I've got a problem with the car sagging on one side

[weldvair]

First drive...I did not make it out of the yard. The tire hit the left front fender when turning right to back it out of the garage , also I noticed that the left side of the car is lower than the right.

After 15 months of working every day restoring it & about $8,000 I am about ready to cry.

I could tell when I bought the car that it was hit in the rear.....it also looks like the car has been lowered. The front
beam has a bolt in the center of it, which I assume is to adjust the torsion bars.

I guess the first thing to do is to try to raise the front up.

help would be greatly appreciated.

Don

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Could you post a picture please? Assuming you have "adjusters" there are two types of beam adjusters and it might be good to see which style you have.

Lee

[weldvair]

Here is a the only picture I have..hope this helps.

Don

[Marc]

You may have some broken leaves in the front torsion bar stack(s), but if the car was hit in the rear there's a good chance that a diagonal arm was bent and when they replaced it they screwed up the rear torsion bar setting....or maybe there's still a bent one on there
Support either the rear or the front on jackstands so it's level and see if the other end is still sagging.

See the attached .pdf for the instructions for Sway-a-Way adjusters (it covers both BJ & K&L style, disregard the K&L parts). Adjustment procedure/pictures/torque specs are at the bottom.

When you did the bodywork, you DID leave the rear torsion bar access covers removable, right? In the last pics I saw it looked like you did.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Don, an easy check of things is to jack your Ghia up and level it out but don't rely on the front framehead to do the leveling as it could be part of the problem. To check the front of the car take some measurements at each end of the beam to the ground to see if things are level.

If you have a broken leaf in a spring pack I don't know if checking the droop on the two lower trailing arms is going to help when jacked up but sitting on all 4 wheels rechecking the two ends of the beam might tell you something/give you an idea of what is going on.

Lee

[weldvair]

Thanks.....there are adjustments on both beams. I'll level the body it out tomorrow & try to see what the problem is.
I'm still not sure how to adjust the beams.

Don

[Marc]

It's really pretty simple. Jack the front end up so the suspension's unladen first. You have to loosen the nut that's clamping down the "Curve Adjuster Block" (#3) so it's free to slide along the outside of the beam tube, then loosen the other jam nut so you can crank in on the adjusting bolt ("Socket set screw, #2A") to push the block up, which rotates the anchor point for the spring stack inside the beam to raise the ride height. Snug down the jam nuts, drop the car to the ground to see if it's where you want it; when satisfied, torque both jam nuts to 55 lb-ft.
Generally speaking you should strive to end up with both stacks at approximately the same angle. On a stock beam, they're displaced slightly (9°) which is intended to preload one stack against the other a little bit.
http://oacdp.org/wog72/026_v.png

Note that there is the potential for slightly changing the camber, should the adjuster blocks shift laterally while they aren't clamped down - not a bad idea to scribe lines along their sides (or hit 'em with a spritz of contrasting spray-paint) before you loosen the first jam nut so you'll have witness marks.

[weldvair]

my beams are not adjustable & the left side of the KG is 1" lower than the right side as measured from the bottom side
of the fender.

Don

[Marc]

As mentioned above, you need to isolate the problem to the front or rear. If it's the front, most likely cause is some broken spring leaves. The full-width ones are also responsible for retaining the control arms, so the situation must be addressed immediately.

How is it that the beam isn't adjustable? It appears to have a pair of Sway-a-Way adjusters installed...have they been welded up solid or something? Or do you just mean that they were installed for maximum "drop" and are already as high as they'll go?

Simplest/quickest way to make this roadworthy would be to locate a good complete beam and slap it on there. Bug & `Ghia are identical from balljoint-to-balljoint. The `Ghia steering box position is "rolled back" slightly to align with the more-horizontal column, but that's done simply by reversing the clamp half. Note that tierod-end stud size was increased in mid`68, so for maximum interchangeability (and strength) you should avoid the earlier assemblies.

[weldvair]

my car does not have adjustable beams(I'll take more pictures)...looks like I have to buy wheels with more back spacing, weld fender flairs on it or
buy shocks that have helper springs......any other suggestions?

Don

[Ol'fogasaurus]

First, from the picture you posted the hole in the frame head bothers me a bit. It may be OK but why the square hole?



Since so many of my photos are missing from Photo bucket I went out and took this pix this am. This is the underside of a bug pan that has been slightly modified to strengthen the outside body mounting tunnel for a glass buggy. If you notice the frame head is made up of a bunch of component pieces which are spot welded together then spot welded to the tunnel and pan halves. You need to verify visibly as well as measuring that it is square to the pan. That is why you need to get all four wheels off the ground and take some measurements. Measuring from the bottom of the fender with the car sitting on the ground isn't going to give you as much information as you need but it is a starting point to where your problem is. A l lot of work but...

You've already verified that the front fender sits lower on one side so while the car is still on the ground of measuring the distance of the two ends of the front beam to the ground to see if the beam itself is sitting square or not (remember that the front suspension itself could be bent as well as a broken leaf or more in the spring pack could have been broken). Since I think (too lazy to go back and look) that you detected a rear and collision; you need to check that end of your Ghia out also. If you get identical or close to identical measurements in the front measurements and the rear checks out good too then you most likely have other problems. When you level out the Ghia you have to do it both front and rear. If you don't have stands... now is the time.

Notice that there are flat places on the pan that you can take a straight edge to to see if there is any twisting or sagging of the pan fore and aft. In the front, where the frame head joins (look for the two slots per side. They are the two body bolts ) you can check that as well as in the rear.

Once you have the car sitting square to the ground then re-measure the front beam to the floor and the same for the rear. Then you can double check the fenders to see if anything changes there.



This is an "in process" picture of adding a Sway-a-way style of adjuster to a BJ beam. Notice the upper block that Marc was talking about.

Lee

[weldvair]

Thanks Lee...I appreciate your comments. I am 77 yrs old & can no longer get down to measure. I will get some help & send the measurements.

Thanks to every one again

Don

[Marc]

First, from the picture you posted the hole in the frame head bothers me a bit. It may be OK but why the square hole?...Lee

Déjà vu
That hole was a subject of discussion some time ago...best justification for it that I could come up with was to gain access to a "spinning" nut for one of the shiftrod access-cover bolts. We talked about adjusters in that thread as well.
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=145824

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Now that you mention it... it does sound familiar. You sure have a good memory Marc while mine is going bye-bye.

Not quite as old as Veldvair but trying to catch up as fast as I can.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Marc, do you think it could be so simpleii as when it got rear ended that they had to replace some of the rear suspension and the preload didn't get set right?

Lee