Either way, if you could raise the bottom of the spring and perch by, say, 1" with the use of a 1" shorter coil spring, then maybe it wouldn't be in the way of the spring anymore. Maybe the geometry doesn't allow for that - I don't know.

 

I was thinking upper bracket could be adjusted. It doesn't appear that is the case with pre 88 cars. Similar concern corrections seem to involve modifications at lower mount. IDK if you saw this thread.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...uspension.html

 

Yes it was one that I had saw before I purchased them, I even spoke with 2 people via facebook about their EM coilover install and neither made a comment about grinding on the half shafts nor did Merle. Most people I spoke with had the same concerns about the front holding up and the rear knuckle shock mount and the trailing arm bolts that need to be reversed. I reversed them and even ground the head down that you can see in my photo up top but when I found the thread with speedway bolt I installed it without ever checking again with the stock bolt

 

For rear coilovers this type of mount is the only one I would trust. A bracket that uses the bolts for both trailing arms and stock shock mount. Possibly use camber bracket bolt also. Then you can move the coilover away from the half shaft without over loading the stock shock mount.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1595662368

 

Midnight custom made that bracket I've seen something similar http://www.streetrodgarage.com/c4cor...untingkit.aspx, I'm not sure it would work since these seem to be for frame swapped cars, perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can chime in

 

So I've went back to the stock shock bolts, I'm not sure it's gonna make any difference since the coiler needs to be pushed forward slightly. It seems my only option is to find someone to fabricate the bracket that @blackozvet made. I assume there is no way to make that 1cm up by adjusting the length of the trailing arms or another component?

 

I keep saying to people these cars are different left to right, if you do a coilover setup on the front on the early car you will find differences there too.
these are handbuilt cars from the 80's, if you want precision buy a Porsche

The best option Justin (not taking into account the cost) is to buy the Vansteel brackets, they were made to achieve that clearance.
https://www.vansteel.com/index.cfm?f...&subgroup=1972

 

 

Are they compatible? the EM coilovers don't use the heim jointed bottom they use the regular shock setup. I'd buy it not problem I just don't know if they will work

 

Just ask Vansteel what size bolt they use for the bottom shock, compare it to yours. Probably 1/2" bolt.

 

I'll call Vansteel and see what they say, hopefully this solves my issue since now my richmond 6 speed decided to get stuck last night. I swear sometimes it feels like this car wants me consistently frustrated

 

Technically you can adjust trailing arm length. I would adjust both an equal amount. The top mount is fixed, lengthening rods could get your clearance. 1/8" -3/16" is good enough. You will want rod lengths on both sides of car to match or be as close as possible. You want a square car, equal wheel base both sides. I'm surprised shocks don't have helm joints, because all the parts are moving different directions as the suspension articulates. That is the reason urathane bushings bind.
I would use " string alignment " to keep toe close to 0 as you make adjustments.

 

@blackozvet so I just got off the phone with Vansteel and they don't think that lower bracket will work with the bilstein shocks the EM kit uses, just by looking at the pictures I'm not sure if the base of the Bilstein shock will physically fit into the slot where the Vansteel coilovers mount to the bracket

Gonna wait until Merle from EM is open and see if he has a solution for this, I doubt it or I assume it would be included

 

I never realized before now that these brackets actually move the shock forward, but it looks like they do slightly move it forward. However, my concern with using them with shocks that have a standard OEM lower mount instead of a heim joint mount is twofold:

1. Does the standard mount fit inside the "pocket" of the Van Steel bracket? One would have to measure, but I'm thinking the stock shock mount is too wide to go in there.
2. The Van Steel bracket changes the shock's mounting bolt from lateral to longitudinal orientation. With the more severe arc described by the short trailing arms (relative to the much longer camber arm), I'm not sure a rubber bushing in the lower shock mount will allow adequate off-axis flex without binding. The heim joint has no problem at all with this.

Given all of that, the better option would probably be to send all the EM kit back and get the Van Steel kit, which has shocks designed to work with their bracket (using heim joints at the bottom). I've heard zero complaints from anyone about their setup. The other kit that addresses this issue and does the best job of strengthening the knuckle is the new Ridetech kit. It uses a steel brace/bracket along the lines of the one JoBy linked from Midnight_85.

 

Considering I've had the EM kit for a few months plus the various scraps and dings on the coils I doubt this can be returned without a loss, buying the Van steel kit would be great except, i'd be paying $1,100+ for just the rears. even then I'd need to figure out something for the front and the EM kit on the front has been 100% as advertised perfect, it's just this scraping on the drive line that is pissing me off

 

Since this thread has quite a number of views and if anyone was interested in buying the Exotic muscle coilovers for their 84-87 C4, here is basically what your gonna find.

