Installing these in the rear was actually quite simple, it was the front that posed the greatest problem. When you lift the C5 and remove the front wheels, you see the bolts that rest against the A arms and go up through the leaf. To lower the front, you turn the nuts counter clockwise bringing the A arm closer to the leaf spring.

After adjusting the bolts as far as they would go, I put the wheels back on and rolled the car out of the garage. Now the back is sitting good, with about 2 inches between the tire and fender well. The front is a different story. After adjusting the front bolts, it lowered the car about a 1/2 inch. So, needless to say I will be taking those front leaf spring bolts out altogether.

I will re-evaluate the height of the rear after re-lowering the front. Most likely, the rear will need to be raised to level out with the front.

The ride with the C5 lowered is not very good at all. After having a chance to take a look at the Z51 shocks, all I can say is "Yuck!". GM really needs to get its act together and quit using such garbage. Thanks to Sam at LAPD, I have a set of Bilstein Sport shocks on the way!

I had some problems with my old camera, so there are not too many pictures yet (went out and bought a Kodak DC-280) but since I have a new digital camera, there will be quite a few pictures to follow.

This first picture shows the rear A arm and leaf spring.  The new AA engines bolt is installed.

Picture 1 shows the front after lowering.  Picture 2 shows the rear after lowering

The first picture here shows the C5 before lowering.  The second shows the C5 after lowering.  Much more aggressive looking!

5/27/00

Today I installed my new Bilstein Sport shocks and since the A arms needed to be partially removed, it was a good opportunity to remove the front torsion bar bolts.

After the A arm was loosened and moved out of the way, I was able to remove the retaining clip from the top of the bolt and back it out counter clockwise.  With no weight on the torsion bar, this bolt backed out very easy.  Pictures 1,2 & 3 show the bolt tightened down all the way (that's what I did to lower the front in the earlier pictures) picture two shows the bolt almost backed out completely.  Picture three shows the bolt gone!

To prevent the torsion bar from rubbing directly against the bottom A arm, I inserted a folded piece of rubber.  Picture one shows the rubber coupler before compression, picture two shows the installation of the Bilstein Sport shock and picture three shows the rubber coupler compressed.  No squeaks or rattles so I guess it was a good idea to use the rubber pieces.

This first picture was used above, and it shows the rear as it is now and the front with just the bolts loosened as far as they would go.  The second picture shows how the front sits, now that the torsion bolts have been removed.  It looks soooo much better!

Copyright ©2000 Rik Johnson. All rights reserved.