Ride quality with speedway springs

[packman]

Can any of you guys measure your frame height to the ground with the lowering springs? Also how badly out of adjustment was your camber after installing the springs?

Enough that the mechanic said that I had the camber as far as it would go and it's still negative. He said the toe can be adjusted though. This is with the 925# Speedway springs up front and 15" Eibachs in the rear. I will get the 14" rear springs in the Spring and swap them out. The CV has a bit of rake, which like Pantera77, I hate on a luxury-type car.

85ltd: I don't know how much the Afco's will lower the car. I just noticed they have the same specs as the Speedway springs; just 2.5" shorter. Even with the Speedway springs, I am going to have difficulty aligning the front suspension.


Packman

[85ltd]

So I guess that will be a major pain. Do you think it will hurt the suspension geometry though? And the true coils do lower it? With a possible 3" drop, would short shocks be required? Thanks.

-Blane

[BigMerc96]

Does anyone know, Are the speedway springs sold in pairs or individually? Any idea how much they would lower my Town Car? About a 1" drop would be nice. It already has coils in the back making it ride like crap cuz they are too stiff. Figure if its gonna ride like that it might as well be lower and handle better for it.

[turbo2256b]

What you should shoot for is the lower control arms to be parallel to the ground. Once the inner pivot sits lower than the outer shims might have to be made to fit between the upper inner piviot and the frame.

[Brown_Muscle]

Enough that the mechanic said that I had the camber as far as it would go and it's still negative. He said the toe can be adjusted though. This is with the 925# Speedway springs up front and 15" Eibachs in the rear. I will get the 14" rear springs in the Spring and swap them out. The CV has a bit of rake, which like Pantera77, I hate on a luxury-type car.

85ltd: I don't know how much the Afco's will lower the car. I just noticed they have the same specs as the Speedway springs; just 2.5" shorter. Even with the Speedway springs, I am going to have difficulty aligning the front suspension.


Packman

I figured it would change the camber. Police models were a little higher due to the stiffer springs, so they would have an even bigger drop for me.. I think I will get custom springs made when I get new ones, 50% stiffer, same ride height or 1/2" lower.

[packman]

You will definitely need shorter shocks for a 3" drop. I suspect that would be what the Afco's would do. For shocks, you may want to look at what's available for the GM A-body, as listed in the stickie. They have been lowering those cars for years and they must be using something. Alignment would be very difficult as I found out. Like Turbo said, you'd have to somehow adjust the lower control arm to gain some camber. I wouldn't know how to begin with that. My CV was only lowered 1.5" with the Speedway springs, and that's enough to cause issues. I had to switch to Eibachs in the rear because I welded in new spring perches. At the time, Eibach only offered 13" and 15" rear springs. They just recently made 14" rear springs. I will be swapping to those in the spring.



Packman

[visionmercury]

ive got 3 1/2in of drop in the front and 3 1/4 drop in the rear, factory replace monroe sence a trac for 2 yrs with no problem and i just had to replace the fronts im going with a 2in short short all the way around. biggest thing is having the expanded and colapesd height on the shock

So I guess that will be a major pain. Do you think it will hurt the suspension geometry though? And the true coils do lower it? With a possible 3" drop, would short shocks be required? Thanks.

-Blane[/QUOTE]

[turbo2256b]

Measure the distance between the lower shock mount and the upper will give you shock mid travel lengh. If measured before drop subtract your desired drop from the lenght measured. This will ball park shock length and you could look for shorter shocks but wouldnt purchase any untill the car is dropped for an exact dimension.
The more the drop the less suspension travel is avalable the stiffer the springs and shocks need to be to prevent bottoming things out such as shocks, control arms hitting frame and such. The more the drop the geometry will change usally for the worse past a point. A 3" drop on a standard Box would require about 1/2" spacers made to be inserted between the inner upper a arm shaft and the frame longer bolts would be needed also.

