heres the majority of my suspension mods.

Eibach pro-kit
tokico hp's
17x8.5 C5's 245/45 Toyo Proxes 4's

Front:
-wonderbar
-spohn steel strut mounts
-stock sway bar with poly bushings and endlinks(36mm on the way)

Rear:
-profab lca's with nylon bushings
-spohn panhard with poly bushings


Future plans are...
-double rod end panhard
-panhard lowering bracket
-c5 brakes
-36mm sway bar
-koni yellows
-maybe a rear weight jacker setup, unless i can make the prokit rear springs work

questions...

1. My ride is pretty harsh right now, Im not sure if the spring rates are too high for the with its reduced weight(gutted interior, a/c delete..and so on). Or if the shocks and struts just arent enough to dampen the springs on the rough roads we have around here.

2. My ride height is just about where i want it in the front with the isolator removed. The rear on the other hand is way too high, How much can i expect the rear to drop?

If not enough, how will cutting half a coil from the pro-kits progressive rear springs affect them? I understand spring rate will go up, which may or may not be a good thing...dont know what im looking for here in an answer, but input would be nice.

3. My rear LCA's "pop-pop" when the weather is warm outside and i go over a bump. Im guessing this is because i tightened them up while the car was in the air which cause some binding, but i am also unfamiliar with nylon bushings. So am i right with my assumptions or is this common with the solid bushings?

4. Is it common for ride "feel" to change a ton with a full tank of gas VS. a near empty tank. Does this have to do with the progressive rear springs? My car feel much more stable, planted and just solid when it has a full tank of gas. Any way to reduce the effects of this.

Im sure some of these questions can be address simply and others my be inter-related.

 

You need to add sub frame connectors to your list or else you may have problems down the road. The clunks you hear in the rear are pretty normal for these cars. Every lowered 4th and 3rd gen car with aftermarket suspension part that I have ever ridden/driven/owned/work on has had some sort of clunk. Aftermarket parts don't have the soft pliable bushings and desing of the stock parts.

Your harsh ride also sounds normal. Your car is lowered with all kinds of components that decrease the dampening effect of your suspension. When modifying the suspenion of f-bodies it is hard to have your cake and eat it to.

 

My car also feels alot better with a full tank, the weight balance is not that good with a V8 up front. I have spohn lcas in the rear with rod-end/poly combo and they clunk, don't have an answer for this yet, just agreeing with you and shifty. When I'm done sorting out all my handling problems (need some time to test and adjust things) I'm gonna dynamat the whole car, maybe double layer.

 

Forgot to mention in my previous post, but I cut almost a full coil off the rear springs and put the isolators back in. It brought it down to a more reasonble level and didn't notice a ride or handling or difference, but again, I haven't done any real testing/adjusting yet. You'll notice from my sig that just about everything is adjustable as Dean would recommend and I agree with. One of my concerns that I'll have to check out is my front and rear bumpstops.

 

Happen to have any pictures of your stance with the cut rear springs?

koni's will probably be my next upgrade, but its a shame to ditch these shocks already, they probably have less than 1k miles on them.

 

I'll borrow a digital cam. this weekend and post some pics. I wish I got the Koni yellows, not that the illuminas aren't great but I think the yellows would be perfect.

 

Not to far off topic, but BMR makes a poly/rubber LCA that really provides the best of both worlds. I know some people have issue with BMR but I've had no problems with a pair I;ve had for 5yrs.

No poly/rubber LCA will not be as good as rod ends as far as no binding, but they do not "clunk".

and I'm sorry , but I believe that the poly /poly when pushed will produce the 'snap' oversteer that a few people have warned about. I experienced this once with the poly /rubber and it's not fun. but poly /rubber is much less likely to do it than poly /poly

Poly rubber is relatively quiet, and provides the stiffness that we are looking for on the street. although not quite the max performance item a rod ended / poly is.

$.02

 

blyth, here's a pic

 

Yes thats definately a better stance than mine has right now. Hopefully i can get access to a sawzall or cut-off wheel within the next few weeks.