Harry:
As others have observed, worn out bushings can be the cause of
this.
My car had this symptom. New springs were of no help. The
solution lay in replacing the trailing arm bushings (4 of them) and, to
a lesser extent, moving the trailing arm brackets around to tweak the
camber. I would verify it is not the springs first, by swapping the
springs from left to right on the rear. You do not need a spring
compressor to remove the spring (see instructions below) so it is easy.
The rubber in the bushing turns to mush, and so the trailing
arms settle. The left side settles more because that is the side the
driver sits on (I think that is the cause, might also be engine
torque?).
The bushings are cheap and available from the big 3. To replace
them you will need a 2 jaw gear puller. Jack the car up, and support it
on jack stands. Remove the wheel. Unbolt the lower end of the shock
absorber link to allow the trailing arm to fully drop. You can then
remove the rear spring by hand. Unbolt the trailing arm brackets (2
bolts each) and then remove the bolts holding the trailing arm to the
brackets, and remove the brackets. Use the gear puller to press the old
bushings out of the trailing arm, and press the new bushing in. You can
also use suitably sized sockets and a long bolt from your junk drawer
instead of a gear puller, but the needed sockets are very large, so you
probably won't have the correct size.
Reattach the brackets, and reinstall the spring. Reattach the
lower shock link by using your jack to raise the trailing arm enough
permit the link to clear the trailing arm. Reinstall the wheel and lower
the car. Repeat on the other side. It takes about 4 hours to do the job
with hand tools.
Vance
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-6pack@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-6pack@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Harry Hart
Sent: July 27, 2005 12:09 PM
To: 6pack@autox.team.net
Subject: re:ride height
List,
The left rear of my 72 TR sits lower than the right side of the car. I
put
new springs on the car last year. I put the car up a lift last night and
did
not notice anything wrong. Is there a way to adjust the ride height?
Thanks
Harry
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