ride height

Those are called Avis adjuster and yes, they are for ride height.

And yes, they are already adjusted down almost all the way.

You probably have another 1/2" of ride height that you could lower with those current adjusters and then you'll be on the bottom.

Your front adjusters look to be set at their highest ride-height position. You can lower the front a lot if needed.

Your rears currently have a little bit of lowering adjustment (adjuster bolt screws out) and a lot of raising adjustment (adjuster bolt screws in).

At least with the rears, you can always reindex the torsion bars to any height you want if the adjustable spring plates don't provide enough movement on their own. The front adjusters would need to be cut out and rewelded if you are not happy with them.

thanks for the info!what is the proper sequence to lower the front adjusters?one at a time?loosen bolt or remove bolt?under pressure?

On a closer look, Justin's right about the adjustment remaining - a lot in the front, not so much in the back (it pays not to be in a hurry when looking at these).

When I adjust the front with that type of adjuster, I first find a second nut that fits the threads of the adjuster stud (Ace Hardware), to use as a lock nut and collar for the top of the threaded stud (you'll see why in a second).  

Raise the car on jack stands to relieve some of the tension on the torsion bar and adjuster.

Find an Allen wrench that will fit the stud - the longer the wrench, the better in this case - 6" - 8" seems fine as you'll be using it as a lever.

Spin the second nut onto the shaft so that the top of it is more-or-less flush with the top of the stud.  This will hold he stud together for the next step.

Insert the allen wrench into the hex hole in the stud, apply some upward pressure to it and hold it there, then loosen the bottom nut up the stud about 1/8" - 3/16".  This should allow the adjuster plate teeth to disengage in the next step.  Keep upward pressure on the stud at all times to hold everything in place.

If you now put more upward pressure on the allen wrench it should loosen and release the adjuster's toothed locking plate, that curved metal piece under the adjuster nut - it has teeth on the underside that engage with a similar metal piece welded to the torsion bar tube.  The torsion bar tube piece is slotted, allowing the adjuster stud to move up and down.  The toothed plate on the stud has a hole such that that plate moves with the stud.

If you allow the stud to angle downward, the front of the car will go down.  If you push the stud angle up, then the car front will go up.

Bear in mind that you have a bunch of stuff under tension here, so it's going to take quite a bit of elbow grease to move that adjuster, then juggling the outer plate into place to engage with the inner plate and spinning the nut back down, all while holding the pressure on the stud/allen wrench is pretty busy.  If something slips, all that happens is that the stud goes all the way to the end of the slot and stops (accompanied with a big "BANG!") and you start over again.

OK, so keep pressure on the allen wrench and move the stud to where you think you want it, re-engage the teeth of the two plates at about that point, spin the lower nut in to hold the plates together and then remove the allen wrench.  

Tighten the lower nut and you can either remove the upper nut or tighten it down and use it as a safety locknut.

Take it out for a ride and see where it sits when you return.  It may take a time or two before you "get it right", as this is a trial and error situation.

There may be other, better ways to lever that adjustment stud, but this works for me.  I have also done a stack-up of two nuts, thread-locked, on the top with a space between them and the bottom nut and used a socket and extension as a lever, but I never felt especially safe with that method, like it might slip at any time.  Never did, but it didn't trust it.

Also, there is no "side-to-side" adjustment in the front.  All that is done by adjusting the rear sides, which are independent.   If the left front corner is down by 1/4" or so after all is done, then you fix that by diagonally lowering the right rear (which is easy with your adjustable spring plates.  In the end, it's all a balancing act that takes time to get it all right.

OH!  And for two front adjusters, I just get one in the ballpark as a "coarse adjustment" and then make a "fine" adjustment with the other one.  Trying to get both of them adjusted "dead on" is an exercise in futility.

Gordon you are a real gem for taking the time to spell that out for me!thanks a million

Gordon's method works for the front, but I have a slightly different way to do this. It seems to be a little safer too. First, jack up the front of the car on jackstands. Make sure it is high enough to get a floor jack or scissor jack under one of the front tires. I remove the bottom shock nuts and move both shocks out of the way. Sometimes you need to loosen or remove the top nut totally to get the shock to slide off the stud.

