has anyone ever cut a coil off of a racing beat spring? I've read about some people doing this... how would it effect the height of my car and how would it effect the handling?
Thanks again :]

 

it will lower the car but it will ride like ****!1

 

that's right. I cut 2in the rear and in the front as well. Its just my daily so I like the look.


-Ryan

 

I'd love the lowered look, but I don't want to sacrifice performance

 

by "ride like ****" do you mean it will be uncomfortable or it will not handle as well???

 

cut springs... dont. those springs were designed to work the way they came out of the factory. get ground control sleeves if you want to lower it a little bit more.

 

if you cut your springs it is going to ride like crap you dont want to do it, it sucks really bad

 

cutting the spring will screw the spring rate up..

BUT! if i remember correctly there was a company that made springs with what they call "DEAD COILS" in witch you can cut them to get the desired height and it wont effect spring rate.

 

Ok heres the deal on cutting springs + lowering. I am paraphrasing from another board where somone asked the same question and a bit of high school physics.

Your suspension forms a triangle. The A arms are the bottom, the car is one side, and the shock/sping are the other side. The weel is hanging at the vertex of the A-arm and shock/spring and is dialed in so its perpendicular to the road (+/- 3 degrees).

When you cut the springs, you WILL change how this triangle looks. When you change the triangle, you'll change the angle at which the wheel contacts the road. You will at the very least need an alignment and at most will totally **** up your car's ride and handling for the sake of looking cool.

The A-arm and shock/spring should be matched for the best ride and handling. Things get wierd and you have to do a lot of tweaking if they're not. There is some wiggle room, but not much.

Springs and spring rate. Spring rate is the force that a spring applies over the distance it is compressed. For every X distance the spring is compressed it applies F lbs of force. For regular springs this number is the same no matter how far the spring is compressed. For variable rate springs this number changes (usually increasing) as the spring is compressed. Near its resting state it applies very little force, in a car this just soaks up the little bumps no problem. As it gets compressed more it applies more force for the distance its compressed, this is for big bumps, hard cornering and to prevent bottoming out.

When you cut a standard spring it will still behave the same way, for each inch its compressed it applies so much force. If you cut a variable spring, you will **** things up, you'd be taking that 'soft' spring off of the end and left with a 'stiff' spring which will give you a harsh ride.

IMHO you're better off saving up and buying matched lowering components. It's less work initially (bolt-in vs. a lot of time with the torch), less likely to get fucked up (are you SURE you cut them all the same length), and less likely to wear your tires and other chassis parts.

To the best of my knowledge this is all correct. If its not someone please tell me, I'd rather not go around sharing bad info.

 

Save up about 220 and buy a set of lowered springs... suspension technique, or racing beat.

 

If you want to know how it changes the spring stifness the formula is:

(Gd^4)/ (8ND^3)

where

G = Torsional modules for steel (11,250,000)
d = Wire diameter in inches
N = # of active coils (coils that can move)
D = Mean coil diameter in inches
8 = constant for coil springs

To find the number of active coils count the number of coils that move. This is an illustration of a coil. Pretentd the coil is cut in half or you are looking at it from the side in two dimensional view. The Os will be counted as active coils, so in this spring there are six active coils. oh and pretend the quotation marks are the ends of the springs.
!!----/O\------/O\------/O\------/ !
!!---/ /\ \----/ /\ \----/ /\ \----/ /!!
!!--/ /--\ \--/ /--\ \--/ /--\ \--/ / !!
!!-/ /----\ \/ /----\ \/ /----\ \/ / !!
!!/ /------\O/-----\O/------\O/ !!

I had to use dashes or it wouldn't work.

 

I've already got racing beat springs

 

either pay a few hundread dollars and have a safe car with better handling and better performance allround, with a nice look..................or cut the springs, have your car's value reduce to $2.50, Have an incredibly crap and unsafe ride with no insurance, and have all the munters think u'r cool............... Now u choose!!!

 

DO NOT:

CUT YOUR SPRINGS

HEAT YOUR SPRINGS

USE CLAMPS TO SCRUNCH SPRINGS
-------

that should settle it.

 

thanks everyone, I'll leave the springs alone, the RB's already put it a little lower than stock anyway :]

 

If you just want it to 'look' lower. A slightly taller tire or slightly larger rim is the SAFER option. It will affect handling and your speedo will need recalibrated, but is not detrimental to your car and is easily undo-able.

 

bouncy...thats from FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE, but if i was on canyons where there were twisties and the road was smooth...tessshhh...handles like go cart ! as nevarmore metioned in that long as post...which narrows down to what nick-7 said.

if there are for example 7 coils on a stock spring, and you cut 2, that 5 coils. so of course the spring rate will be different there are less coils.

I've lowered one on racingbeat springs and tokico blues and my friend the owner complains that it needs to be lower. Stock SE rims

Another one I dropped on Suspension Techniques and tokico blues, the height a lil lower than the RB ones at least in back that is. Thats on 15 ssr's.

The ride is stiff as hell and handles as well as mine with cut springs just that mine bounce more cuz their "soft"

If anything I have a lower center of gravity than all of them.

"BUT! if i remember correctly there was a company that made springs with what they call "DEAD COILS" in witch you can cut them to get the desired height and it wont effect spring rate."

this would be your best bet. As for these coils there probably Forged rather that melted where the molecules are seperated.

Tell you the truth if I were to get the ST springs I'd still cut a coil, but if i went that wat i'd just get coil overs.


-Ryan

 

From the first one that probably means the RX has variable rate springs. IE the first inch exerts 50lbs, the second 75lbs, the third 100 so compressing it 3 inches its pushing back with 225lbs

The company in the second probably makes constant rate springs. IE it exterts 50lbs. for every inch its compressed so compressing it 3 inches means its pushing back with 150lbs.