Lowered by 2"

[cigar]

I took delivery of my 2000 RT/10 today, looking in the owners' manual it calls out specifications of 5" road clearance in the front and 5.8" in the back, I measured my car on the level garage floor and it's 3" in the front and 3.5" at the (I guess) tow hook behind the front tire (I didn't crawl under the back).

I know that 2" lowering is considered desirable here from reading several threads, tomorrow I hope to get the car into my long-time tire/suspension guy who races and builds race cars, he also worked on some of the original Vipers for the Dodge dealer before they had anyone trained to work on them.

I've got to decide whether to have him bring it back up to factory specs of leave it down and be very careful, in a couple of hours driving today I scraped a few times even taking driveway approaches at angles going into shopping areas. Does a little minor scraping hurt anything? Maybe discuss a system, hydraulic or air, to raise it up and then let it back down like the old Citreon DS's had? Does raising the car back up improve the ride? It is pretty rough but that may be normal for a Viper.

Ironically as a teenage hot-rodder in the 40s the first thing we did when we bought our 30s/40s Fords or Mercurys was to lower the rear ends with lowering blocks or shackles so our cars looked like they were taking off when standing still but they did bounce terribly, later the kids started doing it lowering the front ends to simulate race cars, In my case both ends have been lowered, does anyone raise the front end only and leave the back end lowered?

 

[denniskgb]

i have seen the picture of the car you bought and it looks definitely lowered. I went through all that myself lowered mine and then eventually brought it back up to factory suspension. No more issues of scraping and what so ever. But again i do not race it, just cruise. There are tons of threads on suspension mods. Again if you race and all you will need to spent the $$$$ washingtons for the proper set up, but i remember you saying that you have become of age so to speak god bless your heart. enjoy your new viper.

 

[cigar]

Thanks Dennis, when you raised your car back up did it smooth out the ride?

 

[Allan]

Put the back to stock ride height so you can enjoy driving it.

The lowered cars are a little stiffer.

 

[Dom426h]

There are a several ways a Viper can be lowered or raised:
1. Shorter Springs (eibach) (1")
2. Thinner top spring perch 'Cap' (0.5")
3. Combination of the above two (1.5")
4. Upgraded shock/spring package including adjustable threaded lower perch which allows for a wide range of height selection.
5. Cut the stock springs (assume not many do this on a viper... but you never know...)

We have to know what you got to help you out...

Take a look undernieth to tell us:
-What color shocks you have
-Do they have adjustable lower perches
-What color is the upper perch/cap and is there any markings on it
-What color are the springs and are there any marking on em.

 

[cfiiman]

I even scrape sometimes at stock ride height lol, nature of the beast. Only time it was an issue was when the coolant bottle punctured b/c I hadn't done the screw mod, other than the scaped up underneath front facia not that big deal.

 

[cigar]

I made an appointment with my suspension guy for Tuesday morning, I'll bring DOM426h's list with me fo reference. When driving up I saw this POS sitting out front, I asked him how he even got in the driveway? He said he's got several like that with no springs and full air suspension. I certainly don't want to do that so we'll see what he comes up with, he says he can't say much until he gets the car up on the rack, I do have some recent records from the prior owner showing some recent suspension and alignment work, but nothing on the lowering.

BTW, I do have the plastic pulley, but am not ordering anything until he looks over the car and advises what I need, he wants to do all work on the car which I think might be a better idea rather than having my regular mechanic work on the engine, next thing I know he may have me talked into taking it to the track, first octogenarian racing a Viper? Radiator hoses look alright, but I think I'll get the silicone ones from what I read here, spark plugs and wires look relatively new, wires are Magnecor KV85 Competition pure silicone.

 

[AZTVR]

first octogenarian racing a Viper? .

Nope ! There is a very active owner out here in that age range who is very fast on the track. Of course he has been doing it for a long time. I can't remember if he had said that he raced professionally at one time.

 

[denniskgb]

Thanks Dennis, when you raised your car back up did it smooth out the ride?

Of course, i love it. No more bouncy ride and no more scraping…Stock suspension is not designed to be monkeyed with thats what i had to figure out for myself unless you completely remove it and go with high $$$ stuff