I found first gen springs at a place in Australia, Lovells. They have three rear springs to choose from MRL, MRR& MRS-21. The part numbers mean Mazda Rear Lowering, Rising or Standard height and are rated at 150lb. The distributor in the US is Kollar Racing Products. They don’t show any Mazda parts on their site but Andy Kollar says he can get all kinds of first gen parts. Not sure about that but I will keep him in mind for later. Anyway I ended up buying a set of the MRL-21 150lb springs for $200.00 including shipping. He is putting in an order at the end of the week for them. After all the time I spent looking for springs, I’ll take these 150s. Better than trying to make something else work. Probably going to take two or three weeks to show up but I will post some photos and measure the spring rates when I get them.

 

I picked up the Intrax springs I ordered from classic garage for $160.00. The front ones look the same as stock but are rated at 171lb. The rears are about the same length as stock but are rated at 118lb. The look to be a progressive type spring with about five of the coils close together. Didn't realy want a progressive rate but they were a good deal to replace the 30+ year old stock ones.
I should be geting the 150lb Lovells in a couple weeks I have ordered for the rear of my autocross car. I have the 300lb coilovers from Ground Control. I will be installing all of these parts in the "spring".

 

One of my coworkers used to race and tune circuit track cars. Part of his tuning setup includes spring weight testers. These are handy, he says, as more often than not the springs will claim a certain rating which is actually average rating across a batch.

Individual springs may be off by 50lbs for a "matched" set!! One of the best tuning tips for suspension is to measure each set of springs, and then contact the manufacturer to coordinate replacing one spring of each pair to truly get a close match.

Even super high end springs (thousand dollar Formula 1 springs) go through this process to get a matched set.

Apparently this is inherent in spring manufacturing, but this is exacerbated from many manufacturers switching production facilities from Japan to china where quality control is not nearly as thorough.

I mentioned to him I had the factory springs on my car and he said "good! Older Japanese springs are very well made"

Basically what I took away from our convo was that linear (non progressive) spring rates are preferred, match f & r spring pair rates, and basically get the Re-Speed coil over kit if you want to properly tune in the suspension.

Geoff

 

I agree about the spring rates. I was going to measure these before I install them. Haven’t done it before but I was going to put them in the 10 ton press in the garage and measure with a bathroom scale. It should at least give me a comparison between them. I also recall reading somewhere that the factory springs are slightly stronger on the drivers side to compensate for driver weight. Thinking that there is no passenger most of the time? My original factory springs seem to be weaker now, it does bottom out quite often. (I weigh about 185) I should be able to make some adjustments with the adjustable coilovers on the front however. It would be nice to have the adjustment on the rears as well but I cancelled my order with ReSpeed. I ordered the rear coilover kit back in October and didn’t get them after almost three months. I read that Sam was going to be shipping those kits out soon to the customers that ordered them. I wasn’t willing to wait not knowing if I was ever going to get them.

 

Yah I held off on suspension on my car for that very reason. That will be up next after interior and EFI swap.

Post your spring rate results!!! I'm very curious since that discussion.

-Geoff

 

DONT BUY RE-SPEED - I got screwed from that D-Bag. Go with another or I should say real company! I've been a member here since 2001 and owned my seven since 1998 and cant believe how many people kiss Re-speed D-bag butt. The dude screws people and should be put out of business!

 

Might be more productive if you posted griped about ReSpeed in the right place.
https://www.rx7club.com/bad-fugly-bu...1011269/page7/

He's been active on facebook, and has been in that thread responding.

I was going to buy some parts from him myself but have resisted due to the negative feedback. Once he gets his act together I may go ahead, not now though, no way.

 

Since it's here, I've been hauling a set of fb springs around since I took 'em off my 1st '85 back in '88. They had 32,000 miles on them. I just cut 3/4 coil from the rear and 1/2 from the front and mounted them with New Tockiko Blue last week. I am delighted. My ride height is about the same, I think. The ride and handling are superb. It's a street car, and my autoxing to win days are well behind me.

 

I'll post a gripe about re-speed every time I see talk about them.

 

Re-Speed started out with the best customer service you could imagine. Supplied parts that you couldnt get anywhere else at excellent prices. Then the business was sold to the current owner and thats when the problems started. Such a shame........

