Getting ready to take some of your ideas and do some suspension tweaking front and rear. I purchased some Koni bumpstops and shims....good grief Koni is proud of their plastic and sponges pieces. $70 not including shipping from one of their vendors.

 

About to hit the bed. Getting up on a few and starting on my car to install the GC kit on Bilsteins. I REALLy want to do this mod but am worried about the cutting and the little washer. From what I see I will need a little washer because I have bilsteins. Also am wondering how easy it will be to hack off the top of the shock threads with a hacksaw. Will decide when I get up

 

First off this is one amazing and informative thread.
Hats off(no pun intended)to Jason WW.

I have a scenario I'd like to run by you and some of the other suspesnion gurus out there.

I'm about to install a set of Koni yellows DA's. And I read a lot that many on here prefer the SA's becuz the front ends allow for an extra inch drop up front. And when combined with the rear end heater hose mod they set up a basic ballpark 1 inch drop relatively cheap.

I'm a little tapped out on money myself so it interests me to stay thrifty.
So i looked around the yellow fronts and its true they do not have a 2nd perch to remove c clip lower onto....but the c clip can still be removed entirely.....my idea is to possible stop by a good welder and have him weld some seams an inch lower. Then run the heater hose mod in the rear.
I'd still like to introduce your mod on this thread as I see it does not affect ride height at all. (im not interested in going too low)

My question is do u have a better solution for us yellow koni's other than my own rigging written above?

Also I'm thinking about throwing in the LS1 rear and front coils as a cheap if not minor upgrade/refresh.....would u recommend this..? or would this be a horrible combination?
I currently run the stock Z28 springs on my 1995.
Thanks for the great posting and info.

 

You never want to weld on a shock body. It can warp and prematurely wear out the piston seals.

The simple solution is to take the shocks to a machine shop and have another groove cut in it. Just make sure you don't cut any deeper than the stock grooves and you'll be fine.

If you haven't bought the DA's yet I've heard they don't have a warranty while the SA's have a lifetime warranty on them. So unless your sure you need that bump adjustment, you could save some money by getting the SA. You'd save a little more money by not having to cut a second groove. It's something to think about. Also, both the SA and DA Sport shocks are yellow. I painted mine black.

Aren't the LS1 springs the same as what you already have? It's the V6 springs that are softer. I'm a big fan of trimming the rear springs. It increases the spring rate some which improves handling and helps keep you off the bumpstops.

 

Nah i bought the DA's a long time ago so SA's are out of the question now....u sure about being able to machine that groove?....I'd definitely prefer it over weld! It just seems like the existing groove area has extra material just in that area...but thats crazy i guess.
How far down in space should I go from the original groove? exactly an inch?...in pictures it seems the SA's are less than inch.

About the spring rates on my 95 and others...according to this...im either better off with my stockers or trying to find 1LE's....or slp stage 2's.
But thats if this chart is correct:
http://www.angelfire.com/my/fastcar/suspension.html

Still planning on very likely doing your mod....I see no harm in it...only better suspension up front...any objections? My understanding is it will not lower anything just allow for more travel.


Hey any chance u have an unFCC'd version pic of that brawd in your signature...id sure like a peek at that...she's pretty fine.

 

Looking at some of my info I see these fronts are twin tube designs. So it is possible that they left that area thicker. Maybe give Koni a call and make sure it's okay to cut another groove.

The front of our cars have a motion ratio of 1.7 to 1. One inch of shock travel is equal to 1.7" of wheel travel. So if you want a 1" drop you need to cut the groove 5/8" lower.

Another option is to make a new lower mount. Just cut off the bottom of the mount that fits over the snap ring and weld it to a flat plate and then add some tabs around the edge to keep the spring from moving.







There's enough room to get a 5/8" change which is good for lowering the car 1".
That's correct.

 

ok as per post 186.... how do u take those coil mounts off?

from the top they dont seem to go past the top hat and its plastic sleeve.

From the bottom the bolt ears look as if they'd get in the way.?

thanks for the 5/8 spec.

I have to ask u another question about a previous post #49 I'll qoute that in a seperate post.

 

Jason in this post u mentioned the spring rate will go up even after cutting off some....? pleez explain the logic here I'm lost. I would think the rate would go down....if it does goes up then for me it spells a win win. 340 is about what a 1LE is rated at.

Is cutting the spring not detrimental.? also where should it be cut? about how much in length should be taken off....?

What do u mean by packers?

