Yesterday replaced for my -73 my old 7-leaf rear spring. Did measure the fender lip height before starting - it was around 27.5". Also measures the ground clearance - it was slightly over 3" just there below the center of the rear spring mounting plate and the exhaust pipes. I had 6" long spring end bolts.

Wanted new spring from VBP and spring hardware and lower the car still 1".

Well now job done, but it sits 29.5" high now WITH 8" end bolts!!! And I did keep the 4 mounting plate bolts loose until the vehichle load was put on the spring - after that I tightened them. I have yet not driven the car.

I found out from a sticker that the spring I got from my dealer is manufactured by S&G Enterprices ? Can it still be VBP ?

So my plan was to lower 1" but i ended being 4" higher (with standard 6" bolts) or 2" higher (with 8" bolts).

Any comment? What is wrong? Should I return the spring to the dealer and say it must be arched wrongly. I do not believe the old spring has lost its arc during the years so much maybe 1 " I believe. Before the job above my 245/45/17 tires and the fender lip was a gap like 2" or 2.5" and now it is 4.5 and with 6" bolts 6.5" - that can not have been the case when the car come from the factury 6.5" ****ing #¤%¤%%¤
Any advice

 

first thing to remember, the original spring on your car have saged due to age. so when you took your previous mesurements they were not within factory spec.

second, the aftermarket spring you purchased does lower your car from factory spec.

so basicly its an optical illusion that your ride height has rasied but adding lowering springs.

 

First of all you need to roll the car back and forth a couple of times after lowering it off the jack to let it settle. Stock height to the rear fender lip for a '73 is about 28-1/2", so you were about 1" low with your old spring. A more accurate method to determine your ride height is to measure your half shafts. They should be level or slightly inclined at the differential (about 1/2").

I would drive the car around a bit and check the halfshafts. If you can't get them level with the 8" bolts I would return the spring.

 

The ride height of 27.5" with the old spring was almost correct, see below. 29.5" is too high, look at your half shafts, these should be almost parallel to the ground. At 29.5" ride height the half shafts are angled, this adds stress to your U-joints.

There were many threads and complaints recently about increased ride height after installing one spring manufacturer's (not VBP) fiberglass spring.

You can get the height down if you install 10" bolts, the ends of these however are very close to the ground....

 

First of all I think your car was a little lower to begin with. Second thing is that the new spring may require an 8" bolt,not a 6". From the info you provided it sounds as if the new spring rasied the car 1" not 6".

 

My stock 82CE with the Gymkhana sits right at 28".This is with the orginal spring.

 

Hey vesa, yr not alone,I just installed a new fiberglass rear spring Fri.and have the same problem. my rear is 4 inchs higher then before. Im going to try longer bolts to see if it lowers the car enough. good luck.

 

Great input guys, thanks.

Just drove 1 mile with the car. That made the rear to drop down 3/4".

Before the job actually front left was 26.5 and front right was 27.5. Rear left was 27.5 and rear right was 28. And my tires are 245/45/17. The half shart were pretty much parallel to the ground.
Now after one mile drive the front measures are as earlier and the rear measures are left 28 1/4 and right 28 3/4. I guess the left front spring has lost a bit of its original strenght - no problem I have just ordered new VPB 550´s. And the half shafts are now so that they are a bit higher in the end that is close to the center of the rear spring - maybe 1/2 - 1" - hard to measure that.

After ride also measured the "arch" and it is 2" (the end of the spring is that much lower than the middle of the spring). Now between ground and the end of the 8" bolt is a space of 4" and the from the lowes point of the rim to the ground there is 3" to go. So basically if I would add 9" bolt the rim´s lowes point and the end of the 9" bolt would be parallel (not good safety). That would give me 27 1/4 left 28 right - almost where I started! But I want to go 1" more down¤%&&%¤&%¤&%

One interesting point to notice is that the old pu-bushings were so worn that compared to the new bushings I should have installes a bit over 1/2" longer bolts (>6 1/2") than the original 6" to get same ride height with the new pu-bushings

What is your experience should i expect the spring still to settle more down when I drive the car lets say 100 miles more? Is it possible at all to rearch the spring in some kind of spring shop?

 

Instead of going to extra long bolts, get the spring rearched. If you have a small hudraulic press, you can do it yourself but any good spring shop should be able to do it.

 

Great - I will try to find a spring shop and make a compromize with my dealer on the price of my new spring, maybe we split the spring shop costs.
Is it so that rearching does not harm the spring as such - the rate stays the same etc...

 

The spring shop takes almost 150$ from rearching the spring so i´m not gonna go that way...
Maybe I take 9" bolts and cut them slightly and that gives me 1/4 lower rear conpared to the starting point. Lets hope it settles later 1/2" and then I will be right on the target.

 

Redbad1979
Thanks for the ride height template. At least I now know what the stock ride height should be.

kdf