Ride Height

[mhyphenl 10 1 Cars]

Hi all,

 

I know ride height adjustment and rear beam issues are over covered on this forum but I have a couple of issues I can't seem to resolve or find info on.

 

1. When off the car i noticed that my mounting flanges are not level, ie the castings on the cross tube itself are not set so that the flanges sit exactly opposite each other so either one end or the other sits on the floor. Is this normal??

 

2. I assume that adjusting the ride height is restricted to spline adjustment only and can't be done any finer, I can't get the dimensions given in the haynes manual or the guide!

 

3. If you set the dimensions in haynes for the XU5, the only Gti listed, then the shocks don't reach their mounting holes when the trailing arms are left to dangle. Surely this isn't right, if the car is lucky enough to get air or is jacked up it puts alot of strain on the shocks at full stretch in this position!

 

I know these problems may have obvious answers but I want to make sure as this is the first set up I've done!

[pug_ham 244 3 Cars]

Hi all,

 

I know ride height adjustment and rear beam issues are over covered on this forum but I have a couple of issues I can't seem to resolve or find info on.

 

1. When off the car i noticed that my mounting flanges are not level, ie the castings on the cross tube itself are not set so that the flanges sit exactly opposite each other so either one end or the other sits on the floor. Is this normal??

 

2. I assume that adjusting the ride height is restricted to spline adjustment only and can't be done any finer, I can't get the dimensions given in the haynes manual or the guide!

 

3. If you set the dimensions in haynes for the XU5, the only Gti listed, then the shocks don't reach their mounting holes when the trailing arms are left to dangle. Surely this isn't right, if the car is lucky enough to get air or is jacked up it puts alot of strain on the shocks at full stretch in this position!

 

I know these problems may have obvious answers but I want to make sure as this is the first set up I've done!

I'm not quite sure how you mean on the first question. With the beam off the car & both front mounts resting on the floor (beam upside down) the rear arms should both also be touching the floor.

 

Adjusting the ride height can be done to almost an mm increment with both ends of the torsion bar free from the beam tube & radius arm by changing the distance between the shock mounting bolt centres.

 

The distance given in the Haynes manual (& on the website) is way to much, I've never tried to set a beam to that measurement because I've never stripped a standard beam with it. A better diamension for a standard height GTi is between 325 & 315mm imo.

 

Jrod asked a while ago in this topic where he was trying to find the correct measurement.

 

Graham.

[mhyphenl 10 1 Cars]

I'm not quite sure how you mean on the first question. With the beam off the car & both front mounts resting on the floor (beam upside down) the rear arms should both also be touching the floor.

 

Adjusting the ride height can be done to almost an mm increment with both ends of the torsion bar free from the beam tube & radius arm by changing the distance between the shock mounting bolt centres.

 

The distance given in the Haynes manual (& on the website) is way to much, I've never tried to set a beam to that measurement because I've never stripped a standard beam with it. A better diamension for a standard height GTi is between 325 & 315mm imo.

 

Jrod asked a while ago in this topic where he was trying to find the correct measurement.

 

Graham.

 

 

Thats the problem, its almost as though the castings on each end of the tube are twisted slightly in relation to each other so when the mounts are attached to those castings they don't lie flat, one side is about an inch off the floor.

Also i've just tried to fit the anti roll bar and the two ends won't line up properly, I have to push one trailing arm up with a jack to get the holes to line up. Can't work out how it could have all got twisted.