Cutting springs, have I reached my limit?

[icapture]

Hey guys,

 

So i'm eventually going with coilovers, but until then I want to have a somewhat lower stance. Now I know I can't achieve a coilover stance by cutting stock springs, but I figured I would stop cutting once I achieved a 2" wheel gap. I started off with a 4 3/8" wheel gap (arc of fender to top of tire.) after cutting an inch off the top and bottom of the spring, for a combined total of 2", I achieved a 1/4" drop. So I removed the spring again and removed 2" off each end of the spring for a combined total of 4". I reinstalled the spring and to my surprise and dissapointment there was ZERO change in height.

 

Now since removing 4" of spring resulted in no change I don't really feel like taking the strut off and dissassembling it again (for the 15th time.) so I figured I would come here and see what you guys say.

 

Am I just not cutting enough? Should I be removing entire coils and not just 2-4" of spring at a time? The reason I only cut an inch the first time was that I wanted to gauge how much removing an inch of material would lower the car. If 1" of spring removed equaled .5" of lowering, and I wanted to achieve a 3" drop, then I would know that I would have to remove 6" of material. Know what I mean?

[JMortensen]

2 possibilities here. 1. You're on the bumpstops already. 2. You didn't roll the car around. If you just set the car down, the suspension is trapped underneath the car. Roll it around or better yet drive around the block and you'll have a better idea of what is going on. If there is no preload on the springs, you can cut them on the car. Might be a good idea to put something over the shock shaft to protect it but I had a friend cut my springs on my first Z with them on the car, and it was no big deal.

[ComicArtist]

This is actually something I've been interested in lately. I'm looking at getting Tokico Illuminas and cutting my stock springs, but I don't know exactly how much to cut them. No one seems to do it the same way, so I'm having a hard time figuring out how much to cut.

 

I'm wanting to take it down about 3 inches in the front and 2 in the back.

 

Should I measure cutting off complete coils, or inches off the spring?

 

Thank you

[johnc]

Hey guys,

 

So i'm eventually going with coilovers, but until then I want to have a somewhat lower stance. Now I know I can't achieve a coilover stance by cutting stock springs, but I figured I would stop cutting once I achieved a 2" wheel gap. I started off with a 4 3/8" wheel gap (arc of fender to top of tire.) after cutting an inch off the top and bottom of the spring, for a combined total of 2", I achieved a 1/4" drop. So I removed the spring again and removed 2" off each end of the spring for a combined total of 4". I reinstalled the spring and to my surprise and dissapointment there was ZERO change in height.

 

Now since removing 4" of spring resulted in no change I don't really feel like taking the strut off and dissassembling it again (for the 15th time.) so I figured I would come here and see what you guys say.

 

Am I just not cutting enough? Should I be removing entire coils and not just 2-4" of spring at a time? The reason I only cut an inch the first time was that I wanted to gauge how much removing an inch of material would lower the car. If 1" of spring removed equaled .5" of lowering, and I wanted to achieve a 3" drop, then I would know that I would have to remove 6" of material. Know what I mean?

 

Yes, cut coils (or 1/2 coils). Please search, there's a sticky in the Suspension forum that gives examples on how to calculate the drop from each coil cut based on spring rate.