Rear springs question.

Fett

New Member
Nov 2, 2004
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When I was first building my car, I opted for Ford racing springs. I forget which number they were, but they were a 1" drop in the front and a .8" drop in the rear with a fairly tight spring rate. The car sits and feels fine, but there seems to be a tad more wheel gap in the front than in the rear. I also just bought new wheels for my slicks, and the offset puts the outer edge of my 26" slicks just under the outer wheel well lip. I had to adjust my shocks so the tires wouldn't rub during my launch. Plus I have VERY little room with my 274/40/17" in the rear, with the quad shocks flipped, there is just a hair of room.

I would like to eventually go with 4.10 gears and a 28" slick, but there is no way I could get those to fit with my current setup. So I am thinking of swapping out the rear springs. I figure maybe a slightly taller spring to make the ride height a little higher in the rear, plus it would give me more room for taller slicks.

Without breaking the bank, what would be a good rear spring to go with on my DD? I would like to keep the tight feel of the car on the road, but have room for the slicks and still be able to hook at the track....something I am having a hard time doing now when I spray out of the hole.

It is an 88 Coupe, with Steeda tubular lower and fully boxed uppers with urethane bushings. Stock quad shocks, flipped. Strange adjustable rear shocks. Stock rear sway bar. 3.73 gears. Steeda full length subframe connectors.

Thanks.
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If your wanting the same ride I would go with someting like these instead of switching out to a taller spring- Part number for these from summit is GRN-GMCA7998WJ they're adjustable up to 3 inches total, or 1 inch lower or 2 inches higher and there 199.95, there are alot of differant manufacturers to choose from, I just used these as a referance. Good Luck
 
I thought about that, but I have heard a TON of bad things about those control arms. I talked to one company today that said they stopped carrying those because they had a bad habit of breaking on people.

I do love the idea of having them adjustable, I just don't want to have any issues in the future with them not holding up.
 
I was thinking about those adjustable style control arms, and it got me thinking...

Wouldn't an adjustable arm like those actually change the spring rate? I mean, the control arm stays where it is, and by adjusting the perch up, you are actually compressing the spring more. Wouldn't that effect the spring load?

I would think that the more you adjust the perch, it wouldn't raise the car as much as it would just compress the spring more. So for every turn of the perch you would raise the car a little, but you would also make the spring tighter.

Or am I over thinking the whole thing?
 
The spring rate is not going to change. The load on the spring (weight of the car) will be the close to the same so by moving the perch you in turn change the height of the car rather than compressing the spring. As far as springs go, I have the eibach drag launch springs in the rear. I'm told they sit a little higher, but am not sure as I had 4 cylinder springs before and know they sit higher than those.
 
I have those MM LCAs. I have the height adjusted to the maximum suggested height (2 inches above stock), and so far no problems. I've been driving that way for about a week now. Before that, I had them at about 0.5 inches above stock, and drove that way for several months.

I wanted the extra height, because I've got huge rims and tires, which were rubbing on the outer fender well when I turned onto a steep driveway from the street.

I have H&R race springs in back.

Someday, I may switch to coilovers in back. Coilovers can be height-adjusted easily, so I'm told. I'm guessing that one could even go 2 inches above stock height, with coilovers, although I don't know for sure.