Thanks for all the help guys. Hopefully my car will be one of the few to not need caster camber plates.
Steps to cut stock springs?
- Thread starter CobraOnTheLoose
- Start date
You don't need a spring compressor. The springs are VERY easy to get out.
I know.. I can have the springs out in no time. Front and Rears are a piece of cake if you follow the right steps.
To the OP.. You will notice a that one persons 5/8 of a coil doesn't equal another 5/8. Your best bet is to go with the minimum and adjust it again after driving for a while. Yea, it may not be fun to take the springs out over and over, but it doesn't take THAT long and you can get the ride height you want.
This is true.
It really depends on how old the springs are and how many miles they have on them.
I have about 56k on my springs cause they havent been changed since the car was born.
how are the springs removed w/o a compressor?
By putting a jack under the control arm.
Correct,after you unbolt some stuff the arm will come down far enough to let you pull the spring out.Mine,1 full coil in the back and almost 1 coil up front.I might make it a full coil up front.
I have to disagree. I think that it would take more time to use a compressor, and actually the second time I went in to change I did the fronts in less than an hour.
1 coil all the way around,with iso's
Just did this yesterday. Went smoothly and only took about two hours doing it by myself.
Here's the steps I took:
1. Got the car up on jack stands and took all tires off.
2. Took the front brake calipers off and took the front sway bar nuts off.
3. Put a jack under the front lower control arms to aid in unbolting the lower shock mounts. Then I removed the two lower shock mounts. I also unhooked the ABS line from the bracket for more slack.
4. Take the jack out from under the arm, and take the spring out. You might need a pry bar to get it out, but nowhere close to where you would need a spring compressor.
5. Cut the springs to length. I used an angle grinder with some metal cutoff
wheels.
6. Put everything back together in the front.
7. For the rear, you will need two jacks. Have one support the diff, and one to support the lower control arm.
8. Unbolt the lower shock mount, and unbolt the IRS bolt. Also, unbolt the rear-most exhaust hangers (the ones on the inside of the bumper).
9. Take the jack out from under the control arm. Slowly lower the jack supporting the diff. This will drop the IRS down. Drop it only far enough to where you are able to get the springs out.
10. Take the springs out, and cut to length.
11. When putting the springs back in, make sure both of them are seated properly when jacking the IRS back up.
12. Reverse the removal process.
13. Get an alignment.
I cut 1 coil in the front, 3/4 coil in the rear and left all stock isos in. Tires are 275/40/17 MT in the back and 275/40/17 Nitto 555 in the front, with stock rims.
Before:
After:
Here's the steps I took:
1. Got the car up on jack stands and took all tires off.
2. Took the front brake calipers off and took the front sway bar nuts off.
3. Put a jack under the front lower control arms to aid in unbolting the lower shock mounts. Then I removed the two lower shock mounts. I also unhooked the ABS line from the bracket for more slack.
4. Take the jack out from under the arm, and take the spring out. You might need a pry bar to get it out, but nowhere close to where you would need a spring compressor.
5. Cut the springs to length. I used an angle grinder with some metal cutoff
wheels.
6. Put everything back together in the front.
7. For the rear, you will need two jacks. Have one support the diff, and one to support the lower control arm.
8. Unbolt the lower shock mount, and unbolt the IRS bolt. Also, unbolt the rear-most exhaust hangers (the ones on the inside of the bumper).
9. Take the jack out from under the control arm. Slowly lower the jack supporting the diff. This will drop the IRS down. Drop it only far enough to where you are able to get the springs out.
10. Take the springs out, and cut to length.
11. When putting the springs back in, make sure both of them are seated properly when jacking the IRS back up.
12. Reverse the removal process.
13. Get an alignment.
I cut 1 coil in the front, 3/4 coil in the rear and left all stock isos in. Tires are 275/40/17 MT in the back and 275/40/17 Nitto 555 in the front, with stock rims.
