Name That Spring!

[thnikkamax]

I have searched several phrases to find this out and I find situations that are similar to mine, but just not quite the same.

 

What I know:

- My car is a 71 (6/71 if that matters)

- L28 swapped in, A/C and almost all the smog equipment omitted. Basically just the essentials remain.

- Shocks are Tokico Blues, installed the HZ3015 number in the front, the HZ3016 were left for the back

- Springs I bought are used from a trusted shop.. they are black, one set of springs is taller than the other.

- Shop labeled the tall ones as Fronts and so I installed them as such, leaving the shorter springs for the rear.

- These black springs themselves (not the drop) were about 2 to 2.5" shorter than stock but you could feel the stiffer rate.

- At stock, the distance from the edge of the fender to the top of the tire is 2.75"

- I installed the tall ones on the front, and now that previous measurement is 3 1/6" (taller than before). Onced I noticed this I did not install the rears to make sure the car settled a bit so I can judge whether or not I like the drop.

- By eyeballing it, the fronts are linear, all coils compress at about the same rate. Emphasis on the eyeballing of it.

- 160 miles later, they've settled at about 3" (still taller than before).

 

I have the time to install the rears and see how that goes, I just want to avoid an interruption in cruising time if I can troubleshoot this before wasting more energy on it.

 

My questions are:

1) What is the likely brand of these springs?

2) Are they installed backwards?

3) If the tall ones definitely do go on the front and the shorter ones definitely do go on the back, can I assume that cutting them will not disrupt much performance?

4) How many coils can I cut off the front and rear for this setup?

 

I know this is odd, but I will seriously snail mail a $25 Macy's gift card to whoever can answer all these questions... even though that only buys you a pair of socks at that place. :-/

[JMortensen]

Can't answer them all, but I can answer the important one which is #2: They are indeed on backwards. Long spring goes in back on all of the common spring kits. I think this is born out by the fact the front raised with the long springs. That's not right. If you've searched you've probably found other threads where people were asking why their car was dragging its ass around after putting the long springs in front. I know it's happened a couple times here and a couple times at http://www.classiczcars.com over the past couple years.

 

I wouldn't cut any until you've seen them installed the right way, then I'd cut 1/2 coil at a time until you get the height you want, driving the car around the block in between cuts to make sure they're settled in the perches. They probably won't be compressed on the strut, most lowering springs aren't, so cutting more later isn't a big deal because you won't need a spring compressor.