C3 Corvette Forum - TRWspring, Bilstein shock, Dragvette strut install

Reply #15 - Feb 12^th, 2006 at 4:09am

captainmorgan Offline
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Great job Jack. I will be doing this soon. Thanks for the detailed information. This is going to help when I do mine.

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Reply #16 - Feb 12^th, 2006 at 8:41am

yellowjacket Offline
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Quote:

Great job Jack. I will be doing this soon. Thanks for the detailed information. This is going to help when I do mine.

Thanks! Bear in mind that in addition to what I did, since you have the rear exhaust and tire cover... the exhaust will have to be dropped and tire tire cover and tire removed.

I have the sidepipes and my tire cover assembly has been long removed...

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Reply #17 - Feb 12^th, 2006 at 8:43am

yellowjacket Offline
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Quote:

Great job Jack. I will be doing this soon. Thanks for the detailed information. This is going to help when I do mine.

Thanks! Bear in mind that in addition to what I did, since you have the rear exhaust and tire cover... the exhaust will have to be dropped and tire tire cover and tire removed.

I have the sidepipes and my tire cover assembly has been long removed...

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Reply #18 - Feb 12^th, 2006 at 9:35am

yellowjacket Offline
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The TRW spring came with a longer than stock bolts @ 9" while Dragvette came with the 10" ones.

Boy was I wrong. When I measured the two bolts, the stock one was 7", TRW was 7-1/2" and Dragvette was 8". No good.... I'm still at least 2" too high (4.5" from fender-lip to top-tire). I'm going down to get a 10" bolt and I have to do it all over again. Angry

I will drive it around a bit and see if it settles some first.

[img]

I went to four hardware stores and NAPA warehouse and none of them has any grade 8 bolts longer than 6" Shocked

Tacoma Screws warehouse was closed this weekend, so I have to wait until Monday. I'm hoping they have one. If not, anybody know online where I can get one?

Alan, where did you get yours?

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Reply #19 - Feb 12^th, 2006 at 10:06am

68-73 Offline
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That's probably going to be hard to find. I have a place called Lilly Fastners down the street from my shop( that's where I got mine) if they don't have it ...then it's not made. If you can't find the bolt let me know & I'll go down & pick up 2 for you. I went with a bigger bolt I think it was a 1/2 or 5/8 X 10". Just let me know what you want. By the way we just got over 12" of snow. Took over 2 hours to clean the cars off,snow blow & shovel. :sweatdrop: Can't wait for spring I'm getting to old for this.
Alan :cheers:
Here's there web sitehttp://www.kglilly.com/

« Last Edit: Feb 12^th, 2006 at 10:09am by 68-73 »

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Reply #20 - Feb 12^th, 2006 at 10:28am

Maximus79 Offline
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If I was on a job at an opil refinery right now,i could probly get some of those bolts.They have everything in stock,either in one of the workshops or their warehouse.I occasionally had shipping/recieving duties,& I'm a pipefitter.

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Reply #21 - Feb 12^th, 2006 at 12:12pm

Fly-n-C3 Offline
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Wyoming

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Nice job Jack :thumbsup:... Give the new rear spring time to settle before changing your spring bolts... This may take a few days or a week for it to settle...

Now you can come over and do mine Grin

[center]Chris / Fly-n-C3 - 1977 Corvette L-82 / 4spd &&&&&&

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Reply #22 - Feb 12^th, 2006 at 6:29pm

yellowjacket Offline
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Nice job Jack :thumbsup:... Give the new rear spring time to settle before changing your spring bolts... This may take a few days or a week for it to settle...

Now you can come over and do mine Grin

I drove it Friday, yesterday and today... still too high as you can see by these two pixs:

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Reply #23 - Feb 12^th, 2006 at 8:28pm

406shark Ex Member

Jack,

Just a couple of things...

I believe the C4 Vettes used a 10" bolt stock. Now to the possible bad news...you will find that the 10" bolts hang below your wheels. If you have a tire go down the car will high center on the too long bolt and could cause all kinds of problems.

If you were running 17 or 18" wheels you would have no problem, but the 15" wheels won't allow the clearance. If you want to double check it just measure where the 8" bolts come down...then add another 2" and you will see what I'm talking about.

Some people have done it, but it can cause serious problems if you have a flat.

Just thought you should be made aware of possible problems.

