This maybe should be a thread for the 'C6 Tech' forum, but I think there are a few folks here in the 'C6 Forced Induction' forum that have used the Viking coilover shocks on the C6.

I removed my OEM rear shocks and leaf spring and replaced them with a set of Viking 'Warrior' series coilovers.

The thing is, the Viking coilovers have an adjustment for spring preload, but there is no adjustment to set the ride height ...

Look at this 'BC Racing' coilover in the photo below. You can see the 2 locking rings directly below the spring. I guess you could call them the 'Spring Preload Adjusters'. You screw them up until the spring has a certain amount of preload when the shock is fully extended.

Then, below the 2 spring preload adjusters (locking rings), there is another ring that gets loosened and the bottom shock mount is rotated (screwed in or out) so as to shorten or lengthen the shock. Then that ring is tightened down ... This adjusts the ride height ...... See below:


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Now, look at the Viking coilovers in the photo below ... They too have the 2 spring preload adjusters (locking rings) that you adjust the spring preload with, but these coilovers don't have any adjustment for setting the total length of the coilover ... so there is no ride height adjustment.




The problem is ..... With the Viking coilover fully extended, you first adjust the locking rings (preload adjusters) so as to get a little spring preload. But, when you remove your car jack and put the full weight of the car on the suspension, you find that it sets too high.

The only way to get the ride height lower, is to take all the spring preload out ... In fact, with my car, I need to loosen the spring up so much that with the car jacked up, and all weight is off the rear suspension, the springs have so much play in them that sometimes the upper spring retainer cap falls out.

I can't understand why Viking would manufacture coilovers like this ?

Am I doing something wrong here, or don't understand whats going on ?

Thanks,
Ron

 

Well, I just found this on the internet:

I should have purchased coilovers that are of the 'Fully Threaded' variety ...
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Ridetech is the same way.. On my car with heavy springs (750-850#) we had the same issue of the springs coming loose. I installed Hyperco helper springs and spring dividers. They keep tension on the main springs when jacked up, but collapse completely once the weight of the car is on them.

 

Is this just with the warrior or all viking coilovers? Crusaders as well? Another forum member recommended using Joe at CPR to get Vikings coilovers and I’ve spoke with him through email a few times. I believe you might pay a little extra but from what I’m told you give him the set up and he specs them out as needed and they come ready to go...I will have to ask about this issue I’ve been following your process as you know, hoping I can learn as you go, keep us posted on what you do.

 

I was thinking of something like helper springs too .... but I think I would benefit by replacing the 500 Lb/in springs that I am using with a longer spring that has less overall spring tension (maybe a 400 Lb/in) ? ?

Had I known what I know now ... I would have purchased 'Fully Threaded' coilovers that also had separate height adjustment (by way of shortening or lengthening the shock) .. like is shown in the photo I posted above

**** !

 

I would not lower the spring rate to set the height.. You may be ok at rest, but it will be too soft at speed.

As long as you are within the coilovers rated ride height (Ridetech is 1 to 1.5" lower than stock) you should be able to adjust as needed. We get my car near perfect front to rear and corner balance without separate height adjusters.

 

