changing ride height on an early R4

[Ron from sa]

Hello all,
I know this is a basic question, the answer to which should be know by all R4 owners, but this is an area I have long had a mental block about. I have several editions of the R4 manual, and they all seem to be missing the opportunity to spell it out simply and directly. My car is a series one R4 which uses the anchor plates rather than the cams to adjust the torsion bars. I have two cars , one I am restoring and one as my parts car. Neither has the anchor plates locked in the same positions, left or right.
In simple terms which way do I swing the anchor plates to raise the suspension? On the front torsion bars, looking forward from inside the car do the anchor plates swing towards the centre of the car or outwards? On the rear torsion bars when looking outwards from under the car, do they swing forward or backwards? (are the left and right different?). I realize the models fitted with the cams are more common in the UK, but here in Australia the earlier (1962-67) are more common and as such have many features that are different.
Help!! Ron

 

[angel]

For the front bars, moving the anchor levers outwards raises the ride height. You will need the octagonal spanner discussed elsewhere on this forum in order to reposition the anchor lever, fortunately it's common with the later types of anchor lever.

For the rear ones, swinging the anchor lever towards the direction of suspension rebound will raise the ride height. I have never worked on such an early car, but it seems from parts drawings that both anchor levers are identical so they should be moved at opposing directions for the same result.
Renault suggest the use of another special tool to take the load off the torsion bars, but I guess that the easier to make tool that we use on later cars on place of the shock absorber would be OK.

 

[Ron from sa]

Thank you Angel. You are a Godsend - clear and precise. I'll let you know how it all goes.
Ron