Cutting Springs help!!!

[duff daddy]

Alright, not my section but no pissing matches here.
1) cutting coils is the cheap way BUT on a non progressive rate spring you have less to chance
2) alot and i mean ALOT of people run cut springs at the track. as long as you set up them right and equal your fine
3) your honda's you speak of is a direct product of a progressive spring being cut, and being cut TOO much. we are talking 1 coil 2 max, not 3 or 4..homie
4) opinions are like asssholes,get over it, take the opinion, and try not to get too butt hurt.



that is all

oh and for the record, my 12.6 was with 4 cyl fox front springs and cut rears and equaled a 1.62 short time

 

[Lee12609]

:icon_salut: duff

 

[orodi]

Before you start into where I work maybe you should look into the fact that I work for a company that has nothing to do with suspensions so my job is of little consequence in your argument. You want FACTS here you go:
Since your example of a drag car goes out the window since a car with chopped springs would be more than likely driven to the track and on the street handling will be a large issue.

Keep in mind if someone is asking how to cut springs chances are they have either never done it or don't have much experience doing it.

If you take a spring and make it a straight line and you do not cut it EXACTLY the same length what you get is differing spring rates. If all 4 were different from each other the differences will add up. For example if for every 1/2 inch you cut off changes the spring rate by 50 lbs. Lets say spring 1 is 10" spring 2 is 10 1/8" spring 3 is 10 1/4" and spring 4 is 10 3/8" you would have 75lbs of unbalanced spring rate. Lets say that the front DS is 10" and the front PS is 10 3/8" the DS rear is 10 1/8" and the PS rear is 10 1/4. Now you have a pull which is a problem. now you swerve to the left around an obstacle when the weight transfers onto the two "stronger" springs and then back to the "weaker" you would have an increased chance of overcorrecting. Or if you are driving like an idiot and you go to take a turn you normally drive on the car will not handle evenly the results could now be a multitude issues. Now placing that stiffer spring with the same stock shock/strut you will now have a loss of control the shock/strut has over the spring. How much loss depends on the type and wear of the shock/strut. I hope you can see where I am going with all of this. I'm sure I could go on for hours about the possibilities as could we all. My entire point is the likeliness of someone cutting 4 springs perfectly is slim to none with out a lot of practice. Hence a bad idea. I understand a lot of this is a giant what if however this is why IMPO it's a cheap and unpredictable method of having an aftermarket suspension.
As for the "Bouncing Honda" your reasoning is backward if you were to have a softer spring the car would not bounce. It would have more of a hit a bump and bottom out effect. But traveling down a flat road it would not constantly bounce. Given a stock shock or strut it would be able to maintain control of the softened spring. however Cutting the spring and not only shortening the travel of the spring and making it stiffer the stock shock or strut would be totally ineffective especially since more than likely it has been on the car for a while. When cars bounce up and down is because of that LACK of spring control provided by the shock or strut. Like is stated in the begining this is my opinion if you don't like it move on I could careless if it makes you upset, you think I am wrong whatever. I know what I am talking about. I think that is a very lazy and cheap way to do things period. You will not change anything I have to say you nor am i trying to change what you think. My boss cut the springs on his GT it is just my opinion both personally and professionally that I would not cut them nor would I recommend anyone else do it. There are just much better ways to handle a suspension.

 

[1bad95]

Thanks for the info Duff and Lee! Spun the springs 180* and threw on my upper isos and its perfect! No more bottoming out and scraping tires and the stance is better than what i had with my other lowering springs. So glad i got em changed out!

 

[Lee12609]

Thanks for the info Duff and Lee! Spun the springs 180* and threw on my upper isos and its perfect! No more bottoming out and scraping tires and the stance is better than what i had with my other lowering springs. So glad i got em changed out!

just pray nothing breaks now!!!!! LOL

 

[duff daddy]

No prob, glad to help ya out man!!!

 

[1bad95]

haha!

 

[Dysfunction]

Question for you guys. I get what happens when cutting a stock spring, but what happens when cutting progressive springs?

I've got Eibach sportlines on my car, And I want to cut the front about a 1/4 to 1/2 coil just to drop the nose down a bit more. Are there any problems to doing this on the sportlines versus my stock springs?