 

Exactly x 4567890

 

I wish there was a place to get a rear coilover kit now that re-speed is basicaly MIA.

I guess I'll just go with the GC weld on front set. Anyone have any success running off the shelf 5" eibach springs?

 

https://technotoytuning.com/mazda/fb...version-fb-rx7
Didjaseethis? I don't know much about coilovers and such, but this was on a recent thread.

 

I did, thanks! Still contemplating it due to costs. Not saying they're not worth it though. I might have a machinist make some perch adapters for a larger OD spring and weld those on. Off the shelf parts (spring in this case) from a larger company are always much mroe appealing, personally.

 

Cost is only slightly more than re-speed when you consider the TTT's come with springs, struts, and adjustable perches

 

The rear springs and adjustable perch (weight jacks) are readily available from any circle track supplier. Off the top of my head the diameter is 5" but it has been a few years so you better get under there with a tape and measure. Coil springs are plentiful in 4.5", 5", and 5.5" in any length and spring rate a person could want for incredibly cheap.

Camaro rear shocks are about 2in shorter than stock if you go with a shorter spring and need a short stroke damper to keep it captive.

For the fronts I always use the cheapest ebay coilover conversion kit (~$40), toss out the springs, and use the perches/adjusters with quality coilover springs ($50-$100) a pair depending on length and manufacturer.

For the most part, people just under-think and buy whatever part the forum tells them is the new hot stuff. You can build a nice FB suspension on a tiny budget by doing a little work and piecing it together yourself.

$40- ebay coilover conversion kit, you only need half of it per rx7, so split it with someone lol
$50- front coil springs
$40- rear springs
$50- rear spring adjusters for 5-5.5 springs ( if you want adjustment)


Isaac

 

What is the eBay coil conversion kit for - 1st gen RX or other?

 

For anything, It is just the cheapest way to get a set of threaded tubes and collars with top hats. I bought a bunch of them years ago when they were $25 or so, spring rates are all over the place, but the tube/collar/hat are all decent.

You can buy the threaded tubes, collars, lock rings, and top hats from any circle track place as seperates, but you pay more.

something like: http://www.ebay.com/itm/90-01-ACURA-DA-DC-COILOVER-SLEEVE-CONVERSION-KIT-LOWERING-SPRINGS-ADJUSTABLE-RED-/310620085998?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4852665eee&vxp=mtr or http://www.ebay.com/itm/92-95-HONDA-CIVIC-COILOVER-Spring-lowering-Kit-Silver-/260689339958?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3cb24ba636&vxp=mtr
I bought a set 4-5 years ago when they first started flooding the market, used two on an rx7, and two on my cressida (4000lb barge). The set on my cressida has been hammered over E.Wa. potholes and crap roads for about 30k miles now and still works great (I grease the collars lightly whenever I rotate tires).


Isaac

 

That's good information!

I know I'm a visual kind of guy, Is there any way you could get a picture of your solution for front/rear online? I mean a picture of the described components on your car.

 

I will grab a few pictures this weekend when I get a chance to do some automotive work

Isaac

 

Anxiously awaiting. I may have to road trip it to your place to check this out irl

 

Get a chance to take those pictures?

 

I haven't been able to even think about touching the mazda lately, so much work has come out of nowhere. I did take some pics of the front strut assy I was using on my x6 cressida, it is pretty much exactly the same as the FB (most people probably couldn't tell the difference at a glance. This shows how the ebay coilover collar/adjuster and top hat work with a stock strut tube/top hat. I used the crappy ebay springs on the cressida as an experiment, and I highly recommend against them lol.







As soon as I actually get some time I will work on the rx and get pics.

Isaac

 

Whoa - so are those threaded tubes even welded on or just resting on the old remnants of the spring perch?? That looks like something even I could do!

I assume rears would be similar then? perhaps weld in a new perch?

 

The threaded tubes and collars that make up the spring adjuster are aluminum, they are not welded, they merely sit on top of the cut down stock spring perch. The ones in the pic there have probably 30-40k miles of abuse from my cressida, they are surprisingly well made.

You get two choices for the rear, stay with a separate spring/strut system and use 5in circle track adjusters/springs with the stock spring perches, and camaro shocks for a short stroke. Option two is to swap to a shock that can have coilover sleeves mounted to it(or one with the threads integrated in the shock body) and have an actual coilover setup back there.

Isaac