GTV-6 suspension settings

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

In AD7-195 Jake Thomas, who has a GTV6 which has been lowered beyond the point
of sanity by a previous owner, opens a large, and very old, can of worms about
torsion bar front suspensions on the transaxle cars.

>> I know that the front height is controlled by the torsion bars but lack the
instructions to adjust them. Can someone please post instructions, or point me
to where they can be found?<<

In the shop manual. Any shop manual, preferably GTV-6, but Milano will do
equally, as will an Alfetta manual, by Haynes, Autobooks, the factory, cribbed
reprint, whatever. The process and logic are the same, the values are the same
or very close, differing slightly with the lighter-nosed cars. 

>> Secondly, I'm wondering what the "correct" height really is.  The N.
American and European factory specs were different,<<

As far as I know this is totally incorrect. Front suspension settings are
checked by subtracting the height of the bottom of the steering knuckle (or
lower ball joint assembly) from the height of the wishbone pivot-mounting,
with the car loaded to specified values. The resulting "trim value" is, as far
as I can recollect, 44 mm +/- 5 mm, for Alfettas, Milanos, GTV-6s (and I
assume Giulietta Nuovas, 90s, 6s) but check your manual. If you find a
different one for your country (or for your county, for that matter) use it.
This value is unaffected (as measurements from bumper, drain plug or some
other chassis point to the ground would be) by wheel or tire size or wear,
sagging motor mounts etc. 

A caution: torsion bars almost invariably have pre-twist; a given load will
twist one further in one direction than in the other. For this reason if the
painted code marks (yellow for the left bar, blue for the right bar) are no
longer present pray that you can find a stamped code L (for 'left') or S (for
'sinister') on one and a code R (for 'right') or D (for 'dexter') on the
other, preferably on the left and right sides of the car, respectively. 

The bars have 35 splines at the front and 34 splines at the rear, allowing a
fairly precise vernier adjustment. Moving both the front and the rear by one
spline raises or lowers the suspension about a tenth of an inch. The trim
value (measured in the second paragraph above) is increased by rotating the
right bar clockwise and the left bar counterclockwise, or decreased by doing
the reverse. Moving one end one tooth while leaving the other end alone
changes things by about thirty-five tenths of an inch, which coincidentally
corresponds to the differences between front bumper height and rear bumper
height which Jake measured on his car: 
>13", bottom of front bumper
>16.5", bottom of rear bumper.

If all this isn't clear (quite likely) and if I might have gotten it ass-
backwards (entirely possible) pour a coffee (no, not another beer), sit down,
and read the manual again.

The important thing to understand is that there is nothing haphazard about the
process. Too many people have said that you just take it apart, put it
together some other way, and see if it looks right, and do it again until it
does look right. Wrong. 

As for the optimum amount to leave it lowered from stock to correct the
aesthetic and handling errors of those dunces at the factory, you will have to
get that from someone else. I'm gone.

Cordially, 

John H. 

Postscript. The spellchecker just asked me to change "transaxle" to
"transsexual." This I refuse to do.

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End of alfa-digest V7 #196
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