Iam thinking of lowering the front of my Skylark to get a bit of rake to the stance. the front to the wheel well measures 26 1/8 inches the back 26 3/8 inchs so it seems to sit fairly level now . My thought was to drop the front 1 to 1 1/2 inch by a set of lowering springs. I thought about both ends but Iam thinking just the front now. So does anyone have any pics of theirs lowered front this amount? Or pics of both ends lowered? I dont want to go to a spindle drop as most of those are 2 plus inches and with headers its to much. Iam running 245 60 15 tires now. Questions I got . What brand of springs have people been happy with or unhappy with? Will I have to change shocks too? Any cons about doing this slight drop? A Pic of my cars stance now.
You should know that if you cut part of a coil spring out that you raise the spring's coefficient of elasticity (aka "spring rate"). That is to say the spring is stiffer than before. This is because a coil spring is nothing more than a coiled torsion bar and you've shortened the length of that bar. While it may be possible that if you attempt fully compress the new spring the shock will reach its compressive limits first and damage the attachment points, I doubt it. Perhaps Devon could chime in here...
Lowering springs are usually designed to maintain the original spring rate at a lower ride height. You're going to have to have the car realigned in order to compensate for the new a-arm angles for the new ride height, since this is going to affect the camber. Cutting the coil increases spring rate, stiffening the ride and as mentioned before, will still require a realignment. With cut coils you may also need Moog offset upper a-arm pivot shafts. They permit you to align the front end without using an excessive amount of shims. Drop spindles will lower ride height without altering the current ride quality or geometry, provided they aren't made to induce more/less caster. Dropping the front end can also induce bump steer. I've tried cut coils and drop spindles. I elected to keep the coils on the shelf and used the spindles. The drop spindles were simple enough to install and didn't require me to realign the front end, and the ride quality didn't change at all.
Thanks Phil that answers some of my questions. Id buy springs over cutting orig for the said reasons and in case I wanted to go back to stock someday. What droped spindles did you use? How big of drop? Did you do the back too?
dropped 1 inch. i tossed the original springs because they were just plain worn out with too much sag.
What about cargo springs in the rear? I have a set in my car and it gave a nice rake. My only gripe is that I think that is what is causing my wheel hop but either end of the spectrum will have some side effects associated with it:3gears:
id do both ends or a nice set of scandc tubular control arms would lower it in front but i wouldnt want the back more than a inch taller than the front if that much
go with some spc 1 inch lowering springs wth upper spc control arm and tall upper/lower balljoints that way it'll equate to about an 1.5 to 1.75 drop.. also note that 1inch drop springs when settled may not lower the car at all when comparing them to youre stock(wold) springs...comparing to stock new springs is obvously a different story ha.. http://scandc.com ..look for the street comp stage 2 plus kit http://scandc.com/new/node/42 lower spc arms will lower car aprix 1in..you can always buy the tuning kit if need be to raise it todesired height..
My drop spindles are Stainless Steel Brakes drops. They required a notch cut on the caliper backing plate, eliminated the dust shields, and bolted right on otherwise. My rear springs are from a 79 G-Body Grand Prix. I didn't go with the taller spindles simply because I got a good deal on the standard ones. If you want to use B-Body or Camaro 1LE rotors and calipers that's the way to go, Especially the Camaro 1LE since they already have the correct bolt pattern. ALso remember that swapping the taller spindles in will still need you to realign the front end because it'll probably cause both caster, camber, and maybe even toe-in/out changes.
