ride height questions after front end rebuild 1973 dart
All right, let's look at this. Here's your picture, with the flats marked with perpendicular red lines. Now, in your picture the LCA is conveniently parallel to the hex flat in the middle (that can change depending on the angle on the adjusting lever).
So lets break this down. The upper red line isn't possible, so that flat is not available. The blue dashed line is about where the LCA would hit the frame. The other limit would be where the adjusting lever hits the frame, as that's possible as well, which limits the position of the lever by itself. It's going to have a steeper possible angle than the entire LCA, but it won't be as steep as the upper red line.
The bottom red line is likely not possible as well. The body of the LCA hits the K frame when the LCA hangs down. I didn't mark a line on your picture, but based on what I've seen with my own factory LCA's I don't think that bottom line is a possibility either.
So, if you put the adjuster all the way up, and the LCA all the way down, you MIGHT be able to access 2 different flats on the torsion bar. But you would need the adjusting lever all the way up and the LCA all the way down, which of course is completely wrong by the FSM install instructions. And not easy to do I might add, because usually the adjusting lever is fairly loose in a factory LCA that hasn't been reinforced and tightened up. They tend to hang down rather than stick up.
The other thing to consider is the /6 bars. They have a 90 lb/in rate. The front corner weight on an A-body is usually around close to 800 lbs, unless you've done some weight reduction. So, that's 8" of suspension compression with just the weight of the car, you will twist the bar that much from unloaded to ride height. There's about 5.5" of suspension compression on most A-body's, bump stop to bump stop. With the upper bump stop removed you probably get another 1" to install the bars, we'll be generous and call that 1.5", and that's still only 7" of compression. So, the adjuster MUST take up the rest with a /6 bar. You can't install the bars with load on them already.
If I'd taken the angles on the factory LCA's from bump to bump I could give you the exact figures, but even with brand new /6 bars you need a lot of adjuster to get the car to the factory ride height. It doesn't take much sag to use the whole adjuster, and it's NOT easy to misclock the factory bars and the factory LCA's. Possible, yes, easy, not at all. Aftermarket bars with different hex offsets and tubular LCA's with more K frame clearance are a different story. But you still need to install the LCA at an extreme angle to do that.
All right, let's look at this. Here's your picture, with the flats marked with perpendicular red lines. Now, in your picture the LCA is conveniently parallel to the hex flat in the middle (that can change depending on the angle on the adjusting lever).
So lets break this down. The upper red line isn't possible, so that flat is not available. The blue dashed line is about where the LCA would hit the frame. The other limit would be where the adjusting lever hits the frame, as that's possible as well, which limits the position of the lever by itself. It's going to have a steeper possible angle than the entire LCA, but it won't be as steep as the upper red line.
The bottom red line is likely not possible as well. The body of the LCA hits the K frame when the LCA hangs down. I didn't mark a line on your picture, but based on what I've seen with my own factory LCA's I don't think that bottom line is a possibility either.
So, if you put the adjuster all the way up, and the LCA all the way down, you MIGHT be able to access 2 different flats on the torsion bar. But you would need the adjusting lever all the way up and the LCA all the way down, which of course is completely wrong by the FSM install instructions. And not easy to do I might add, because usually the adjusting lever is fairly loose in a factory LCA that hasn't been reinforced and tightened up. They tend to hang down rather than stick up.
The other thing to consider is the /6 bars. They have a 90 lb/in rate. The front corner weight on an A-body is usually around close to 800 lbs, unless you've done some weight reduction. So, that's 8" of suspension compression with just the weight of the car, you will twist the bar that much from unloaded to ride height. There's about 5.5" of suspension compression on most A-body's, bump stop to bump stop. With the upper bump stop removed you probably get another 1" to install the bars, we'll be generous and call that 1.5", and that's still only 7" of compression. So, the adjuster MUST take up the rest with a /6 bar. You can't install the bars with load on them already.
If I'd taken the angles on the factory LCA's from bump to bump I could give you the exact figures, but even with brand new /6 bars you need a lot of adjuster to get the car to the factory ride height. It doesn't take much sag to use the whole adjuster, and it's NOT easy to misclock the factory bars and the factory LCA's. Possible, yes, easy, not at all. Aftermarket bars with different hex offsets and tubular LCA's with more K frame clearance are a different story. But you still need to install the LCA at an extreme angle to do that.