Ride Height

A few of you told me I should work on lowering the height of the front end of my car. I've loosened the outer bolts on the upper and lower control arm ends and taken the bottoms of the shocks loose and tried "hopping it" down but it ain't moving...

 Help ? Ideas? 

Sounds like the spring has not popped into its locating form in the lower control arm. This will cause the spring to appear longer than it actually is.  Are both sides the same?

Yep and they are both seated in the pockets...

Jim, I did notice the ride height of your car in da front is pretty tall!
If you have loosened the bushing bolts, and it still won't drop down, I would think there is a problem with the springs. Refresh our feeble memories...have you replaced the springs?
To tell you the truth, I don't think that just the bushings would hold the front of the car up that high. They would have settled/cracked by now.

Here's a pic of the car, for those who would like to see what we're talking about! It's the green car at the right. Adams' Apple38894.7983912037

No new springs...I compressed them and took them out during the  control arm bushing replacement  and put them right back...

I double checked last night and they ARE in the pockets...

I'm at a loss.....

That is kinda weird!
The only thing I could suggest, is raise the car up, and completely loosen all(upper & lower) of the bushing retaining bolts. Then set the car back down, and move it forward & backward 10/15 feet. Then tighten up the bolts, if the front settles.
The control arm bushing sleeves have serrated edges on them, as do the control arm shafts. It could be that when you did this before, the bolts just weren't loose enough to allow the serrated edges to release. I know it's a pain to get to the front bolts on the upper arms, but...
That's the only thing I can come up wid...

Are you running a BB or SB?  BB springs will make it higher if you have a SB installed.

SB with a SB....

Okay guys..I'm getting ALOT frustrated now...

I've got all the bolts out of the control arm ends. That in itself is QUITE the PITA. I've bounced the car until I can't bounce it anymore .... It ain't coming down.

Do I throw it back together so it's driveable without the control Arm bolts installed and do some fast stops or what? Can I do that safely? Do I need to reinstallthe shocks to make this easier?

 I'm running out of ideas.......

How about doin' an engine swap and see if a big block settles the front down a bit!    It sure seems like you have BB springs (even though you ordered SB ones that doesn't necessarily mean you were shipped SB ones).

If all else fails you could try a kstyer "trick" - pull the springs out, compress them some, band them individually so they're the same length, and bake them in an oven until well done (Ken can give you more specifics on temperature and duration).  Then let them cool down gradually (don't dunk them in water!).  He told me that was a better method of working a spring than cutting it (cutting changes the spring rate).  Hope I got all that right - if not I know Ken will correct anything I relayed incorrectly.

You could also take them to a spring shop and see what they could do.