So my car had been lowered before but with springs not for a Camaro, G-body springs and it sat quite low. The G-body springs must be softer than Camaro springs because they compressed easy on road dips and bottomed out on the K-member all the time.

Before:


So I bought Eibach Pro-kit thinking they would lower the car less (raise it) and be more firm. The backs had the desired effect but the front is terrible!

Now:


What happened? Is there a spacer I am missing that comes with the kit? I re-used the existing. The box part # was K3801.140 and the front springs were marked 3801.202 (I think the backs were 3801.201). I searched this on the site and the #'s seem normal. I'm perplexed.

 

Idk about your question, but your car had a freakin perfect ride height in the before picture. The G body springs must have been a different spring rate because People lower these cars all the time, and I only hear about the front air dam scrapping. good luck fixing your problem!

 

This is weird. I guess the fronts that came out are stock (BZW 14029397) and the rears were Bell-tech 5100's.

Why would someone put G-body springs on the rear and keep stock in the front? And why is the front so low? Both the stock springs and Pro-kit springs look lower than any other car I have seen.

In any case if I have the pro-kit front & back as I have now it should sit more flat than it is. This pisses me off. Waste of time and money.

 

Looks about right for the Pro-Kit.

Chances are, the G-Body springs were physically taller and/or a heavier spring rate, due to the heavier weight of the G-Body.

Why'd you change springs? You wanted it higher? You might wanna switch to stock springs & just cut 1/2 coil off the fronts and 1 full coil out back. Gives a good stance & never hits unless the road is real bad & it woulda hit anyways.

Your dissatisfaction with the results of spring swapping is why I encourage the use of Weight Jacks. Buy 1 set of springs & height adjustment afterward, is just a wrench away, no money & very little labor involved. Not the cheapest solution but very satisfying. I've played the stock cut & lowering game before. Never again!

 

Im starting to think maybe the front has 1" drop spindles. They looked stock but I'm going take a better look.

 

I took a closer look. The spindles are normal. The lower A-arms are actually sitting horizontal and the bump stops are 1/4" from the K member.

This does not seem like a 1" drop.

 

Can you measure the distance from the ground to the front fender lip at its highest point?

 

Are the Isolators removed- this will lower some.

Are the ball joints possibly "extended ball joints"- this will also lower some.

Was the kit new (Appearance of an unopened box?) or maybe it was repackaged after someone possibly but them and them returned them to an unaware retailer?

Is the problem of the kmember grounding out still an issue or are these springs stiffer, but just a tad lower than you desire? I think the front looks good. Personally, I would remove the rear isolators to drop the rear a tad and you should set perfect in stance. Lowering the rear a tad with isolator removal would rotate the nose up a small amount as the rear lowers and give a bit more driveway clearance so as not to scrap the spoiler as badly.

 

The front as it is, thats too low for the pro kit. I have those same springs, my car does not sit that low on them. Something else is different, whether it is the lower control arms, the ball joints, the spindles... something.

 

I have an 85 Z28 TPI w/ a 350. I just installed (yesterday) the Eibach Sport Line lowering springs, along with new Energy Suspension lower control arm bushings. I have the 88 IROC 16" rims with brand new (0 miles) 245/50/16 Bridgestone Potenza ASPole position tires. Measuring from the ground to the top of the wheel well/fender lip it measures 26 1/4 inches. My son has a stock 84 Z28 carb 305 HO w/ all brand new stock suspension (about 6 months old). His measures at 27 3/4 inches. Hope these measurements help.

 

The springs were new from a retailer but the box had been opened. I checked the numbers printed on the springs as noted above.

Its gotta be faulty springs. They were somewhat cheap for new ($180). Im wondering if it is a recalled set or something like that. Im going to call Eibach on Monday.

All the bushings were replaced with poly in the front prior to this swap.

 

i just had this problem with dropzone springs. i replaced them with sportlines and love them. they sent me v6 springs. check and see if thats a posibiltiy.

 

so... are the fronts properly indexed?

 

Irrelivant question. WHy? If they were not indexed into the A-arms the spring would be sitting the chassis height too high, not too low like in this case.