Before:
After:
your car looks great matt! hope mine looks like that after i cut 1 coil in the front and 3/4 of a coil in the rear with the iso's!
Ken
Ken
I followed Matt's steps almost exactly. 3/4 coil cut all the way around.
Phone pic FTL.
I need to update my sig. :sleeping:
Phone pic FTL.
I need to update my sig. :sleeping:
Ok, I just did this, and man was it easy. I took 3/4 coil off the front, and 1 coil off the rear with iso's. I think I may take the other 1/4 off of the front to even it out.
More phone pics FTL.
More phone pics FTL.
Looks good man! Ya its a breeze once its done. You could probably knock another hour off the job if you had to do it again. Now you need 30mm hubcentric spacers for the rear to bring those wheels out flush
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Your right! In the time since I posted my last reply, I ate a bowl of Ice Cream (Dryers Cookies and Cream), took a shower, and cut another 2" off of the fronts. The results:
Perfection. 26 1/4" from ground to top of wheel wells all around. Here is exactly what I did.
The front springs are 15" coils. I cut off exactly 13 1/2" (11 1/2 in my previous post) of coil from the BOTTOM of the spring.
The rears are 17" coils, but I just cut off one whole coil from the TOP.
My original measurments were around 27 1/2" in front, and 28" in the rear. I am still using stock isolators, with 275s in front, and 315s in the rear. No spacers.
My car actually makes LESS noises now driving down the road. Go figure. And it drives and feels the same. You just have to be careful over bumps.
Good free mod, and I needed an alignment anyway.
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Your right! In the time since I posted my last reply, I ate a bowl of Ice Cream (Dryers Cookies and Cream), took a shower, and cut another 2" off of the fronts. The results:
Perfection. 26 1/4" from ground to top of wheel wells all around. Here is exactly what I did.
The front springs are 15" coils. I cut off exactly 13 1/2" (11 1/2 in my previous post) of coil from the BOTTOM of the spring.
The rears are 17" coils, but I just cut off one whole coil from the TOP.
My original measurments were around 27 1/2" in front, and 28" in the rear. I am still using stock isolators, with 275s in front, and 315s in the rear. No spacers.
My car actually makes LESS noises now driving down the road. Go figure. And it drives and feels the same. You just have to be careful over bumps.
Good free mod, and I needed an alignment anyway.
Are these pictures fresh from the cut/install? If so, the car is going to settle a little and appear even lower. Out of curiosity, why did you cut the top of the rears and the bottoms of the fronts?
Looks good, and love the color...
Yep mine settled about another 1/4" after cutting.
For those curious, this is a pic of the front springs. You can see one side has a nice round coil and the other side is much flatter and compressed. You want to cut the round coil thats not compressed. Obviously these are upside down for reinstalling. The round flat ISO sits on top of the spring which is reversed in the rear.
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I need to do this!!!
Yep mine settled about another 1/4" after cutting.
For those curious, this is a pic of the front springs. You can see one side has a nice round coil and the other side is much flatter and compressed. You want to cut the round coil thats not compressed. Obviously these are upside down for reinstalling. The round flat ISO sits on top of the spring which is reversed in the rear.
Yep! In front the non compressed (flattened) coil is on the bottom, so it's only obvious that is the one to cut. The rears actually look the same just about on both ends, I just decided to do the tops.
So, I drove the car from my place in the Phoenix area to Las Vegas this week with my girl and a car full of luggage. I have not done an alignment yet, because I wanted to let the car settle. Here are the issues I ran into:
Any significant bumps, my rear tires (315s with no spacers) would rub for that short period when the spring compresses.
Also, for some reason, during steering lock to the left, my front right tires rubs a small amount on the front wheel well liner.
So, these are pretty minor issues, all of which I think can be solved with allignment. I think the biggest problem in the rear is the camber. Once the top of the tires get pushed out, they should be fine. But this has nothing to do with cutting the springs, just with lowering the car in general.
I wanna pick up some CC plates too.
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