[turbo2256b]

Dropping a ride will also begin to limit tire width the lower you go after a point the narrower a tire ends up being required or mods the the fenders.
Were does the trade of begin if you want a great handling ride, tire width or lowering the car more. I usally go with the widest tires possable then lower as much as possable using the widest tires. Have gone crazy on some stuff and whacked up fenders and flared them. I remember one 69 Mustang I did. Pulled out of a place they built stock cars i purchased parts from and a cop stopped me thinking I stole one of thier stock cars. Took the cops about an hour to figure different back before computers.

[85ltd]

[QUOTE=visionmercury;678540]ive got 3 1/2in of drop in the front and 3 1/4 drop in the rear, factory replace monroe sence a trac for 2 yrs with no problem and i just had to replace the fronts im going with a 2in short short all the way around. biggest thing is having the expanded and colapesd height on the shock /QUOTE]

Awesome, how did you lower it? With the springs? Did you have the problems turbo is talking about? I want to still get tires as wide as possible, may get a different backspacing wheel to tuck it in a little bit, but the control arms would possibly be in the way then. If all I need to do though is roll the fenders, that isn't a problem and I could do that or add a little metal the proper way to allow a wider tire.

-Blane

[turbo2256b]

Wheels for a a box are best fit with 0 mabe plus .5 ofset for widest tires. Also dia of the tire is limited to about 25.5 inches pluss or minus a tad due to inner wheel well interferance at the firewall. Lip is tough to roll if you want to keep chrome trim. Section width with 15" wheels and tires is an issue with with clearance to upper control arm. Also load rating of the tires. Wouldnt go under 1600lbs rating due to front end weight of the car aprox 2500 lbs for a 302 with air and EFI with most options. 1 to 1 1/2 inches of drop will allow about the widest tires possible with out any mods to the fenders in the front.

[85ltd]

Okay, I was planning on 17" or 18" wheels with a very low profile and wide. So I can add the bigger brakes. I don't have the chrome trim so that wouldn't be an issue. Also, my car only weighs about 3300 pounds, with the front being quite a bit less than stock. Just a 351 with aluminum intake, no battery up front, and all the heat/blower motor has been deleted. The inner wheel wells are going to be custom. I will fab up some metal ones to go back in, and they will be much higher up, like on most lowered vehicles.

-Blane

[turbo2256b]

You might want to get it weighed. A 351 weighs almost 200 lbls more than a 302. A 351 weighs almost the same as a 390 with an aluminum intake. So some of the weight you removed from the front possibly only ofset the differance of the engine. Metal inner fender wells will add weight back also. Steel front bumper is about 78 lbs. inner bumper is about half the weigh of the outer. Aluminum bumper is about 50 lbs.

Height of the inner fender wells is less of an issue compaired to the rear firewall clearance.

They just quit making the largest / fattest 18" tire that will fit 285 30 18 BFG. They have a load rating of 1605. All other mfg's I have researched are 1400 or less. These were also summer only tires and require custom made rims because of the ofset required.

[visionmercury]

I didn't run into wheel or tire issues, but I'm running stock 6:5 wheels and a 225 series tires. I'm close to rubbing the fender there's about 2in there and there not rolled. I cut the front springs and did a lot of looking a got a moog replacement spring I have the part # pm me ill find it and give it to u the rear spring is a hubby comb style so u can't cut them ...give me a couple months and ll give u a nice right up with lots of pics , a big brake change and some 20x8 tucked w/ a 3" drop

[85ltd]

I have a front roll pan/ air dam to go in place of the bumper. I had it weighed just a bit ago, with it in race form and half a tank of gas, it came in at 3287 pounds without me, but with the steel bumper. I only weigh 140 and I'm sure I can find other ways to drop a little more weight. As long as I can get a 275 or so in there, I should be fine. I read the article that racer X posted in another forum I think, on how to make a car handle, especially our cars. I'm just going to do one part at a time and if it needs fabbing to make work, that's fine. Thanks for all the help guys, and I'm sorry to thread jack. I will pm you in just a bit vision, I can't wait to see the pics, I know they will be badass.

-Blane