 

that happened to me...a couple times, easy way to get a lift kit lol

did you put the rubber cups back on the springs?

are you sure the backs are in right...it doesnt look any lower than stock at all

 

way too low for a prokit, most likely the wrong springs ended up in the box, right numbers or not. my car didnt sit that low with the sportlines

 

sorry but yor wrong, twisting the spring clockwise, while looking down from the top of vehicle actually changes where the spring contacts the high spot in the a-arm, closest to the k-member, when indexed properly the springtail is located and the high spot of the a-arm between the drainn holes when rotated out of place the coil is now no longer resting on the tail, its resting 1/2 a coil up from the bottom/end of spring, shortening the spring length, this actually shortens the amount of spring thats is underload, thus shortening its lenghth and ride height......

when the springs aren't inproperly indexed it will lower the car, if they are not in the upper perch area properly it will raise the car, think about it....

so, no it's not Irrelivant question,

 

the sportlines have yet to settle. but this was my problem as the springs were v-6 springs. i would swap them out. my car was undrivable with this wheel/tire combo in front. hope this helps



my car with dropzones 1.75 inch drop.


camarolowered1.jpg?t=1289512744


with sportlines: camarolowered2.jpg?t=1289512827

 

Yeah, any pic I compare to of Pro-kit mine is waaayy lower. I have called Eibach, and they wanted some dimensions. I sent them on Monday night and called them on Wednesday but I have yet to hear back from them. They were helpfull but are taking their sweet time replying.

Center of wheel to fender was 12.5" front, 14.7" in the rear. I wish I Measured it prior to the install.

I hope it is the springs, as I am going to replace them regardless of what Eibach says. I just have to determine whether to retry the Pro-kit (assuming a fault in my set) or try something else like cut down Moog springs.

Cross my fingers they reply on Friday. If not Im calling again.

 

I will give you half right and half wrong- as for myself also being half right and half wrong (Yes people, I do admit when I am wrong ) This can be true based on the angle of the A-arm at installed spring height. If the A-arm is parallel to the ground as in this case where the spring is a lowered spring- the open end (or as technically know: the Helix shaped end) of the spring will rest on the outer portion on the spring pocket circle which in this case will in fact be closer to the upper spring pocket BECAUSE if you look at the a-arm at parallel height the index is recessed.

Once the A-arm install height is where the Indexed portion of the arm is higher than the opposite side (meaning the ball joint side of the a-arm is closer towards the ground than the mount ear) then the spring not indexed will start to make the car lower. HOWEVER_ Special note here- You have to look again at the pictures and you will see that I KNOW IN FACT with the car in reference being at about 25" off the ground fender lip that the A-arm is about parallel to the ground...WHICH MEANS....the index portion is lower from the upper pocket than the opposite side of the a-arm pocket...THUS the spring would be spreading the distance from the A-arm to the upper pocket WIDER.

Yes I could be wrong, but not in this case. Yes you could be right with how you are looking at things on a noraml factory ride height car- but this senerio is not that case.

 

Did you buy these springs from the retailer advertising on Vancouver Craigslist? I saw an ad for the pro-kit at $180 and was considering buying them, but certainly not if the springs are mis-matched.

 

Thats the one.

 

Still no word from Eibach.

There is still just two things I think it could be: spindles or springs.

For springs: Could anyone with the Pro-kit confirm if their A-arm sat this horizontal and with about 1/4" (finger) between the K-member and bump stop as shown?


For Spindles: Does anyone have a pic of a stock spindle? I found one on Hawks but I can't be 100% sure it is the correct part for our cars. Below is a pic of the back of mine.



THanks

 

Sportlines don't even come close to that low. Curious to see what the issue is.

 

yup, it was the spindles. cheap drop spindles threw me off.

 

usually when you have drop spindles it chages the angle of the a-arm to reduce roll, not induce like yours, how do you know they are drop spindles, never seen drop spindles throw off the a-arm angle like that?????

 

When you compare your spindles to the picture of the stock spindles, I agree that your spindles are drop spindles. Do you still have the pro-kit springs installed in that picture showing the a-arm angle?

 

If your running lowered spindles AND lowered springs....There is your problem. Run one or the other, not both.

I wouldn't mind seeing Lowered spindles & a Ground Control Weight Jack spring setup. Then the spindles would drop the ride height & use the GC stuff to dial it in, higher or lower (probably higher for most people).

 

Thats what I have.

 

Yes, that is with drop spindles and the 1" drop Eibachs. likely 3" total.

It used to be stock springs which is kinda stupid with drop spindles in my mind. I would think to be ideal you would need stiffer springs at the stock length to reduce the suspension travel distance. The way it was it maxed out all the time and I scraped after dips in the road, rail X-ings, etc.