 

You have to loosen the nut under the tophat. Then the hat just screws off. It's a tricky thing to do. One way is to make an offset wrench, the other is to cut or grind the lip away. Then you can use regular wrench.

I ground mine down, but here are a few wrench pics.

 

Jason please look at post 188....thanks for the tool pics...I have something similar that will hopefully be the right fit.....

 

Packers are these white discs. They are simple spacers used on race cars to limit suspension travel.


To better understand a coil spring, know that it is the same as a torsion rod just curled up to save space. A torsion rod is a length of rod that's fixed on one end and the other end twists. The longer it is the easier it twists. the shorter, the stiffer.

That might be confusing. Let me stick to coil springs. Okay, a coil springs rate is determined by how much weight is needed to compress it 1". The top and bottom coils are known as "dead' coils because they don't contribute to the spring rate. So when you look at your front spring you see 9 coils and a 300lb spring rate. You subtract the dead coils on the ends so you have 7 coils making up the 300lb rate. Divide 300 by 7 and you see that each coil contributes about 40lbs. It's kinda funky to picture, but for every coil you cut off, the spring rate will go up 40lbs. So cut one coil off (from the big end only) and it's new spring rate will be 340lbs. I like having 450-500 lb springs up front myself, so 340 is not that great. It will ride smoothly though.

Now on the rear it's a different story. You have 115lb rate divided across 7 coils. Thats roughly 20lbs per coil. Cut off one coil and your rate goes up to a nice 135lb. I like about 150lb in the rear, so I cut 2 coils and then kept the fat spring isolator on top.

There is another way to increase spring rate as well and that is to "deaden" another coil. You do that by adding a hard spacer in between 2 coils. Like 2 spacers across from eack other or 4 spacers every quarter of a turn. The only thing is that by deadening another coil your ride height will increase.

Cutting a spring is fine as long as you don't heat it up real hot. Don't use a torch, instead use a cutoff wheel on an angle grinder.

On the front you'll note the hard fiber spring pocket thing that sits in the lower mount. it hase to be lined up with the spring. So if you cut half a coil from the bottom of the spring you'll need to rotate that pocket 180* so that it lines back up.
It just took me a while to write it all out.

 

So how much would normally come off to drop an inch? up front and in the rear. While maintaining the same rake....(slightly higher in the back from factory right.)

Thanks for all the great info!

What are your sentiments on the Fbody gangsta lean?....in which many Fbody owners notice their rides are leaning lower on the passenger than on the drivers side. Rumor has it this is instilled from the factory and that the driver offsets this slight lean with his own weight upon sitting in the car.

If this is true you would NOT recommend using the springs(cutting) to correct this slight leaning.

 

I like to see it level when I look at it. Besides, with stiffer springs the car barely moves when you sit in it.

 

How much off the coil to drop an inch? off the front and off the rear.....or is it the same?

I'll be correcting the slight lean...so on one side I'll probably cut less than the other.

 

I don't know how much to cut for a certain drop. I never experimented with cutting the front springs. I bought a front set of GC coilovers so I could play with the heights till I found one I liked. Hopefully someone who knows can chime in.

 

Hey do you have some good start off settings for the DA's?
I'd rather not have to adjust them later once they are in the car.

Since the top settings would be hardest to get to...what do u think is a good 1?
Also I think awhile bak I may have moved one of them from factory how can I set it back in place since they dont seem to ever reach an extreme at either end or have I just not spun the top setting enough?(on the da's)

 

it's not very hard to adjust the rebound (top) once their in the car. Just make sure the adjustment window is facing out when you tighten the shock nut to the upper mount. Check this thread.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/suspensio...cs-inside.html

most folks set the lower bump to the softest setting and the top about halfway. Then tweak the top adjustment to your liking.

 

Well this I did with an angle grinder 4.5 inch....and to even out and make flush I used a bench grinder. Total time 20 min on angle grinder...then i took my time on the bench grinder for 10 more.

Hopefully I did it right. Ihavent installed yet...let me know what u think....if i have to i'll pick up new one if somethings wrong but as far as I can see its dead on per your pics.

No hiccups other than the angle grinder not making even cuts and me luckily havin a bench grinder....(kept having to turn the mount to cut elsewhere till all cuts met and then timbeeeeeeeeeeerrrrr)

 

Looks good.

 

Hey what is the thread size on the nuts for the top of the front shocks????...im having a hard time matching. Looks like it might be metric.