Ride Height Measurement Points

[Rick Iverson]

Gents;

RF95. Precisely where to measure from, please.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Gents;

RF95. Precisely where to measure from, please.

If I recall correctly.

Front - skid plate between the crush box and frame.
Rear - skid plate under flywheel/rearmost of frame.

[S Lathrop]

As I got older, crawling under the car to measure anything was a PIA. And getting an accurate measurement of a gap between the ground and some part on the bottom of the car can be a struggle as well.

I suggest that you set the car on some blocks that are close to the ride height you want. Then pick another point on the chassis that you can measure easily and accurately. On the Citations, I measure the rear ride height from the top of the transmission case and the front from the top of the mounting blocks for the steering rack.

To improve the accuracy, I have made a stand that I can set on the ground and position so I can use a caliper to measure the distance from the top of the stand to the top of the steering rack mount and transmission. This makes measuring ride height easy, fast and accurate.

In tuning a car, I find that the rear ride height is the most critical adjustment I play with and being able to measure is accurately and quickly is super important.

[EYERACE]

Someone in here long ago suggested getting an old drafting divider and bending the tips backwards and around so they protruded outwards instead of straight to use a your measuring tool for height.......oh.....and you'll need a ruler then too of course....duh

[BeerBudgetRacing]

I used these to help on the 95.
https://www.harborfreight.com/6-piec...-set-5649.html

The later cars use a pickup point - so much nicer!

[Rick Kirchner]

Years ago I bought a Reset ride ht gauge from Pete West. This thing is the bomb - basically a dial indicator with a lever that's long enough to reach to the center of the car. the lever ratio is set so that the gauge reads ride ht directly, and it has a little stainless steel ball on the end as a "finder".

Reset no longer makes the things. I suppose I ought to reverse engineer it so that it can be made with a combo of 3d printed parts and standard aluminum shapes you can buy.

The only thing you have to keep in mind is that it reads to .005, so it's easy to drive yourself crazy. Close enough is close enough....