Ron, that’s how they work, unfortunately. Mine are the same way, and even when I put the new 425# on the other day, I still had to lower the spring seat below beyond the point where there’s preload on the spring at full extension, in order to put the car at the ride height I wanted.
It’s only an 8“ spring, and although there’s a lot of threads on the shock body, you can’t use a longer spring (unless it’s a very low tension 9”) because the spring seat will collide with the axle. Ask me how I know. I have a pair of 10” 400# springs that I tried to fit on my car, to cure this very same problem, and that’s what happened, and I had to pull them off again. Maybe if they were 9” springs, they would’ve worked - maybe.
BTW: You could actually use a lower pressure spring - even a 400 p.p.i spring won’t result in a significantly lower rate than the stock leaf at the wheel, per the Borg Motorsports table that I posted on the other thread that I started a few weeks back. But, that might still not cure the problem. It may be that the shorter series of Viking Coilovers don’t have this issue, but mine (which are the stock to 1.5” lower Crusaders) do, even with the 425# springs. What I did was put a limiter strap on it to keep the coilover from fully extending, which I needed to do because with the Carlyle 15” conversion spindle, the upper control arm crashes into the spring at full droop when I jack the car up. (Picture below)
Here’s the thing, unless you’re using your car to jump over hills or speed bumps at high speed, you will never unload the springs enough for them them to come off the seats, unless it’s when you jack the car up. That’s why most folks don’t care about or even notice that the spring is a bit loose at full suspension droop.
However, if it bothers you, the easy and cheapest thing to do is to simply take the coilover springs and seats off the coilover and convert it to just a shock and use it with the stock leaf, like I ended up doing with the front of my car. Trust me, you won’t be compromising the performance of your car, since the important thing is that you have a good double adjustable shock, which you would still have.

 

Thank's a bunch Sammy ....

I don't have my old rear leaf spring anymore. I cut it in half with a cut-off wheel in order to remove it real easy (after it was cut in half, it just fell to the floor)

I guess I will just keep what I have, but I would be happier with one of those coilovers that have both adjustable spring preload and adjustable ride height Iike in the photo I showed before in this thread.

I just did not research this enough before purchasing these coilovers.

Ron,

 

Oh, and another thing .... my car has a pretty hard ride in the rear with the 500 Lb/in springs .... I screwed up getting these very stiff springs.

BTW ... for normal around town driving, I have the compression on #3 and the rebound on #5.
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Front
Wheels: . . 17x9.5 . Forgestar F14 . (35mm offset)
Tires: . . 285/40 -17" . Nitto NT555 G2

Rear
Wheels: . . 17x11 . Forgestar F14 . (43mm offset)
Tires: . . 305/45 -17" . MT ET Street S/S


Attachment 48333851



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I think you’ll be fine. I’ll let you know how my car works with the 425# hyperco springs vs. the 650# that I removed recently and compared with the original 450# Viking springs. I feel bad that I advised you to get those 500# springs, although everyone seems to like to go higher than that on their coilovers.
I note that the Van Steel QA1 coilovers have the helper spring too, as well as the adjuster ***** up top, Since the shock is mounted inverted, which I personally like better. I just can’t figure out how they are able to work without hitting the axle, since form the photos on their site, the spring extends down almost the full length of the shock. Maybe they adjust them higher on the car?
Nice looking car, BTW. You have yours a bit lower than mine. You might have to be careful that those bigass drag radials don’t rub the fender liner when you launch it. When you run it at the track, try setting the rebound a tad higher, like at 6 or 7 and leaving the compression at 3.

EDIT: Actually, forget what I said above about the tires rubbing the inner liner. I just realized that you have the 28” radials on the car in that picture. The 305/45/17s are actually about only 27.75” dia. anyhow. That looks to be very close to the ride height I have in the rear. My 275/60/15 Hoosiers are ~28.25” and they didn’t rub the liner at all with the 450# springs, even when it bumped the front wheels off the ground:

 

Ron, for your and other’s ease of reference, here is the table that I copied from another thread on these forums, that was part of a post by Borg Motorsports, which is very useful. You will note from the same that, measured at the wheel, a stock Z51 rear spring (red arrow) is much lighter than a 500p.p.pi. Coilover spring (yellow arrow):

 

I would really like to try a set of those ...

I believe I would need the 2.5" inside diameter helper springs ... Hyperco makes these springs in the 4" and 6" length ... Which length are you using ?

Also, is the spring divider that your using also made by Hyperco ?

