Wow-Your correct-what a shame.On your 4 bolt design the 2-FE7 plates would fix yours right up and allow you to torque the bolts up.Leaving them loose-I dont think that sounds very accurate.Whats loose mean-thats what a torque spec. is for.I think if a company is going to sell a product to replace another they should be responsible enough to do it right.Shame Shame

 

They must have a reason for the reduced torque....as I understand,they tested their spring on Vettes....
Also,reading their instructions,I wonder how many guys ignored or missed the part about "jacking" on the spring...that may explain how some broke after install...

Rich

 

The reason for the reduced torque is because there is nothing but rubber to torque against and they haven't come up with a better plan than to just leave the bolts loose.At bear minumum they could instruct to apply some thread lock so the bolts wont work their way out.That is the reason GM put the plate in on the 3 bolt design mounting plate so there would be something for the 2 rear bolts to torque against,the single front bolt bottoms on the housing.Rich if you look at your old TRW you can see it is surrounded by rubber AND there is steel around the outside to torque against.They tell you never to jack against the fiberglass spring but what happens when it works its way over against the steel mounting bolts-its the same thing it can fracture the spring.

 

yup, that's exactly what mine did. ends of mounting plate starting bending before i got any reading on my torque wrench. i got them torqued only to about 10 pounds and the plate is "u-shaped" under the spring now. i've not had any problems and it's not gotten loose in several years but i'm not comfortable with it.

What are these "FE-7" plates and where can i get them?

 

The standard (9 leaf) spring in your 79 was 2.5" wide but the optional (7 leaf) "FE-7" or Gymkhana was only 2.25" wide so GM used this pair of plates to fill in that .25".Both of these springs were steel.So Gm intended them to be used that way however I have used them with the VBP type spring to limit how far the rubber will crush.These will allow the rubber to be crushed to 2" thick and then you can achieve your torque spec and you dont have to leave them loose and the plate wont bend. They are 1/8" thick,2" tall and about 6" long.The measurement your concerned about is the 2".Measure the thickness of the rubber mount on your spring.Look at Richs top pic in post #23-the plates will fit like the white ones in that pic.Hope this helps.

http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...dept%5Fid=1826

 

Since Texaswilkins was having some issues and this thread started, I had Gary, my tech, write this for me to post.

We set up the parts in our shop to duplicate your situation as best we could. I saw the pictures you emailed Pattie. If you would like, we can send you some spacer shims, similar to some other ones mentioned in recent forum postings. We could also send some tubular spacers that could go on the shanks of the plate kit bolts, between the plate and the housing. This gap has not been an issue before, but we see what you are getting at. We have sold literally thousands of C-2 and C-3 rear springs, at the 2-1/4” width, and have not experienced any problems. We could easily cut our slabs to the 2-1/2” width. This would require a widened urethane pad set-up like the ones we have molded for us right now.

If all the suspension components are up to snuff, there should never by any longitudinal forces (shifting forward or aft) of the tip ends of the spring. The spring strictly supports the weight of the car, while the other components, such as the trailing arms and strut rods, guide the spindle assembly through the motion of wheel travel. The spring cushions have a curvature and isolate the ends of the spring so normal pivoting action can occur.

I would definitely stay with the composite (fiberglass) spring rather than the steel one for ride and handling improvements. I hope this information is of some help. Please call Gary, toll free at 1-800-237-9991or email through Pattie at pattie@vbandp.com if you need further information or parts sent or would like to discuss this further.

Sincerely,

Gary G.
Tech Department
VBP (Vette Brakes and Products)