ALFAGTV6.COM

I lowered the torsion bars on the gtv6 today and it made an amazing diffrence in the handling and steering. Steering effort is much lighter and center steering is much better. While I had the bars out of the lower control arms, I removed the spacers and cut them down by .25 inches. Now I can have the alignment shop use GM alignment shims to bring the camber back to 1 degree negative it looks like it's about .5 degrees negative at present.
The only thing that bothers me is that I may have lowered it too much. From the ground to the wheel arch measured through the center line of the front wheel is 24.75 inches. Any comments??

Austin,

Rear: 22"
Front: 23" 7/8's

-Brian

Brian,
Thanks for the input. It's good to know I'm in the "ball park".
The car feels so much better with this set up that I really didn't want to change it unless it was too low.
Do you have an oil pan guard on your car? Also how did you lower the rear, performance springs, or did you cut the stock springs?
Beautiful car, by the way.

Austin,

No, I don't have a sump guard on the car.

The suspension is AR Ricambi's sport suspension front and rear with yellow Koni dampers.

Thanks, I am glad you like it!

-Brian

If you have lowered your car, find one buy and install new or used. good looks are not worth rebuilding your motor.

I have a sump gaurd on my Gtv6 and it has been used several times. Really has saved me from a major fix.

I've got a stock GTV6, and i want to lower the front ride height.
How many splines (fron and rear) I'll need to move to lower 2 to 3cm?

It's about 1.5mm per spline, given that you use the factory method and move the bar equal numer of splines both front and rear.

I have often wanted to do this but couldn't get it round my head.
So what you are saying is to decrease the ride height by 25mm, I need to turn the splines by 16-17 notches at either end but opposite directions, eg, looking head on at the car, LH wheel, 16 clockwise at the wishbone and 16 counter-clockwise at the other end? Feel free to shoot me down at any stage...

Bruce, shooting you down isn't the point here, getting the work done right , is! For people massing with transaxle cars forever, changing ride height is simple. In theory, its also simple, but if you're doing it for the first time,I strongly suggest you buddy up with someone who knows exactly how its done. Its no brain surgery, but first-timers are almost always swamped when they put it back together and it sits lobsided!
Counting splines may not always work, as the adjustment steps vary, according to the position the splines are on the circle!This means that on one point of the bar 1spline front/rear is 2mm and on another it can be 5mm!(a gradual increase from the lowest possible step to the largest and back again).
Here's what I propose: Undo the uprights and let the A-arm take its free position (supported by the torsion bar). Measure the distance from a fixed point on the fender (directly over the A-arm) to the edge ofthe ball joint. Then remove the torsion bar and reinsert it until the A-arm sits lower by the desired height difference. Take a precise measurement of the distance from the fender point and try to duplicate this on the other side of the car.
Actually, the only flaw with this kind of measurement, is the fact that the measured distance to the fender is measured at an angle and not vertically. To compensate, you can add about 20-30% to the actual lowering distance (for measuring purposes). If I haven't lost you yet, you're doing good!
All said,I still say you should team up with someone to help you! Good luck!
Jim K.

Here's my GTV, at full droop though...

Hey Mats, are those red 3-legged things under the car your DTM type pneumatic lifts? Hell, I thought they were behind the front wheels! Do they extend automatically (...as you drive ) or do you pump the handbrake, hahah!
Did you get the pics I sent ya?
Jim K.

wtf? You don't have those? I thought they were on all 116 chassis cars.
Flat spots are a great way to ruin tires.

Do you ever check your mail?

hi,

here's a copy of what i thought to be a pretty good explanation about the splines and lowering from the UK owners club forum...

'Although at first it seems confusing, in fact the way that Alfetta front suspension vertical adjustment works is quite simple.

The lower wishbone has an effective radius of rotation of about 300 mm. You can’t really check this on your car because you can’t actually locate the position of the neutral axis of the wheel relative to the suspension mounts. However using 300 mm and calculating the ride height change gives a number that agrees with Haynes and other manuals. All Alfettas are the same, other variants are slightly different. I have a table somewhere which shows eight different torsion bar configurations applicable to other models.

A circle of 300 mm radius has a circumference of about 1880 mm. For our purposes a small section or arc of this circle can be taken to approximate to a straight line, so an arc of say 1 degree would correspond to a vertical movement of the wheel of about 5.2 mm. Don't worry about the 300 mm, just trust the 5.2 mm figure.

The suspension set-up has torsion bars running fore and aft on each side of the car, each bar having 35 splines at the front and 34 at the rear. Rotating the bar by one spline at one end will turn the lower arm by either one 34th or one 35th of a circle, i.e. about 10.3 or 10.6 degrees, changing the ride height by about 53.5 or 55.1 mm. This is probably rather more than you need unless you have something unusual in mind for your car.

However turning the bar at both ends will result in a change in the ride height by an amount which is the difference of the two figures, i.e. by one over (34 times 35) of a circle i.e. about 0.3 degrees. This would give a ride height change of about 1.6 mm (the difference between 55.1 and 53.5 mm).

You can see where this comes from if you think of it in two steps. First, rotating the bar by one spline at the rear (fixed) end would raise the ride height by 55.1 mm, and the corresponding movement of the torsion bar relative to the lower suspension arm would lower it by 53.5 mm.

Now we are in business. By dividing our required ride height change in mm by 1.6 (to the nearest whole number), and rotating both torsion bars by that number of splines at both ends we can adjust our ride height to meet our requirements fairly exactly.

Because the rear end has less splines than the front, rotation of the bar has more effect at the back than at the front. This is good news for us (maybe it was even designed that way) because it makes the direction of rotation that we should use intuitive. Turning the bar “down” will raise the ride height, and turning it “up” will lower it.

I intend to lower the ride by about half an inch (12 mm) both sides, So in theory I will rotate the torsion bars by 8 splines, I haven’t done this yet, so maybe when I try it won’t work out, in which case I will let you know (and possibly go to work on the bus for a couple of days).

When you reinstall the torsion bars don’t forget to apply some anti-seize compound on the splines. I guess that copper-based brake grease would be OK for this. Don’t forget to get the whole toe-in, camber etc checked out after you have finished with the ride height.'

.....i'm not the author of the original post so i cant aswer questions, but it certainly helped me understand it, clear as mud...!!

simon

[The suspension is AR Ricambi's sport suspension front and rear with yellow Koni dampers.]

What is the difference between the AR Ricambi sport springs and super sport springs wether its stiffness or ride height? (for the 116 chassis)

By the way Brian, your Alfetta Turbo is the coolest EVER!

Got around to taking a few measurements:
Front 580mm (22.8" or 22" 4/5 for you carpenters... )
Rear 530mm (20.85")

Haven't had any problems with the sump, gearbox seems to be taking a few beatings from the curbs though...