George Klass

Hey guys, my car sits a little too high for my liking. I don't want it crazy low, just small drop. An inch, maybe a smidge more? From what I understand the front springs are linear. Are the rears as well?

From my research it looks like cutting a 1/3 coil in the front will do the trick.

If the rears are progressive I really don't want to have to cut but will if we have to the minumum amount possible.

I was thinking 1/3 for the rear, remove the isolator and use some heater hose? Or maybe even with isolator the drop would be enough?

1989 Trans AM, 305 TBI with A/C.

Car will have new KYB Exgel G's all around. I would really rather not have to change anything else. The car is used to cruise around. Virtually zero performance driving.


Thank you

George Klass

Anyone?

Drew

iTrader: (58)

The rears are probably progressive. If you look the coil diameter will get tighter near the bottom and the coils may not be equally spaced apart.

Ultimately if you want to cut coils the traditional wisdom is to start small. You can always cut more off.

Personally, most of my thirdgens drag the airdams pulling in and out of the driveway. I wouldn't go lower. If I were removing the springs, specifically the front springs, I wouldn't want to do the job twice. If my goal were to go lower, I'd spend the money on aftermarket springs and keep the stockers on the shelf for a rainy day.

George Klass

Hey Drew. I would consider lowering springs but to be perfectly honest I really need to slow down my spending on this car right now. It's gotten a little out of hand haha. I could save some $$ and do it later but the current situation is the idler arm needs to be changed. Because the tie rods are crusty and not super tight either doing them at the same time. Also changing the struts and shocks. While I'm there I figured let me cut the springs. Don't want to have to align it twice either.

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

One coil on the font will drop it almost 3" with the thick rear isolator installed up there. You don't want to cut the back ones too much since the spring rate will go up too fast to keep up with the front, and the factory rear springs are specific rate just like the fronts.

I'd bet that 1/2 a coil off of each, swap the rear isolators to the font and install hose on the rear will have you pretty close to where you want to be, maybe a touch more. 1/3 of a coil is safe but I don't think you'll really notice the difference in appearance, if you want something that tame, I'd do 1/3 on the front, nothing on the back and again, move the isolators.

No matter what you do don't cut more coils off the rear than the front if you want it to handle well, the front will drop faster and go up in spring rate slower than the rear and that could result in a car that will want to swap ends when pushed hard. You pretty much don't want to go above the low 200lb rate in the back no matter what you put in the front and most factory springs will end up around 225 with one coil cut.

FWIW, back in the day I ran '83 TA WS6 springs (I know that I posted tag numbers here, but it could have been 25 years ago now that I did it, and 15 or so that I posted it) with one coil cut in the front and rear, rear isolators on the front... and I really liked the combination, but it was really low (with 26.2" tires F and 27" tires R it sat with the k-member within 2.5" of the ground), but with that much cut I had to run a thinner rear sway bar and rubber bushings in the back to get a balanced combination for autox

George Klass

Hey Crossfire, thanks for your response.

One thing tho. For years I've always understood that on linear/specific rate springs the rate doesn't change when they are cut?

Your last suggestion is probably what I will do. 1/3 off the front and some heater hose for the rear.