I bought an after market adjuster from "American Muscle" and the female part of the thread stripped out as I was adjusting with the weight of car on the ground. The FSM says to "Lower vehicle to floor and adjust front suspension height." As usual the after market never seems to get the heat treatment/hardness right if they do it at all.

What page does the SM say adjust with the car sitting on the floor?

Is this a seriously legit question or are you being a wiseguy?

What is the purpose of adjusting the torsion bars?

To set the ride height.

How do you set the ride height if the tires are not on the ground?

You don't.

Get an FSM, read it. It's in Chapter 2, alignment.

From a 72 Plymouth FSM, I quote:

"Height

Front suspension heights must be held to specifications
for a satisfactory ride, correct appearance,
proper front wheel alignment and reduced tire wear.
The heights should only be measured when vehicle
has the recommended tire pressures, a full tank of
fuel, no passenger or luggage compartment load and
is on a level floor or an alignment rack."

Interesting, I've always read on here to "do it in the air", I guess that's urban myth or "fake news"

The reason for doing it in the air is it takes the pressure off the suspension and makes turning the adjustment bolt a lot easier. All the measurements should be done with the car loaded on all fours.

Neil, that's the info I was waiting for, now I know that something could have given way between the two pieces.

The lever then must be cast steel to be weldable and strong as needed for that application.

Joe

Absolutely NOT.

You will never get accurate alignment readings doing that.

Tell me exactly why you won't get correct readings with the car on the ground? Raising it up a little to make the adjustment takes the pressure off of the adjustment bolt and helps to keep from galling or striping the bolt.

Google it yourself and tell us why.

Your not going to get away with that. Please tell us why you can't get a correct measurement with the car on the ground. In case you have reading troubles I did not say measure with the car raised. I said that if you raise it a little it takes the pressure off the adjusting bolt for ease of turning. As far as loaded it means road ready not stuffed full of luggage but I figured most people would understand that as a given. I also like to take into consideration the drivers weight. You and google should see what a 250-300lb driver does to ride height.

You know you are wrong, which is why you re trying to change it.

Figure it out yourself, or better yet you tell use why you know better than the people that designed and built the thing.

Why do you take part of a response and twist it. Can you not read the rest of the reply. ALL MEASUREMENTS SHOULD BE DONE WITH THE CAR LOADED AND ON ALL FOURS. I was working as a line mechanic for Dodge starting in 1965 and my father worked in Chrysler design engineerring in the 50s and 60s. So I guess you could say I have some experience in how these cars were put together.

You said in the air, not me. You did not say "take the weight off" till you go called out.

Big difference.

What happens to the camber when you pick it up and put it down?

How does that affect toe?

As for being a line mechanic, BFD. There is a reason I don't let "mechanics" touch my stuff, they got a bunch of half assed get it out the door cause I'm being paid book rate cheats.

I've never had a problem setting ride height on the ground. I've never galled up the threads on my adjusters because I A. clean then, B. lube them and C. use hand tools. I do not just run them up with an impact and oh [censored] I broke it, tell the customer it came in that way and they need to pay to fix it mechanic stunts. But doing it properly would kill your book rate.

I'd put experience and tools against you and your google anytime. By the time you read the instructions I'd have the job done to the customers satisfaction with no fear of a complaint or comeback. If you had ever worked as a mechanic for a living you would know how full of crap your statements are. As far as what does raising a car up and setting it back down there is a little more to it than that. Such as bouncing the car to settle the suspension. and shaking it side to side. But you don't realize these are things your google doesn't tell you. That's where experience comes in. By the way we are talking ride height not alignment. Ride height is always set before any further alignment. So moving the car up and down has no bearing on caster,camber or toe which is set after the height.

1973 Dodge FSM

Doesn’t say to adjust in the air if you want to bee specific , but but but

Trust me I get it - Much easier to spin those bolts , and not strip , with the weight off the control arms

On R , W and Y carlines clean all foreign material from bottom of lower ball joint assemblies and bot- tom of torsion bar front anchors.
(2) Jounce vehicle several times releasing it on the downward motion.
(3) On all models except R, W and Y carl¡nes measure distance from lowest point of one adjusting blade to floor (measurement A) and from lowest point of steering knuckle arm, at the centerline, on same side (measurement B) to floor (Fig. 2). Mea- sure only one side at a time.
On R, W and Y carl¡nes measure distance from lowest point of front torsion bar anchor at the rear of lower control arm flange to floor (measurement A) and from lowest point of ball joint housing on same side (measurement B) to floor (Fig. 3) measure only one side at a time.
The difference between A and B (A always being greater than B) ¡s the front suspension height.
(4) Refer to Specifications and adjust if necessary by turning torsion bar adjusting bolt clockwise to increase height and counterclockwise to decrease height.
(5) After each adjustment, jounce vehicle before remeasuring. Both sides should be measured even though only one side has been adjusted.
(6) Measure other side in same manner. The max- imum allowable difference in suspension height from side to side is 1/8 inch on all carlines.

I have a question on measuring the ride height using the instruction in the FSM. When it states measuring the distance from the lowest point of one of the "adjusting blade" to the floor.
Is this the spot that the measurement is taken from? See the red arrow in my picture.

^ yes.

as for the FSM, it reads to me like it doesn't specify how to actually adjust the anchor bolt, weight on or off, it just specifies how to measure ride height.
once the car rolls about 3 feet the suspension will be fine to check and if it's actually getting aligned the front wheels will be on plates so it doesn't really matter.

i put a smear of grease on the ball and cup of the adjuster when i put that stuff back together...and i adjusted height with weight on the tires with no problems. I've also jacked the front up a bit (when the old crusty parts were on the car) to get some weight off the tires...so i could use a regular 1/2" drive ratchet and turn the bolt faster/easier...

OK, now that I realize We have defective adjuster block and/or screws, who is the best source?

Thanks, Joe

NOS if you can find them 2275468 standard 2275469 HD
http://collectorsautosupply.com/customSe...hnumber=2275468

When you say defective. I assume that the threads are stripped?