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Chrome Springs


Grizzlee

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After 26 years the stock shocks on my 91 SE have not surprisingly given up and emptied themselves onto my garage floor. 

When I removed the fronts I noticed they had quite a lot of preload on the springs, in fact more than 25mm. This suggests to me the springs were under rated, and to achieve the correct ride height had to be preloaded to quite an extent. There is also signs at times the springs were coil bound, having been driven down many a bumpy lane in Wales over the years :d

Couple of questions, firstly has anyone else had such a preload on their shocks/springs? Secondly does anyone know where I can get nice chrome plated springs from to replace these?

Cheers

G.

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Hi @Grizzlee

FIrst off, apart from understanding the basics, I'm certainly no suspension expert.  However, I'm currently having all 4 protechs re-valved and dyno'd by Matt at Procomp so have been reading a fair bit about the black art of settings etc.

All 4 of my coilovers have quite a bit of preload to them, way more than 25mm, nearer 50 or so, in order to achieve a "comfortable" ride height to save further grinding of my chassis hoop.

From what I've read this doesn't affect the spring performance at all so long as there is still enough free travel until the spring could compress no further (coil-bound).  I think the correct spring rating would allow an adequate amount of compression and expansion without hitting either the bumpstop or the spring becoming coil bound.

If you fit higher rated springs then you will see a big difference in your suspension characteristics, possible better possibly worse, perhaps you need the same spring rate with an extra inch or so of spring length?

If your units are quite old perhaps the dampers have deteriorated to the point where they're not controlling the spring correctly any more (ie oil on your garage floor).

I'd start by having them serviced / replaced and keep your springs as they are.  Once you see what the referbished / new ones are like different springs are fairly cheap to swap out if really needed.

One final point, and a blatent plug for Procomp, when Matt services the Protech units he re-valves and dyno balances them in matched pairs to suit our cars' weight.  The difference in usable settings is huge.  I cant for the life of my understand why the factory dont fit / supply the correctly rated (valved) units to start with....?

:popcorn:

I know Justin ( @Thrustyjust ) has recently swapped his rear springs for longer units and is happier with the results.

Edit: can't help with the chrome springs.

If anyone knows of a good book / article to study suspension setup explained in lay-mans terms I'd be interested.

 

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The springs I was supplied with from the factory, to fit to the factory supplied Avo dampers, had to be compressed to fit. (1999 kit) I've since swapped them.. 

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Guys, thanks for the info. 

@CraigHew The old springs are a little over 9" long, I've gone for some new Protech shocks, they recommend 8" but if it's acceptable to preload the springs I'll refit the old ones.

Cheers

G.

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