• There is no spanner/coilover wrench included in this kit, EM says to just lift the car and turn by hand, this did not work for me on the front or rears. You will have to buy 2 different ones as the front requires a smaller one
• Most coilovers I've seen have multiple collars for preload/ride height/etc this has 1 collar only and raising the collar will give preload and ride height
• Open up the front shock tower, I used a big wrench and got the space I need, I also used the recommended Heim joint sway bar end link. This was all I needed for the fronts, Most people will recommend beefing up the shock tower, I have not though.
• The rear is where the fun begins, the rear knuckle bolts that attach the trailing arms need to be reversed, I've read some people cut them in half so they don't need to remove the knuck and then replace the bolts, I removed the knuckle and flipped them. You will also need to grind the head of the bolts slightly
• EM supplies you with a bunch of small washers for the top and bottom, the tops will push the coilover as far forward as they can within the stock bracket, the bottom will consist of 4 larger washers 2 that will go between the shock stud and 2 more that will go in front of the coilover to slightly push it outwards to clear the trailing arm bolts that were reversed
• Some people have no issues with driveline rub with EM coilovers, Unfortunately I am not one of those people. If you buy these you should be prepared to encounter this problem with either moving the top bracket forward (by cutting it off and re-welding it) or fabricating a bottom support bracket that will push the bottom of the coil forward. I'm looking into the bottom bracket but I wonder if moving the top bracket would be a faster and easier solution for those of us who cannot make the bottom bracket ourselves
• If your into the Static/Stance life these are not for you

Would I buy these again knowing what I know now: No and yes, if Vansteel or ridetech made the fronts for a 84-87 and rears at a comparable price (Rear only vansteels cost the same as my whole kit) I would've gotten those without question based on the threads on this forum alone, And yes because despite my clearance issues in the rear the fronts gave me no problems whatsoever, and there are a few threads where some people have gone years with no issues and in 1 case 10+yrs without a driveline issue that I could find, also the price of the kit is very inexpensive and when my rears are not grinding on the half shaft the car at least "feels" like it handles much better.

I hope this helps someone who is considering these coilovers, while there are many threads on this subject finding all if not most of the info in one place proved hard for me at least. I will continue to update the thread as I either have someone make the lower bracket or before i chop the top bracket off and have a new one welded in its place to get that last baby bit of room so I can give Autox impressions and Daily driving reports

 

http://www.streetrodgarage.com/c4cor...untingkit.aspx

So I've put a order in for this bracket here that is made for our suspension, the guys at SRG do say this moves forward the coilover, it seems they know of our issue with driveline contact. This should give the rear knuckle the strength to not snap off and correct the driveline rub all in one package. So far with the Coilovers the optional Heim joint kit and this new bracket (assuming it works) I'm into the project about $1600-1700 so far with me doing all the work

 

I think these have the same issue that the Van Steel or Ridetech brackets would have: they all turn the lower mount bolt axis 90-deg so that it's oriented longitudinal (front-to-rear) instead of the stock mount's lateral orientation. They are all intended to be used with dampers that have a heim-jointed lower mount, whereas you have rear shocks with a stock-style, single-axis bushing mount. My concern would be about bind:

• If you can't get the upper shock mount moved forward enough such that the shock is not in bind at resting ride height, then I think you'll have problems with bind and wear on the seals of the shocks (the shaft will always have a bending moment on it). The Ridetech kit has upper mounts that acheive this, even though their shocks have heim-jointed lower mounts. This Street Rod Garage set does not come with upper mounts to help with that, and I don't think your EM kit does either.
• Even if you can achieve the proper alignment at static ride height, the shock will see a lot more off-bushing-axis (fore-aft, in this case) movement with compression/rebound than it would with the stock lateral mounting bolt orientation, because the trailing arms are so much shorter than the two lateral links (camber rod and halfshaft). So I'm concerned you'd still run into bind and bad shock wear.
• I could be wrong about this - if your rear shocks have enough rubber in their lower mount bushings, then maybe they can absorb the off-axis movement without much bind. You can get a sense of the amount of bind with a test. First, determine how much forward you'd need to move the lower mount: 1/2", 1", whatever you think. Then disconnect the top of one shock and try to move the top of the shock left or right (to center or outside of car) by that same distance. How much force does it take? That's the amount of force you'll be introducing to the shock just resting. Then as the suspension compresses and rebounds it will probably add close to another inch of forward travel (depends on the exact ride height and angles of your trailing arms at resting height); so move it that much further. If all this feels like just a couple pounds of force, then it's probably okay. If it takes many pounds of force to move that 1.5-2", as I suspect it will, then I think ti will cause problems with handling and premature shock wear.

I'm still of the opinion that this EM kit is defective for you application, and therefore you should have the right to return it for a full refund and choose another option. The wear on the spring is because of the defective aspect, not because you did anything wrong! It's ridiculous that you're having to spend lots of time and money to cobble together a workaround. It's also ridiculous that you can't actually adjust the ride height on these things: that's literally half the reason to use coilovers in the first place! Get rid of this crap! The only good option I can think of is to modify your shock towers per a few other threads on this forum, or to figure out a way to fab a lower rear mount that keeps the lateral orientation of the mounting bolt but moves it forward enough to clear the halfshafts. But that's going to be a ****-ton of work, you have to have someone you trust to weld properly, and I'm not sure how to actually design it so it's strong enough.

 

I agree this should not be this problematic, I'm not sure if it's just my car perhaps a car accident slightly messed it up at one point who knows I just hope this helps the next average joe guy that decides to do this

Just pray for my soul Matthew lol we should know more when the bracket comes in, ETA should be a week give or take a few days.

 

I was typing my long response above when you changed this. Please read what I wrote before you do something with these brackets that prevents you from sending them back for a refund!

Edit: I see that you did. Do that bind test that I mentioned first. If there isn't enough space up top to move it around in the car, bolt it to something solid on a bench and do it out of the car.