 

Whilst the helper springs would solve the problem, they might result in extending the spring seat and locknut so much lower down on the shock body that they may hit the axle, which would not be good. If look at the picture that RecMech posted, you’ll see that those two things take up approximately 2” of space when the helper spring is fully stacked.
Now, I personally have tried to fit a 10” spring on my Vikings and I could not get them to work, because I had to adjust the spring seat down so low that the seat and locknut was exactly where the axle was. Now, I do remember saying that a 9” spring could work, IF it was light enough so that the adjuster nut had to be adjusted upwards above the axle to get the right ride height. At the time, I had figured that a 9” 400# spring would have fit the ticket. I abandoned that because I became erroneously distracted with the idea that I needed a stronger spring, which turned out to be a failure, because it was hitting the tire too hard and not allowing the rear to squat at all. Now, you can get springs for ~$50.00 apiece from Summit, Jegs, etc. so, if you want to experiment with taking this “slack” out of your suspension, the way to go MAY just be a 400# 9” spring.
The added advantage is that you would end up with a spring rate at the wheel that‘s very close to what you had with the stock leaf spring (which you seem to want anyhow?) and it would certainly have more stored energy at the same ride height than the 500# 8” spring that you have now.
BUT, this is just a suggestion. God knows I don’t want to mislead you again with buying the wrong springs, so think about it and take some measurements on your car before you spend another $100 on springs.

 

I am using the 2.5" ID x 4" helpers (# CS100) with Hyperco #18DS100 dividers.

I did go with a 1" shorter coil spring.

 

Zero issues. Plenty of height adjustment. Can go from slammed go above normal ride height. This is why I suggest cpr or a shop that knows what to order and works. It isn't some universal part number. If you shop for best price you get a setup that doesn't work. If you get them from a shop that knows exactly what springs to order for a street c6 or drag one or road race one you have no issues.

 

Thanks .... I just ordered the same part numbers from Summit Racing .... The helper springs are in stock and will ship today, but the spring dividers are back ordered (supposed to ship around March 18 time frame)

 

Well, I didn’t order some universal part number. I ordered the specific kit for my car (after extensive consultation with Viking about what I was using my car for, track conditions, etc.,) through a vendor in Tampa who showed me the correspondence between himself and Viking and I went with what Viking themselves recommend.
And I don’t know how ordering them from CPR would eliminate the problem with the spring unseating at full drop, unless they order the shorter coilover as I noted already. And no matter what you do, if you screw the spring seat down low enough, it will hit the axle.
The thing is that most people just put them in and forget about them and not notice
I would bet good money that anyone that has the stock to 1.5” drop Vikings will see have the same unloading of the spring at full drop, especially if they are using the typical 500-650# springs.
This is the same kind of thing I heard when I had the problem with the front coilovers hitting the UCA at full drop, and that it might be an alignment problem, etc.
But here’s the thing: I took pictures and documented what I was saying. And if I hadn’t bothered to check for that myself, I wouldn’t have found that problem and I could easily be saying mine has no issues too.
Because the truth is that 99% of the time no one will notice or bother to check, and not notice any issue.

 

Sammy,

Reading what you posted, I went out and took another look at my rear coilovers .... I am now worried that with the helper springs installed onto the Viking rear coilovers, the bottom spring perch will be moved downward on the shock .... maybe far enough that it will contact the axle shaft when it's adjusted to the proper ride height.

We shall see
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EDIT: I am not real happy with the design of these coilovers that were supposed to have been made to fit these C6 cars.

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I just got done going for a little ride in the car ...

The more I drive it, the more the suspension feels like I was riding in a logging truck !

My next step is to ****-can the 500 Lb/in springs on the rear coilovers and get a set of 400 Lb/in replacement springs for them.

I have the compression set on #3 and the rebound set on #5 .... I am going to change that to #1 compression and #3 rebound and see what it feels like.

I kind of wish I had just left the rear suspension alone and bought a pair of those aftermarket lowering bolts (or just cut the rubber pads off my stock bolts) ... that would have more than likely lowered the rear enough on the car.

**** ...

 

Yes, they are 8” long with a 2.5” I.D.
To confirm that, look at the spring. It should have a number stamped on it like “8DP 500” which is an 8” long, 500 pound per inch spring.