Suitable rallycross springs for daily driver 4000Q

[Jason K Gray]

 I took measurements of stock springs and calulated that the front stock
springs on my 4000Q were 110#/in and the rears were 160#/in. The free length
of the back springs is several inches shorter than the front. Putting the
softer stock front springs onto the back will raise the rear ride heigth
slightly due to the longer spring free length but you will also be giving up
handeling due to the softer rear spring rate (encouraging more body roll at
back and also making the chassie more prone to understeer).

   I have an entire parts car and have played with swaping springs a bit, I
put the extra set of the rear springs I had onto the front of my daily
driver 4KQ. The stock rear springs nicely stiffened the front spring rate
but also lowered the front ride heigth a bit. It would be driveable like
this for someone wanting a lowered ride height but was a bit too low for my
taste ( I need enough clearance to get through deep snow) so I  relocated
the front strut spring perch upward on the strut by 1" to to ensure I had
decent ground clearance and adequate suspension travel so it didnt bottom
out as often on rough roads. The combination of stock rear spring used the
front and addition of a front sway bar onto the rear suspension works well
to reduce cornering body roll and produce somewhat neutral handeling.
(Stiffer front springs alone would increase understeer, additon of the rear
sway bar promotes oversteer so the two somewhat cancel out).

  The rear spring that were originaly on my 4000Q had sagged noticeably and
I had very little rear clearance and little suspension travel available for
rough roads. I didnt particularly want to change the rear spring rate or get
new springs so I relocated the rear strut spring perch higher on the strut
tube to restore ride height. You can do this by several methods:
1) carefully cut spring perch from the strut tube, grind away the original
weld, and permanantly re-weled the perch higher on the tube. non-adjsutable.
2) install a custom made spacer above the spring  to increase the effective
spring length.
3) Purchase and use coil-over threaded collars to locate and re-position the
springs (eithor using stock or smaller diameter springs).
4)  ghetto coil-overs; The stock spring perch  can easily be cut off the
strut with hacksaw without cutting into the strut tube, cut throught the
spring perch just below the weld on the strut tube, then grind the weld off
the strut tube so the perch can be raised and relocated where desired. To
relocate the perch on the strut tube, the stock spring perch rest on a
muffler U-bolt saddle clamp (2" size for rear, 1-7/8" size for front) that
is fixed around the strut tube. I would suggest actually resting the perch
on a "stack" of 2 muffler clamps, one underneath the other for extra
security so it cannot possibly slip. Use the heavy duty 3/8" bolt size
clamps, JG whitney even sell stainless steel muff clamps if you are worried
about rusting. Muffler clamps are much cheaper solution  for semi-adjustment
ride height than using threaded collar coil-overs if you dont mind
dissasembling  the strut to adjust ride heigth. This method has worked
reliably for me.

 Jason  Gray
 Anchorage, Alaska
 87' 4Kcsq

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suitable rallycross springs for daily driver 4000Q
Mark Kingsbury romanracing at mindspring.com
Mon, 21 Apr 2003 22:49:49 -0400
Previous message: Crane HI6 install, and still some stumbling
Next message: Suitable rallycross springs for daily driver 4000Q
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]


Anyone have suggestions for suitable springs used with Bilstein HD's on a
daily driver, rallycross/forest road running 85 4KQ?  Don't really want to
go with coilovers and would like some additional ground clearance.  I've
heard of switching the front springs to the rear and running CGT springs up
front, but that sure seems a little cobbled together.  Still, perhaps worth
a try?