Ayone out there with a 1986 that has replaced their Front leaf spring with one purchased from Corvette Central?


[Modified by Jerry D, 1:03 AM 5/26/2003]

 

Ayone out there with a 1986 that has replaced their Front leaf spring with one purchased from Corvette Central or any other place??

 

I've removed and reinstalled my stock spring.

Is the aftermarket spring different from stock? Peculiar spring mounts or something?

Fire away with questions!

 

I've replaced the front and rear springs on my 86 Z-51. What do you want to know?

 

What year is your vet? where did you get the spring? Who is the manufacturer? How long a go did you do it? How did it work out?
How much did it cost?

 

where did you get the spring? Who is the manufacturer? How long a go did you do it? How did it work out?
How much did it cost?

 

I was going to start another thread on this once I'm completly finished but I'll give what i have so far.
On the frost-heaved roads around here my Z-51 was just too stiff. The car would jump over bumps and irregularities in the road surface. So I decided to change the springs to the base setup from Vette Brakes. I bought them sometime last year and I really don't recall what they cost, I'm sure you can find that on their web site.

These springs are engineered differently from the stock springs. The front spring tapers noticably in thickness from center to tips. I think that they did this to reduce the roll bar effect of the stock spring.

The results are great! What a difference in the ride. The wheels now follow the road rather than bouncing over it. Overall the car feels as though it handles much better that before.

I just did this last weekend, started Saturday afternoon and finished Sunday afternoon. I also did the ball joints and installed polyurethane bushings at the same time. I was in no rush so i guess it probably would have taken 6-8 hours if i worked straight through. To do just the spring would probably be a 3-4 hour job.

My car sits slightly higher now than it did before. Unfortunatly I didn't measure the ride height with the old spring. I'm going to give it some time to settle in and then decide if I want it lower or not. I am also going to reset the alignment but haven't done that yet because it's raining today!

 

Thanks for all that info.
Mine is the same on the bumps plus I scrape the air dam at times. I sit pretty low but It looks nice. A local mechanic told me he had bad luck with the VBP spings that they sagged within 6 months and sometimes cracked.
By the way it's raining here too Ecklers and everbody else gets the spring from VBP. BBAUTOPARTs in NY is the cheapest $200. I just put in ball joints not the bushings. My car measures 16 3/4 " to the bottom of the side light.
I will be buying the spring on tomorrow and I am still deciding on which shocks to get Bilstein or Edelbrock. Let me know how you make out with the spring over the long run.