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I have an 87 so a little bit more of a pain. For now I'm going to get the cheap lowering kit. I just want some better aesthetics on ride height.
It really does help the look I will warn you it is a pain to get the front leaf out you need to just the car up really high to get the space to get it out, also consider only cutting a partial amount of the rubber off and remove the shins or purchase the mamw kit.
It really does help the look I will warn you it is a pain to get the front leaf out you need to just the car up really high to get the space to get it out, also consider only cutting a partial amount of the rubber off and remove the shins or purchase the mamw kit.
Yeah I was going to get the kit for the front. How high? Will jack stands on highest notch suffice?
It seems that Coilovers are always a debated topic for one reason or another. I decided to switch over to coilovers for 2 reason.
1.) The cost in reference to a new leaf spring
2.) Ride height adjustability
So Ill start with a cost breakdown, then I'll go into selection, and lastly installation
So, the cost difference to go to full coilovers is: $227.78 whereas a new leaf spring is $500+. You also have the capability of changing springs for roughly $50-$60 per.
Now, QA1 makes all of their custom mount shocks with eyelet ends. The problem being the factory upper mount is a stud style. They make a stud style adapter to remedy this problem but I dont like the idea of how the force is applied to that stud as the suspension goes through it's motions. To solve this I used the QA1-SS200SD which convert the eyelet into a stud mount utilizing a clevis style setup. This eliminates the rotating motion on the stud. This adapter also adds roughly 1'' to the lengths on the shock so I had to take that into factor.
As previously stated all of the coilover shocks are eyelet mount so I also had to convert the bottom to a T-bar (this maybe adds 1/8'' to total length) using kit: QA1-BAR350K
So this narrowed it down to one shock DS 304:
Extended: 12.625 (to roughly 13.625 w/ adapter)
Collapsed: 9.5 (to roughly 10.5 w/ adapter)
At first I though the added 3/8'' of collapsed length compared to the bilstein shock would be a problem but the factory front shock qa1 sells for it has a collapsed length of 10.625 so I figured I'd be alright.
Ok, so now I have my shock selected, my adapters selected, all that is left is which spring.
Spring Selection:
I decided to look around at other kits IE DRM and Van Steel to see what rates they use. This lead me to choosing a 450 lb spring. I also took ride frequency into factor which came out to be roughly 1.93hz. So not too bad for a street/track car. I could write a huge post on all that I looked at for this but that isnt the point of this post
The best part:
Installation
I took some pictures for reference but the procedure is as follows:
1.) Jack Up Car
2.) Remove Wheels
3.) Remove original shocks
4.) Separate lower ball joint from spindle
5.) Remove (4) monoleaf mounting bolts
6.) Remove monoleaf (Its a pain!)
7.) Reinstall mounting brackets without the spring (this will makes sense when you get there)(I put the back on because the bolts go through two pieces of the car that are welded together and will hopefully help the two pieces stay together. Maybe it wont ever matter but I was already there so why not)
8.) Clearance Sway Bar Linkage
9.) Slot sway bar mounts to push forward roughly .25''
10.) Reconnect lower ball joint
11.) Install Coilover shock
12.) Put wheels back on
13.) Set ride height
That list a rather vague but it's just the general idea of what goes into it, it took me roughly 6 hours from start to finish but I was in no hurry and took my time.
You can have a thread like this without pictures!!!
I didn't go too crazy with photos, only have a few and my phone rotated them 90 degrees but you get the just of it. Also, my suspension is not not spotless haha, I try to drive it atleast once a week
Sway Bar Linkage Clearance: ( I worried about the strength of the bracket after cutting on it but, that section still has a larger cross sectional area versus factory sections so I didnt worry too much about it)
Installed!:
Installed:
At factory ride height there is about 2 inches of travel in the shock left which correlated to 6ish inches at the wheels so I'm not concerned.
If you have any questions feel free to ask here or PM me!
Thanks!
Colton
i found a set of bolt in coilovers for my 87 and I wanted to know if absolutely had to take the mono leaf out to make my bolt in coil work. It makes since to me that I could leave it in for added support.
i found a set of bolt in coilovers for my 87 and I wanted to know if absolutely had to take the mono leaf out to make my bolt in coil work. It makes since to me that I could leave it in for added support.
No, the whole point of coilovers to replace the leaf spring with two coil springs and to be able to adjust the preload at each corner (i.e. raise or lower each corner's ride height). If you add more spring rate without removing the factory leaf springs, then you'll gain ride height that can't be dialed out. Not to mention the question of why you'd want to do that?
