4KQ spring chop?

[Huw Powell]

> Can you cut a coil off of the front springs on a 4kq?

Of course you can... but should you?

> The front of my car rides fairly high

 From what I've seen of old 4kq's, it's the rear riding low.  Remember
also that the rear wheel wells fit closer to the tires anyway, since
they don't need clearance for steering or hard braking.  And the rears
certainly don't need it to allow for hard acceleration...

> and I'm too cheap to buy lowering springs.

It ain't broke, don't fix it.

> I'm putting new strut mounts in this weekend though and while
> everything was out I thought I could cut the springs (with a cutting
> wheel, not a tourch).  How likely is it that the strut would bottom
> out (bump stops are still good, PO replaced them)?

I'd worry more about whether the car will even be safe or driveable
afterwards - especially if you don't have money for new springs.

What the ole rednecks do is heat a spring coil with the car's weight on
it and let it sag to where they wanted.  They also used to change their
crankcase oil right into the ground over their wells.  You decide
whether to follow their example(s) or not...

Since it sounds as though you are going to have a spring compressor 
handy, and time to play, I'd go with the various spring swapping 
suggestions offered over the last day.  Nothing gets broken, and you can 
always swap them back if things don't work out right.  Then, tell us 
how/if it worked (and post before and after photos somewhere, too!)

-- 
Huw Powell

http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi

http://www.humanthoughts.org/