TheSamba.com :: View topic

Fri Mar 30, 2007 2:22 am

this isnt the typical lowering question that everyone get pissed about:

the previous owner dropped the front. he put it too low for me i dont like dragging on the ground and i'd like to be able to put more than 4 gallons of gas in at a time. problem is i dont know if he lowered it with the inner or outer splines and how many clicks he did.
would it cause problems he dropped it say 3 outer and i tried raising it 2 or 3 on the inner? this is the first time i've lowerer or raised anything so i dont know exactly what is normal or not (like distance between upper and lower ball joints while seperated, difficulty of putting balljoints back on, etc.) would there be a way to tell which splines he used? i cant find markings for stock height and i doubt he would have done it anyways. i mean, electrical is like a rats nest (and half doesnt work right now), random crap was swapped or used misc screws, the front tires arent even similar tread pattern let alone size. any, fast and reliable help would be greatly appreciated.

Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:53 am

Use the Type 3 FAQ for raising/lowering instructions.

Fri Mar 30, 2007 10:35 am

Inner splines are safer (less chance of stripping) to do in the front.

If your car is level side to side then just go up equal notches right and left either inner or outer.

At stock height and on 4 jack stands level, the lower torsion arm angles down pretty far, about 39 degrees according to Bentley.

Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:06 pm

You didn't mention what year your car is, but for up to 69, you can measure to the center of the headlights, and see how close or far you are to 28.2 inches. Or you can measure the top of the bumper to ground and see if you're close to 15.5 inches. If you want to check the rear (to see if it's been lowered too), you're looking for 27.8 inches from the ground. To properly test for these numbers, you'll have to add 450 lbs (load including the driver). I got these numbers from Dave Hall ( [email protected]) back in Dec.2002, in case anyone's wondering where they came from. At least this will give you an idea of how many inches he dropped it, and you can let us know, so we can give you a rough idea of how many splines to go back up. I hope this helps.

Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:19 am

or you could post some pictures and we'll eyeball it for you...