My coil-overs have always had about two inches of additional adjustment to lower the car, but I could not use the adjustment, otherwise the springs would be too short and would lose contact on the perches and just rattle around when the suspension was fully extended (not good at speed). I finally got around to adding another two inches of thread on the shock mounting rod so the shock would keep the spring in place. What a fxxxing tedious job! The shock rod is hardened, chrome-plated steel. I wore out two thread dies doing just one shock. Towards the end, I could only get about one turn on the die before it had to be backed off. After all this, I wondered if anyone has used suspension limiting straps to do the same function. I remember a couple of my older British cars and my Volvo 122S having straps on the back axle to keep it from dropping too far down when the suspension extended all the way. Has anyone tried this?
Ron A.

 

Tien shock/coil over setup does not have this problem as both are adjustable.

 

If I understood you correctly.....

Normally people just go with a longer/taller spring. You can buy them in different lengths like 6, 7, 8 inches.

 

gracer7- adding the taller springs keeps the ride height still too high. I have tried switching the lower spring perches to different settings, but in order to lower the car, the adjustment on the threaded part of the coil-over needs to go lower than the length of the spring allows. adding more tread adjustment on the top of the shock rod allows the car to be lowered and still keep tension on the spring. But.....it is a miserable job to do.

 

helper springs. most high end coilovers have them. they are low rate springs that fill the gap between the coil and the perch. when the car is dropped onto the ground, the compress completely and do not affect the suspension performance.
http://www.arctic-racing.com/media/TeinSus1.jpg
you can see them here under the main coils.

 

Josh 18- that sure would work. Wish I had known before wearing out my hands turning the new threads onto the shock rods. Think the basis for my problem is the coilover setup (Hypercoil) is mis-matched to the Koni shocks. Shocks are too long. I got the setup on Ebay for $1K. The Koni yellow shocks have been re-valved to add a second adjustment, so now both compression and rebound are adjustable. Now that I have "shortened" them by adding more thread adjustment to the top, they finally work the way intended.

 

Limit straps or even cables are use all the time to keep the spring in its perch.

 

If it was me, I would (and did) just get the tender/helper springs. Ground Control or any of the well known racing-oriented parts suppliers, such as HRP, Pegasus, etc., sell the springs, plus an insert that sits between the springs. It's probably less than $50 per corner. I think I paid less than $20 per corner from Ground Control a few years ago.

 

Hypercoil has the helper springs. Last time I checked their site a couple years ago I do not think they had them for sale. Now they do.
ronA.

 

I've had GC coilovers for years... and when the suspension is at full droop, there's several inches of free space on the springs, and it's not a problem.

I spoke with the GC engineers about it when I first got them and they rightly pointed out that the car will never get to full droop even in track conditions (if it does, you've got bigger problems).

Unless there's something paricular with the hypercoul setup, it's a non issue, don't worry about it.

 

yes.

the coilovers on my fc are at max low, the springs have several inches to move around when the suspension is fully extended.

even if jumping the car, I have no problems with the springs moving around on the perches.... or if it is, it doesn't cause any problems.

lol...

unless its a car with a solid rear axle where the spring/shock absorber are seperate(which its not), and the spring could literall fall off the car, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Well..... after finally using all of the available adjustment on the threads on the coilover setup I can now kill snakes and other low-lying critters by driving over them, since the rear differential now sits about two inches off the pavement. I may need to raise it slightly for normal street driving. It's also tough going to the drive up window at the bank.

 

haha. sweet. don't raise it! lol.