I've seen, many years ago, a small clamp that pinched together a couple of coils. the clamps were simple and very cheap...

is this a viable option to cutting springs?

 

is there such distain for clamps that no one can bring themselves to comment?!

 

No they are not a "viable" option. Never have been, never will be. Not any more "viable" than those little things you screwed in between coils to jack the car up.

Not that "cutting springs" is exactly what I'd call the "first choice", either. It's somewhere WAY behind just getting the right ones for what you want it to do.

 

in a word , yes . they are junk , and will ruin a somewhat decent spring . if you want to lower get a spring made for it , and a front end alignment .

 

There is nothing wrong with cutting springs, it's not like they just fall apart and make your car explode.


The right spring for the application can sometimes be made out of stock springs. The hard part is knowing what the right spring rate and height is right for a particular vehicle. That's where people get themselfs into trouble.

 

Custom height springs are best, but I put 150K on a Cavalier that I lowered very successfully by about 2" with sets of "spring clamps". Never a problem, car aligned per specs and handling vastly improved. Installed clamps on each side of each coil, and resultant coil was noticeably stiffer. Project started out as a budget attack on newly installed gas-charged struts, which had raised car an inch.

 

I tried the clamps and they dont fit around our front springs, they are too thick and the coils are too close together for the clamps to fit in between.