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Another spring question


jon L

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The pad is about a 1/2" thick, so I took only about 1/4" off.

The pad shows no wear whatsoever. 

I don't think I need to check the camber, but I'm going to have it checked anyway.

Next is the front and maybe a little more in the rear.

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So most of the 2" lowering came from reducing the thickness of the spring to make it weaker so it would flex more and let weight of the car push it down more. Is that correct?

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53 minutes ago, jon L said:

I told you it was old school.

 

 

 

You are the first as far as I know to do it. Nothing wrong with the way you did it if it's safe.  Have you driven it any yet?

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No, only jumped on it with 250 lbs over and over. Everything is good.

 I don't believe it weakened it at all, just made it flex more.

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Here are the pictures.

What do you think?

The ride is a little springer, but I have air shocks I may install.

IMG_1157.JPG

IMG_1155.JPG

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Certainly is a change. It seems about as close to even spacing in the opening as you can get. Modern cars seem to have a smaller wheelhouse area relative to the tire. Some form of wheelwell opening molding to shrink the apparent opening might be effective visually. It looks unbalanced with the nose high but I think it will look dandy with the nose down to match. Will be interesting to see how it performs. I wish I could consider doing that but I wouldn't get into my driveway?

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Looks like it dropped it for sure.  I'm not into the low look myself but it's good to know it can be done. Thanks for sharing how you did it with us. What do you have in mind to lower the front?

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First thing is to put air shocks on the rear. It's a little to springy.

Then I will figure out a plan for the front. I think I know what I am going to do, but

I'm not going to spread it around until I see how it works out.

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I appreciate what you are doing Jon. Guys have talked for years about lowering there car and looks like you have done it. Good for you.

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I have driven it a very little. It feels very safe, but a little springy. That's the only way I can describe it,

aso it has a different feel to it being high in the rear. But with the air shocks it should feel better.

But it is low. My lift is too high with the rubber blocks on it. I nearly dragged it out of the garage

when I first moved it.

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By "springy" do you mean like the shocks aren't damping the up and down movement quickly enough, or because the spring is moving over a greater than normal range now. If the second, I agree that a little help from the air lift, without really raising the rear, would increase the spring rate. Usually lower means less travel available so it needs to be stiffer in the working range.

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I don't know if this will be helpful or not but I stumbled over this old thread from the AACA forum. Hard to find any detail today for our 30 year old front suspension but the spring rate mentioned in the thread I found is the same as for all full size GM fwd cars from Buick, Pontiac and Oldsmobile for the entire 90's. This was a guy that lowered his car a while back:

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/184553-front-coil-spring-specs/

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