No, the whole point of coilovers to replace the leaf spring with two coil springs and to be able to adjust the preload at each corner (i.e. raise or lower each corner's ride height). If you add more spring rate without removing the factory leaf springs, then you'll gain ride height that can't be dialed out. Not to mention the question of why you'd want to do that?
i want to buy coil overs to put my c6 wheels on and the guy befor me lowered the car and now they don’t fit and I don’t own a lift to replace the mono spring. I can’t get my car high enough to pull the mono spring out. My car is already 3 cinder blocks high and I don’t wanna go any higher. and I plan on buying another car just like it one day just a stick. So if I leave it in I can just put stock shocks back on one day and call it done.
i want to buy coil overs to put my c6 wheels on and the guy befor me lowered the car and now they don’t fit and I don’t own a lift to replace the mono spring. I can’t get my car high enough to pull the mono spring out. My car is already 3 cinder blocks high and I don’t wanna go any higher. and I plan on buying another car just like it one day just a stick. So if I leave it in I can just put stock shocks back on one day and call it done.
like my car is low, I can’t fit my fist under the front. I need go up somewhere between 2 and three inches. I wouldn’t think adding the coilovers with the mono spring would go to high for how far I need to go
like my car is low, I can’t fit my fist under the front. I need go up somewhere between 2 and three inches. I wouldn’t think adding the coilovers with the mono spring would go to high for how far I need to go
[Big edits to my post, because I misread nmay's posts the first time around]
I'm wondering what's going that your car is that low with the stock spring! With all due respect, I'm going to say that if you don't have the equipment to remove the stock spring, then I wouldn't recommend getting into a coilover installation. You simply shouldn't have both the leaf and coil springs. It's as simple as that.
Last edited by MatthewMiller; Jun 16, 2020 at 08:24 AM.
hold on, you may be able to solve your ride height issue without fully removing the spring.
I can give you my example on my 1986 that I lowered Too much to the point where I had to go back in and raise it a bit. On the top side of the spring, sandwiched between the top of the spring and the underside of the K member, there are small aluminum spacers. The more spacers, the higher the right height.
I’m guessing you can find some donors here on the forum to mail you three spacers for each side, six in total. To carry out this job you do you need to have the front of the car raised and you will need a jack to jack the spring up slightly to replace the retainer bracket that will need to be removed in order to let the spring down slightly to slide the aluminum spacers in on top. You should be able to carry out this without removing the entire spring and you do one side at a time. I’m tied up in my business right now so I don’t have a whole lot of time to give you more detailed instructions, but rest assured, there is a way for you to retain some writing height without going to coil overs and without removing the spring. Undo the bracket, carefully let the spring come down, then pull the bolts out and slide in the new spacers. Then simply button it back up again. I would start with Three spacers. per side.
hold on, you may be able to solve your ride height issue without fully removing the spring.
I can give you my example on my 1986 that I lowered Too much to the point where I had to go back in and raise it a bit. On the top side of the spring, sandwiched between the top of the spring and the underside of the K member, there are small aluminum spacers. The more spacers, the higher the right height.
He started another thread, which I think is appropriate. It sounds like he actually has a broken front leaf spring, and hopefully the discussion over there will help him resolve that problem without trying to add coilovers to an existing spring.
Thanks to all the posters for the coilover info. As someone who is considering coilovers I am curious to find out why the QA stuff is OK vs the other 1200/1300 dollar coilovers being substandard. Can someone point out the differences in quality? 3K is still a lot of money for coilovers for the majority of street and part time track use so the affordable option is indeed viable for most drivers .Starting with a set of Bilsteins for about 500 or less, add a set of springs for about the same , a couple hun for various attachment bits/ spring retainment its pretty much sums up the price. Am I missing something?
i want to buy coil overs to put my c6 wheels on and the guy befor me lowered the car and now they don’t fit and I don’t own a lift to replace the mono spring. I can’t get my car high enough to pull the mono spring out. My car is already 3 cinder blocks high and I don’t wanna go any higher. and I plan on buying another car just like it one day just a stick. So if I leave it in I can just put stock shocks back on one day and call it done.
I pulled mine out with my car on jack stands, without a lift. I'm not sure what else you have going on?
Thanks to all the posters for the coilover info. As someone who is considering coilovers I am curious to find out why the QA stuff is OK vs the other 1200/1300 dollar coilovers being substandard. Can someone point out the differences in quality? 3K is still a lot of money for coilovers for the majority of street and part time track use so the affordable option is indeed viable for most drivers .Starting with a set of Bilsteins for about 500 or less, add a set of springs for about the same , a couple hun for various attachment bits/ spring retainment its pretty much sums up the price. Am I missing something?
The QA1s are universal. They manufacture a LOT of them to keep costs down.
Most of your much more expensive coilovers are direct-fit for a C4, and you pay quite a bit extra for it.
I honestly don't consider QA1 shocks to be good at all. But the Van Steel kit that comes with them has a usable rear lower mount relocation bracket, and I'm sure the rest of their hardware is also good. I don't think they offer a kit for the front of your car, but their website is a little hard to decipher and you might want to call them. The EM "kit" comes with Bilsteins, which are decent but not adjustable, but is not thought out at all and has no solution for the rear mount. Ridetech has by far the best rear mount solution and outstanding dampers, but they don't offer a kit for the front of your car.
