How to raise / lower the front an rear suspension

[topnotch]

Hope this is helpful to people who want to raise or lower their type 3`s

i was bit fed up of always hitting my beam, framehead etc on hidden dips in the road, so i decided to raise the car all round, front and back today.

thought it`d be useful to take some pictures as i went along so people could see how to it

anway here goes -

for the rear -

first thing to do is jack the car up and support it under the torsion bars. once done, with the wheel off, i removed the cover plate on the end of the torsion bar so you can see the outer splines -



i then marked the top of the spring plate with a centre punch so i could see where to line it up again - here i `ve put 2 punch marks -



i then disconnected the handbrake cables, just remove the nuts - i found i had to remove the handbrake lever to let the cables pull back through the tunnel -



this is where the cable comes out - just pull the outer sleeve of the chassis -


then removed the lower bolt for the shock mount -



3 19mm bolts holding the spring plate to the rear axle removed - i needed quite a large breaker bar to get these free -



i then supported the spring plate with a jack and move it upwards so it just clears the step it sits on - a scissor jack here only because my trolley jack is broken -



once this is done, remove the torsion bar cover to reveal the rubber bush -


i then pulled the rear axle free of the spring plate and up above it - i supported it with some wire tied to the rear bumper mount -



next i , i used my `lowering stick` - basically, its from a stairwell and has a hooked end which i can get round the spring plate -



if the car hasn`t been adjusted before, these can be a nightmare to get free sometimes, but it just takes a massive lever of some sort usually!

once its clear of the step, let the jack down slowly to release the plate - keep fingers well out of the way here as sometimes it can spring down with force. at this pint, once its down and not stressed, mark where it is positioned!

here it is after i`ve dropped the plate down, then levered it off the inner splines. the plate did start to come off the outer splines which i didn`t want in this case (i`d turned the oppostie side on the inner splines already). if this is what happens, just hammer the spring plate back on to the torsion bar. once it is not under stress, you should be able to pull it back off the inner splines (hopefully!)



you can raise the plate up to lower the car or pull it down a spline (or 2) to raise the car.

once, you`ve got it where you want, make sure the rubber bush on the inside of the torsion housing is positioned correctly otherwise you`ll struggle to get the plate seated back in.

at this point i always struggle to bolt the torsion bar cover back into place - the bolts never line up with the holes once i have plate raise back into place. i found the best way to get it in place is to fit the cover and get the bolts started before i raise the plate into postion. this way you can raise it into place just above the step, then pull the plate into the housing by tightening the cover down

toget the spring plate started back into the housing i found it helpfult ot give it a wack with the lowering stick -



once its all back in place, torque up the various bolts - job done!

[topnotch]

ok, to raise or lower the front -

in this case i adjusted the lower arm on the inner splines -

here is the suspension. to start with, i made some marks on the housing so i knew where i started from. i then removd the lower ball joint pinch bolt marked here -


here it is undone -



push the lower ball joint out of the lower arm - you`ll probably need a hammer and some sort of clamps maybe to compress the upper and lower arms together. i then pulled the hub clear of the lower arm.

to remove the lower arm of the inner splines i needed to remove the bolt on the opposite side of car - this screws into the end of the torsion bar. by undoing this halfway and tapping it with the hammer, this pushes the bar out of the housing. you can then remov the botl completely and lever the arm out using a large bar of some sort



here it is pulled free from the splines -



then either move the arm down to raise the car up up to lower it and push it back onto the splines. you can refit all the bolts and torque them up

front done

hope thats helpful to people,

cheers,
mike

[Editor]

Handy info Mike. There often seem people wanting to do this - or reverse someone else's efforts.
Standard height for me! (well, maybe a bit sagged with time).