First time front suspension issues...

During a first time restoration I have put all new front suspension on my car. In the rush of moving to another house I put on some wheels and lowered the car. The front went all the way down to the ground. Then I remembered I don't have any torsion bars on. So are the torsion bars the only thing that make a height difference? Don't know for sure so just checking in here before I get back under the car.

Also, my camber is pretty bad. What are the basic steps to get that better?

The front suspension on the bump stops would be low. You need to put some T bars in, check the rest and try again.

Up in the air, set the tie rods for visual alignment. Eyeball it. On the ground, adjust tie rods for a little toe in... measure with a carpenters rule to consistent tire tread feature. If all seems well then off to the alignment shop for an accurate alignment.

Ok, Thanks

get it all back together & on a reasonably level surface/tire psi set then adj the bars till the wheels look right where you want em in the wheelwells with pretty much the same distance between each front rubber bump stop up to the shiney area on the subframe where it makes contact (dr/pass sides/2 bump stops). turn the cams for max positive caster then bring out the rear cam till you get vertical camber measured as said with a 2 ft carpenters' bubble level held against the tire metal rim (use 2 sockets). adj the tie rod ends till the wheels are straight ahead with the steering wheel centered/st box in mid travel. (I dont remember if you set camber before toe in or the other way around). set your weight in barbells on the pass seat & drive it to the shop & instruct him to pull the barbells over to the drivers seat after he drives it on the rack/before he exits the vehicle & you might set the barbells on the dr seat when you first set the ride height (especially if you ain't skinny)). Give him a twenty to accomodate your OCD requests. tell em to leave the right height right where it is & to get a skosh of neg camber and max positive caster. My 65 dart floated down the road after this attention to detail. EDIT pretty sure toe then camber

toe setting is always the last thing done.

Oh OK (my bad). Noted.

not trying to stomp your "toes" RR. [bad pun intended. ] i always do camber, caster, then back to camber, then double check caster. then adjust toe. i like 1/16" toe in on rear steer, and 1/8" on front steer. your mileage may vary.

You're fine brother & it was called for (we ain't perfect) & that was a good pun (& there is too much bad info out there as it is), we definitely don't need more.

The torsion bars are the front springs. It would be like lowering a car with only shock absorbers and no leaf springs in the back. Of course its going to drop to the ground.

As for the tires looking weird, the tires grabbed traction and the sidewalls are dealing with all of the suspension geometery movement. This is why when doing alignment stuff you either need sliding plates under the front or you have to roll it back and forth a fair distance with full weight for the tires suspension to settle into their normal positions.

Yeah, I'm doing all of this for the first time so I'm still learning things.

good luck with your project !!! Glad to see another Sport Satellite being resurrected !!! Here is mine :

I hope you have a service manual, and that you have read it. The nuts on the front of the strut rods and the nut on the lower control arm pivot pin should only be hand tight until the ride height is set.