Good luck,
Jeff :burnout:

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Reply #24 - Feb 12^th, 2006 at 9:51pm

yellowjacket Offline
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Tacoma, WA

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Quote:

Jack,

Just a couple of things...

I believe the C4 Vettes used a 10" bolt stock. Now to the possible bad news...you will find that the 10" bolts hang below your wheels. If you have a tire go down the car will high center on the too long bolt and could cause all kinds of problems.

If you were running 17 or 18" wheels you would have no problem, but the 15" wheels won't allow the clearance. If you want to double check it just measure where the 8" bolts come down...then add another 2" and you will see what I'm talking about.

Some people have done it, but it can cause serious problems if you have a flat.

Just thought you should be made aware of possible problems.

Good luck,
Jeff :burnout:

Wow! That's scary! Thanks for the tips. I guess I should have gotten the 60 series instead of the 50 series.

Hey Alan, your running 10" bolts... what tires and wheel size are you running? What clearance do you have?

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Reply #25 - Feb 13^th, 2006 at 4:04am

68-73 Offline
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Newark,Delaware

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I'm running 8" bolts & the bolt is about 1/2" below the wheel (15"X8"). I did have a flat about 1 yr ago (truck rubber got caught on my rim & broke the valve stem)talk about luck. The bolt never hit because the flat tire gave me enough clearance, probably an inch or 2. I'll shoot a picture & send it to Jack later. So I would have to say you still have about 1" to play with, but its been a few years since I did my rear suspension, I did buy 10" bolts & they were to long...so went to 8". 10" would probably work with 18" tires. Sorry about the confusion ..next time I'll measure before I open my big mouth.
Alan

« Last Edit: Feb 13^th, 2006 at 7:36am by 68-73 »

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Reply #26 - Feb 13^th, 2006 at 11:17am

captainmorgan Offline
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Minnesota

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If you decide you need the 10" bolts, Vette Brakes and Products has them.

http://www.vbandp.com/detail.aspx?ID=443

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Reply #27 - Feb 13^th, 2006 at 12:02pm

yellowjacket Offline
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If you decide you need the 10" bolts, Vette Brakes and Products has them.

http://www.vbandp.com/detail.aspx?ID=443

Like 406shark said, these were for a C4:

Corvette Parts > C4 84 Only > Suspension > Springs > 10" Spring Bolts and Nuts Only

Like the pixs show (thanks 406shark for brining this to my attention) if I go with 10" bolts, It's gonna hang "below" the tire.
Alans setup

It looks like I'm gonna have to either go with a 17" wheel or 60 series tire to solve the problem. When I went from the 60 to 50 series, it was a 2" difference. Sheesh Embarrassed

and I just bought these drag radials too.

I may try to find a 9" bolt and see if that helps first. I can probably find this size at a truck warehouse or bolt warehouse around here.

I've GOT to get it 2 " lower somehow.
:annouce:

Any :idea: on solving my problem guys?

Here's mine. The red arrow shows the bolt end's right AT the bottom rim.

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Reply #28 - Feb 13^th, 2006 at 12:11pm

Old School Ex Member

Quote:

I've GOT to get it 2 " lower somehow.
:annouce:

Any :idea: on solving my problem guys?

If you need a nine inch (or eight and 1/2, etc) bolt, buy a ten inch bolt and cut it. Nothing more than a hack saw and a good eye to do this. It can help to put a nut on first, cut the bolt, and then back the nut off to help "clean" the threads.

Chuck

P.S. I really like the raked look! I'm not sure I'd fix that stance if it was my Vette.

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Reply #29 - Feb 14^th, 2006 at 9:35am

yellowjacket Offline
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Tacoma, WA

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Quote:

If you need a nine inch (or eight and 1/2, etc) bolt, buy a ten inch bolt and cut it. Nothing more than a hack saw and a good eye to do this. It can help to put a nut on first, cut the bolt, and then back the nut off to help "clean" the threads.
Chuck
P.S. I really like the raked look! I'm not sure I'd fix that stance if it was my Vette.

Chuck... as usual, thanks for your great input. I think I'm gonna try your idea. I think I can safely go with 9".
I like the "raked" look too, but I DON'T like that 4.5" gap between the tire and fender lip. :nonod:
However, it should still have a raked look when done... :yesnod:

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