I ordered the Moog OEM replacement spring kit from Spohn. Ordered KYB front struts from Summit Racing and End Link kits from TDS.

Put them on my '88 Sport Convertible (305) last night now I look like an off-road Camaro.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Oh BTW, the left side sits at 29" ground to top of wheel well. The right side is at 28 1/4"

 

Welcome to 1988... The springs need to settle a little.

Also just sure that the isolaters are in correctly and that the spring is indexed (inbetween the 2 holes)

 

The springs are 'IROC' rated per Spohn.

Isolator's the rubber at the top?

To keep them on and in place, I used electrical tape to hold them...

 

Make sure the springs are in right, then drive it around. Welcome to the world of replacement springs. Sometimes they just need some time and cutting.

 

Did you make sure that the fronts were indexed correctly?

 

What I did was to try to make sure that at least one of the the drain holes towards the engine side of the A member was uncovered.

I keep hearing they will settle....3 to 4 inches is a heck of a lot of 'settle' and how long should I anticipate this 'settle' to happen?


Indexed....just exactly how should they be indexed? What shopuld I look for?

 

i know what it is
lol

yeah i did it too

you dont have the spring sitting in right
if you look upwards where it goes
it's gotta fit in those grooves

trust me
been there
done that

also i think you need the rubber in there too to prevent squeeking

reseat the springs

relax too
it's a learning curve

only took me 4 times (VERY thick headed)

 

The rubber is there......
According to the hayne's manual, you just make sure you don;t cover both of the drin holes on the A member.....I know when I did the back, I made sure the top of the coil was 'seated' in the groove....guess I need to do the same on the front

 

Try a few searches for front spring indexing. Search looking for board member Ebmiller88. He has great 'how to' suspension write ups and he covers spring installs very thoroughly.

 

Pretty much. yes.

 

Stock tires = 25.66" tall

29" ground-to-fender means you only have 3.25" of wheel gap on one side and like 2.5" on the other side. They shouldn't be that far off from each other, but either way, that's not a lot of wheel gap. My stock 88k mile front springs sit higher than that. Its hideous, mainly because the rear of my car already has the lowering springs installed

 

Crap that thing sits high. There's no way "settling" will cure that issue, something ain't right. You've go two possible problems: 1- The springs aren't fully seated in the upper spring pockets, and 2- They aren't indexed in the lower A-arm like they should be. Look at this:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tarami...er72/my_photos

Ed

 

So Ed, you obviously like my off road Camaro

Was looking at your tutorial last night while working....planned to check both of those.....

 

I'll bet the spring isn't seated in the upper pocket, because my car had that same big gap after rebuilding the front end. It will sit normal getting reseated properly.

 

What PN# was the Moog spring set? I sell Moog, and can help.

 

5662 and 5665

 

Not to mention you aren't thinking about the fact that your old springs were almost 20 years old... They were probably ALREADY sitting a couple inches smaller than they would have from the factory.

You should have anticipated a couple inches anyways, which is why people almost ALWAYS get lowering springs for these things if they're going to replace them... Might as well, the price isn't too far off from what I understand (I haven't really looked though, but I will be soon)

The expected lift coupled with the fact that they probably aren't seated correctly is giving you that cool rock crawler look... lol

go bind her up on a rock and tell me what kind of articulation you get

 

with the SFC's, it would rock like a baby crib when I centered out .....

 

I put some drop zone springs on my car once and put them in upside down and my car sat just like that. Its something to do with the spring and how it compresses down. I had to take them out and flip them over and that fixed my problem. I called them before hand and asked them about it and there was a top and a bottom to the spring.

 

ouch that sucks bro, should of searched around before going out an buying moog replacement springs. A guy around my way with a formula had just put in moog springs and man did his car sit high!. Should of went with lowering springs, and like everyone else saids make sure they are seated right.

 

Yes there is a top and bottom to the spring. The top is flat and the coil is tighter, whereas the bottom is helical and the coil more loose. Also, on these springs, they conveniently put some white paint on the top so that there could be NO question which is the top. Of course, you would have had to read the directions that came with them to know that.

Soon as time permits, I will pull them back out, and reinstall them making sure that they do seat fully in the top.

 

Go find a new part of your city where they test speed bumps and just drive on those for 20 minutes, might prevent you from taking it all apart againas it should be able to seat correctly if you give it some rouch terrain.

 

not a bad idea.......

 

come to new york city, there is a pothole every 10 ft.

 

Well, speed bumps didn't work....looks like pull and redo....

 

Forget speed bumps, or "they just need to settle". The springs are not seated in the frame pockets properly.

 

No, speed bumps work for some applications if its close enough, obveously it wasn't if he tried it.

 

no they were not seated in the top sockets properly...they are now.......still sits a little high to me....both sides now measure 28" ground to top of wheel well opening.....

Oh and one side WAS off a little on the indexing...and while I appreciate ALL th efeedback, please don;t tell me "lowering springs" dang thing was low enuf already to scrape on every little dip or hump.

The main reason I wanted new springs

 

That's because your stock springs were so worn they had no spring left to them

Lowering springs have a higher springrate, so you still won't scrape as much as a car with really worn stock springs.

 

Glad you fixed it, measure it in a few weeks and it will be lower, jsut need time to break in and settle in to the new housing, instead of a box where they weren't pressured down to normal operating size.