TO low

I cut the orginal frontend off my streetrod last winter. I installed a '84 'vette frontend from eBay with custom artillery wheels with standard offset. When it was all said and done in order to keep the tires from rubbing the fenders in a tight turn I had to mount 215 tires instead of the 235s I planned on. Now the front end is lower than I want. I would like to get it up 2" or so. A guy told me to put 3/4" pieces or teflon or nylon between the end of the monoleaf spring and the lowere a-arms. Does anyone know if this will work or have another way? Thanks

Most suspension kits that use Corvette stuff switch the front to coilovers. If yours is still the monoleaf the standard way to raise and lower the front of a Corvette is to change the links between the monoleaf and the arms. A lowering kit for the front of a C4 Corvette costs like $20 new.

I'm not sure the way you describe will raise the truck, but if you study that suspension changing those links is the way to make small changes in height.

I am not familiar with the 84 vette front end with the mono leaf, but during the 60s I would turn a spacer, for each side of the rear leaf, out of aluminum for the rear of the corvette to raise the rear end. If the setup is similar, it should work the same.

Like Steve said, change the links, or go to coil overs.

I have tried and failed to get my 3/4" thick blocks between the lower A-arm and the monoleaf spring. I solved the problem of the jack sliding up the spring as it was being jacked up (wooden blocks, rubber strips, and c-clamp). The stopper came when after getting the spring about 1/4" off the A-arm pad, any additional up force on the jack caused the car to begain to rise off the jack stands. Other than putting a brace between the top of the frame rail and a rafter in the garage, I'm out of ideas.

Wrap a piece of chain under the jack, loop it over the frame and hook it into itself. That puts all the pressure between the jack and the frame, and gets the vehicle weight out of the picture. I've straightened frames that way.
Jerry

You'll have to solve that problem, probably using a jack and chain as suggested above, to get the distance you need, but this problem itself proves you can raise the ride inserting a block in the suspension.

Hotrod Lincoln. Thanks as that is something I had not thought of. But, I am using a bottle jack instead of the usual floor jack due to the size of the contact surface area. What about using a short length of I-beam by putting the I-beam on the floor then placing the jack to top. I could weld a couple of eyelets or plasma cut some holes for the chains.

Sounds like a plan- - - -just be sure and get everything aligned straight before you start putting any serious pressure on. Flying jacks and chains can get deadly in a hurry! There's nothing like watching a 20-ton bottle jack launch itself across the shop and punch a cinder block out of a wall to get everybody's attention! I've seen that happen during a frame straightening job at the family shop back in the 1950's!
Jerry

Uhhh??? Where did I put my "chicken plate" (flak jacket) from my old army days? Thanks.

SUCCESS! The nylon plates are now between the spring and the lower A-arm. I was not able to get the 3/4" pad into the gap so I end milled 1/4" off to make a total thickness of 1/2". Hotrod Lincoln was right.... there is a lot of engry being applied to everything as you are jacking the spring up. I was somewhat uncomfortable putting my hands into the middle of two chains pulled tighter than 'Dicks hatband'. I don't know what I've gained in ride heigth yet as I still have the car on jackstands. I pulled the rear springs to de-arch them 3". Thanks to everyone for the great help.

Always happy to hear that word!

Several years ago I was involved with autocross racing and used a big block corvette that I installed a monoleaf suspension kit into front and rear. Car was a 70 model so I removed the coils from the front. Long story short-- contact a company in Florida called VETTE BRAKES and talk to them. They built me a monoleaf to hold up the big block .Great people to work with.