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Hello,

I was just curious if any knows and could explain the proper procedure for measuring ride heights?

Thanks!

-B

For compliance, measure at the centerline of the front and rear axles from the ground to the base of the left and right frame rails. The minimum height is as the car comes off the track with all bodywork in place. A 6" steel ruler works well (one with a sliding piece helps when it's difficult to see the ruler measurements.) Minimum height at the frame is 2.75" WITHOUT the driver, though every time I've had it checked someone tries to do it while I'm in the car and measuring from the bottom of the nose pan (assume .060" thickness at a minimum and more if the nose pan is not tight against the frame).

Thank you so much! That clarifies a lot for me! Thanks again!

A tip I got recently, if you were measuring yourself is to get a small section of spare 1.5" square tube place on the ground. You can then measure from the top of the spare tube to the top of the frame rail, using the steel ruler Bob mentioned, and you don't have to worry about the pan thickness and how well it is affixed to the chassis. I doubt however they will do that on short notice in Tech.

A tip from Carroll Smith's book. Determine the distance from the base of bottom frame rail to the top of the top frame rail. Add the desired ride height. You now can measure the ride height from the ground to the top frame rail. Saves a lot of crawling around on the floor with my old joints and bad back.

Carroll Smith is the god of racing tech info.

That tip is typical Carroll. I was lucky to have him as my boss when he was crew chief and engineer for Milestone Racing. A most unusual guy, to say the least. His books are wonderful.

One more method.

As I don't like fumbling around with a tape measure or ruler and they're always hiding somewhere I use the device in the picture. Just a buck or so from the hardware store and can be preset to whatever height you want. I use one in the rear and one in the front. Works much faster than trying to take a reading.

I use scale pad levelers and run a piece of bright orange braided fishing line through a hole in the top of one pad across to the opposite side through a hole to a spring which connects to one of the legs. This falls right at the axle center line. Doesn't take much of any crawling, just bend over insert the tool between the orange line and frame and see where things are at.

Now I'm tempted to use the Carol method though. One issue I'm curious about. Most of our frames aren't perfectly straight anymore and most probably weren't perfect to start with. How much difference is there from corner to corner. Seems like you're going to be working with different measurements at each corner which might get cumbersome.

I should have mentioned something similar: I tie a piece of nylon cord to the handle hole in the scales, stretch it taut and that is where I measure ride height.

I set a 4 ft level on top of my alignment pads (across from one side to the other) and measure with a tape from the bottom of the level. I really like the above pictured tool, as that would be a great way to do a quick check at the track after doing ride height changes.