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There is no adjustment that only works the rear other than the short compensator bars--and they were there to compensate for luggage and passengers toward the rear. The principal of the suspension is the car is essentially "balanced" like a teeter totter on the long bars with the center of the car being the neutral point. How high it rides overall is determined by the amount of twist and strength in the bars.

Early on it was determined that there was enough manufacturing tolerance between bars and differences in accessory weight that cars could be either tilted to one side or heavily accessorized cars could be low. The different length links were made available to adjust side to side and make sure one car didn't ride higher or lower than another. A change in weight distribution at either end will upset that balance. The addition of the compensator bars to bias the back was mostly to ensure the tail didn't scrape the pavement when loaded.

If you care to read about the development and design theory & principals, here is an engineering presentation.https://www.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/SAE_Torsion.pdf

Thanks for the engineering presentation. I learned a bit by reading it. I have decided that blocks in the rear will work, however, the bushings need to remain, and will also need to be 2 inches taller as they sit on either side of the axle tube and the u-bolts thread through them. I am open to ideas but will probably fabricate a block that contours to the axle tube and just use body bushings as well as the original bushing to fill space. Any ideas?

I am fabricating 2" rear lowering blocks for 55-56 TL system. These blocks are a SAFE way to lower the rear of the vehicle and I am using body bushings from a 64 GTO to fill the gap between the support arms on either side of the axle where the u bolt goes through. The u bolt will have to be elongated as well. The bushings can be stacked and using a retainer similar to the factory one on top and bottom of the bushings. This seems to be very solid.

JT wrote: Quote:

Yes, I agree that will do what you want and safely too.

Craig

This is where the blocks are to be placed. I mocked up a cardboard model to get the radius and the rest of the measurements are self explanatory.

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Somehow I'm a little confused and want to save you a lot of work. You can make the height of the car anything you want just by shortening your adjustable front pins or making even shorter ones. It is just like cutting the heels off a pair of high heel shoes--the lady is going to stand closer to the ground. Then you adjust your leveler to whatever rake you like and you are done.

Shortening or lengthening the front pins changes the height of the WHOLE car. The leveler only changes the trim. I regularly change pins on customer's cars to achieve the desired ride height--usually beause the bars have sagged (particularly 56s) and the car is already sitting low.

Heads up: TL cars that are sitting low do not ride well. Many folks have told me they can hardly believe how much better their car drives after I've brought it back up to standard height. But as the Germans say "Schoenheit muss leiden"---beauty must be painful.

These are the u bolts i fabricated for the rear, they have some tricky bends near the end of the radius but work very well.

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These are the installed blocks, i will include pictures of the blocks before installation later.

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Looks good. Do you have before and after side view of the car?

Sorry for the delayed response, im working on before and afters....