My 67 rs has a bit of a problem. On the passenger side it leans down 1" lower than the driver side. It has new shocks, new springs and alignment. In reading other posts, some people claim these as the culprit or even body bushings. The catch is if I lift up on the car by the fender well (carefully), it becomes only 1/2 in lower after I release it then eventually drops to 1" after sitting some time. Anyone have any ideas? Can ball joints do this? How do I tell if they are bad and if it is the upper or lowers? Any help is appreciated out there.

Likely worn/broken leafs or coils and/or worn body mounts. Little else has anything to do with the height of the car assuming the unibody and subframe are ok.

For a 1969 chevelle, the factory chassis service manual tells you to bounce the car up and down to centralize the control arm bushings, then tighten the collar bolts to 45 ft lbs. If your floor isn't on the slippery side, put something like paper or whatever so the tires can like slide sideways when you bounce it up and down.

If this isn't a trailer queen you could go after all the bushings with some pbblaster, bounce it up and down then more pb, if this gets it almost there, then it's a pretty good bet that new greased bushings would take care of it.
But keep in mind I'm just guessing in this second paragraph. Good luck

Rob

I guess this is okay to mention that the chevelle forum brakes and suspension has a current post with about three pages on this, if this isn't good just delete it or tell me and I will

Rob

Likely causes:

1) Worn springs (and yes, weak springs in the FRONT can make the BACK look uneven - and vice versa).
2) Always "jounce" the car before checking height, particularly if you've had it jacked up and just lowered it.
3) The subframe could be torqued, so this may be difficult to fix. The cheap fix is to use adjustable shackles, raising one leaf higher than the other.
4) Ball joints will definitely NOT cause height problems, and neither will shock absorbers (actually, you can take the shocks completely out of the car while it sits on the ground and the height will not move...the idea that shocks affect ride height is an urban legend - except for air shocks of course).
5) Last idea is unevenly worn/installed body mount bushings. This is unlikely, but check it as a last resort.

As another note, you can make the process "data driven" by documenting height at 4 positions at the rocker molding. I did alignments and brakes for years, and the alignment manual says to check ride height at the rocker panel just behind the front wheels and just in front of the rear wheels. Use this as your starting point before making changes.

Good luck.

Dave

High pressure gas shocks could affect ride height - if one lost pressure. Not very likely though.

I replaced every possible part on my old RS/SS...and I still never solved the "Leaning" problem...In my case I think that either the subframe or the unibody itself was tweaked out.

My final solution worked....Air Shocks....I didn't want to do it....but I did and It solved the problem....after about $1,000 worth of new parts that I didn't need!

Note: I even tried rearching only one leaf spring (1.5") and It only helped by about a 1/2"....It still leaned over 3/4"


Dan

Guy's thanks for the tips. I do know the bushings are worn, but they appear worn evenly (not ready to tackle replacing those just yet). I will try spraying the bushings. If that's not it, maybe try the air shocks. Anyone ever used spring spacers? Are they worth the effort?