 

[Lee12609]

Cutting progressive springs changes the rate dramatically, cutting linear springs any reasonable amount has only a slight effect on the spring rate.

I personally wouldn't cut a progressive spring because the results are unpredictable but a lot of people do wihout a problem. You can make your own judgement call on it.

 

[orodi]

I'll second that, cutting a progressive spring and having a predictable out come is very very hard to do.

 

[Dr.Scientist]

So how much is "one coil"? Can someone outline exactly where "one coil" on a spring ends? How are you supposed to know exactly where to cut?

 

[Addermk2]

So how much is "one coil"? Can someone outline exactly where "one coil" on a spring ends? How are you supposed to know exactly where to cut?

Seriously? you really dont understand the concept of "one coil"?
if you stand the spring up, and look at where the very end is. follow it around until that end lines up with the next ring.

The basic concept is that if you cut a piece off the coil, and could make it completely flat. it would be a single, solid circle, with no overlap, no gap.

 

[rz5.0]

what he said (lol always enloy reading your answers)

 

[Dr.Scientist]

So how much is "one coil"? Can someone outline exactly where "one coil" on a spring ends? How are you supposed to know exactly where to cut?

Seriously? you really dont understand the concept of "one coil"?
if you stand the spring up, and look at where the very end is. follow it around until that end lines up with the next ring.

The basic concept is that if you cut a piece off the coil, and could make it completely flat. it would be a single, solid circle, with no overlap, no gap.

Seriously? You don't know why someone could look at cutting a spring for the very first time and wonder where to cut it?

Also due to your poor grammar, I had a hard time garnering the meaning of your explanation.

 

[Addermk2]

well why don't you just cry about it!

 

[OnyxCobra]

I'm just curious about this, how does cutting a linear spring change the spring rate?

 

[duh09]

well why don't you just cry about it!

+1
He gave a pretty straight forward answer after you asked.

 

[2v_takeover]

I'm also wondering about the linear spring cut. I thought that it was always just the same spring rate. Springs will be under a larger load I'd imagine, but I didn't think it would change the spring itself. I've got a eibach prokit installed on my car and would like to lower my nose by another 1" or so, and I was thinking about cutting them, but they are progressive. I figure if I cut the bottom coil, or "largest (?)" coil off, it would only affect it if I'm driving it hard which I don't. Any logic to this?

 

[Addermk2]

When a spring is given a "rate" it has nothing to do with the composition of the material. or the type of winding used.

A springs "rate" is a measurement of how much weight it takes to cause the total length of the spring to change by 1"

Example: Given a 10" spring, with a 250lb/in rate (linear) the spring will compress 1" with 250lbs of load. Since the spring is linear, the load is distributed evenly across all sections of the spring.

If you break the spring down into segments, it means that every 1" section of that 10" spring, has been compressed 1/10th of an inch.

If you now take that same spring, and cut it in half, you effectively removed half of the area that was being compressed. Therefor, given the same weight, and now a 5" spring, It will only compress .5"

Your new 5" spring, now has a spring rate of 500lbs/in (because 250lbs will only compress it .5")

 

[a306juGRnot]

When a spring is given a "rate" it has nothing to do with the composition of the material. or the type of winding used.

A springs "rate" is a measurement of how much weight it takes to cause the total length of the spring to change by 1"

Example: Given a 10" spring, with a 250lb/in rate (linear) the spring will compress 1" with 250lbs of load. Since the spring is linear, the load is distributed evenly across all sections of the spring.

If you break the spring down into segments, it means that every 1" section of that 10" spring, has been compressed 1/10th of an inch.

If you now take that same spring, and cut it in half, you effectively removed half of the area that was being compressed. Therefor, given the same weight, and now a 5" spring, It will only compress .5"

Your new 5" spring, now has a spring rate of 500lbs/in (because 250lbs will only compress it .5")

i really dont think thats the right logic. if your cutting that 10inch spring in half, and you put 250 on it, it should still drop an inch. why would the coils get stronger by cutting it in half. the new spring rate should still remain the same or even softer than it was before.