Then, jack up the tire until it just takes the weight of the tire. MARK WHERE THE AVIS ADJUSTER IS! Then you know where you are starting. Loosen the big nut on one adjuster only, bottom is easiest as it is right there. It shouldn't move or jump at all when you release the tension this way, but wear gloves and be careful and prepared, and wear eye protection just in case your wrench goes flying! It is a good idea to use an allen key to hold it so it won't jump when you loosen the big nut, just in case. If you want to lower the car, jack up the wheel a little until it moves the plate one or two splines, you will see the adjuster stud rotate. Then tighten the crap out of the adjuster. Make sure the splines are engaged as sometimes they don't seat well and it will "pop" into a lower position when driving. If you want to raise the car, lower the jack and watch the adjuster rotate to a new spot then tighten.

Re-install the shocks, then lower the car to the ground and drive it. You need to go around the block to settle the suspension. If the car's height looks good, then you're good, but changing ride height necessitates checking the camber and DEFINITELY changes toe-in, so that needs to be checked.

On the rear suspension and setting ride height, you really can't go by the tape measure from the fender. Even factory steel cars can be off by about a 1/2" side to side. Imagine how badly off this can make the car when we all know how asymmetrical these bodies are? You can use a tape measure to ballpark ride height but these cars really need a good corner-balance with race scales, the only way to KNOW they are set up properly.

danny-just to reiterate,do only one adjuster at a time right?plan on getting a corner balance after i fiddle with the car.right now i am stuck inside with this 2 degree weather-thanks again for the help from another one of my east coast brothers

i forget -do you know how much of a drop or raise each spline will give me?-thanks

From my article up in the knowledge base:

Now for a little info on how the rear suspension is adjusted:  Rear torsion bar inner and outer splines are different. Inner splines move 9 degrees per 

spline, while outer splines move 8 degrees, 10 minutes per spline.   Measuring my car (a 1969 Beetle pan with IRS) gives 17 inches between the centerlines of the torsion bar and the axle, so using C = pi(D) you get a circumference circle of 106.814 inches (imagine drawing a big circle with the torsion bar center at the middle and the axle centerline at the 

circumference). Break that up into degrees and its .297 inch per degree and .005 inch per minute.

Applying the math gives one inner spline (9 degrees) for 2.673 inches of axle travel (either up or down), and for one OUTER spline (8 degrees, 10 minutes) you get 2.426 inches of travel (either up or down).   Using combinations of inner and outer splines allows a little less than 1/4" travel at a time by going one way with an inner, and the 

other way with an outer.

Here’s a table I did to save you all that math:

Table 1:

U = UP

D = Down

Inner  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -Outer  -  -  -  -  -  -Result (inches)

1D .  2.673 .  .  .  .  .  1U 2.426  .  .  .  .  .  . D  .244

2D  .  5.346  .  .  .  .  .  2U 4.852  .  .  .  .  .  . D  .488

3D  .  8.019  .  .  .  .  .  3U  7.278 .  .  .  .  .  . D  .741

4D  .  10.692  .  .  .  .  .4U  9,704   .  .  .  .  .  .D  .976

5D  .  13.365  .  .  .  .  5U  12.130  .  .  .  .  .  .D  1.235

6D  .  16.038  .  .  .  .  6U  14.556  .  .  .  .  .  .D  1.482

7D  .  18.711  .  .  .  .  7U  16.982  .  .  .  .  .  .D  1.729

8D  .  21.384  .  .  .  .  8U  19.408  .  .  .  .  .  .D  1.981

9D  .  24.057  .  .  .  .  9U  21.834  .  .  .  .  .  .D  2.223

10D  . 26.730  .  .  .  . 10U  24.260  .  .  .  .  .  D  2.470

11D  . 29.403  .  .  .  . 11U  26.686  .  .  .  .  .  D  2.717  

12D  . 32.076  .  .  .  . 12U  29.112  .  .  .  .  .  D  2.964

13D  . 34.749  .  .  .  . 13U  31.538  .  .  .  .  .  D  3.211

14D  . 37.422  .  .  .  .  14U 33.964  .  .  .  .  .  D  3.458

gordon i already printed out that great info-i meant  the front end teeth on the avis adjusters-thanks

I think it depends. there are most probably many makers of the Avis type adjuster. If you want to drop a couple inches move it a few splines, then check.

I think one spline on one front adjuster will give you about a 1/2" but I'm not 100%.