Rear Coilover Question

[Ferocious]

So i just installed coilovers on the rear of my car and this happened....



That's with 10" springs, perches maxed out towards the bottom, and after a test drive.

I'm 99% sure I installed everything correctly. Is this normal? Do I just need to go with 8" springs or make some sort of drop bracket to get back to the height I want.
I'm still pretty surprised that's the lowest the car will go... maybe I'm spinning the perches the wrong way?? Maybe theres a technique to install the shock through the tower?


I'm at a loss here.

Here they are installed before adjusting them.

 

[FivepointSlow]

Im confused at 'maybe theres a technique to install the shock through the tower'
What parts are under the car and what parts are inside the trunk?
Are they brand new coilovers? I bought mine used and while my rears arent true coilovers and just adjustable spring perches everything still settled a good 3/4" over 2 days(not being driven just sitting) and thats with around 1000 miles put on them previously..

Im thinking you put a bushing under the car thats suppose to be inside the car... thats all i can think of other than settling but no way itll settle enough to get you back where you used to be.

 

[mcglsr2]

That's about where my drop is (ish), I'm running 9" springs and I still have a little over 2 inches of thread that I can use to lower it more. FWIW, my fronts are 10" - I think 10" is probably too tall of a spring for the low you want. I would say you need a 9" at least, and maybe a 8" since you like it really low...

Edit: also, are you sure the hat on the coil-over is seated properly in the shock tower? I assume if it wasn't, you would have heard it when you drove. I suspect what you are seeing is due to the 10" spring.

 

[mcglsr2]

Oh, and it's hard to tell since I don't have your coil-overs lined up next to mine, but I think on mine the threaded portion actually goes a little lower (closer to the bottom mount) than yours does. But that could just be an artifact of the angles of the pics.

 

[slow90coupe]

http://www.uprproducts.com/mustang-adj-rear-shock-mount-79.html


This is what you need. Mine sat the same until I made some drop brackets. Now they make these and you can literally put the rear end into the trunk with them if you desire.

 

[Ferocious]

Im confused at 'maybe theres a technique to install the shock through the tower'
What parts are under the car and what parts are inside the trunk?
Are they brand new coilovers? I bought mine used and while my rears arent true coilovers and just adjustable spring perches everything still settled a good 3/4" over 2 days(not being driven just sitting) and thats with around 1000 miles put on them previously..

Im thinking you put a bushing under the car thats suppose to be inside the car... thats all i can think of other than settling but no way itll settle enough to get you back where you used to be.

Theyre used so I don't expect them to settle and even if they do I don't expect 3" like I need. The only parts in the trunk are the shock nuts and tower bushing/washer.
Like I said, I'm pretty certain I installed them correctly.

That's about where my drop is (ish), I'm running 9" springs and I still have a little over 2 inches of thread that I can use to lower it more. FWIW, my fronts are 10" - I think 10" is probably too tall of a spring for the low you want. I would say you need a 9" at least, and maybe a 8" since you like it really low...

Edit: also, are you sure the hat on the coil-over is seated properly in the shock tower? I assume if it wasn't, you would have heard it when you drove. I suspect what you are seeing is due to the 10" spring.

I emailed maximum motorsports and provided every detail about my car including how I want it to sit and a picture of the current ride height and I was advised to get a 11" spring. I thought that was a bit extreme so I went with 10". Guess that wasn't the right choice either huh.

I'll probably order some 7"-8" springs in the next week or so. Thanks for the help, I really needed someone to confirm that 10" is too much for my goals.

 

[Ferocious]

http://www.uprproducts.com/mustang-adj-rear-shock-mount-79.html


This is what you need. Mine sat the same until I made some drop brackets. Now they make these and you can literally put the rear end into the trunk with them if you desire.

Holy moly that's expensive.
Why does it say it doesn't work with the UPR maximum rear coilover kit? That's the one I have believe.

Did you sell your drop brackets?

 

[slow90coupe]

Holy moly that's expensive.
Why does it say it doesn't work with the UPR maximum rear coilover kit? That's the one I have believe.

Did you sell your drop brackets?

They'll work with yours, they look just like mine did. The maximum coilovers were different and very wide IIRC. I sold my homemade ones and recently bought some UPR brackets because I bought another set of coilovers. If you know how to weld and understand suspension geometry the drop brackets aren't hard to make, but this time around I just opted for a nicer looking and functioning product.

 

[mcglsr2]

Theyre used so I don't expect them to settle and even if they do I don't expect 3" like I need. The only parts in the trunk are the shock nuts and tower bushing/washer.
Like I said, I'm pretty certain I installed them correctly.



I emailed maximum motorsports and provided every detail about my car including how I want it to sit and a picture of the current ride height and I was advised to get a 11" spring. I thought that was a bit extreme so I went with 10". Guess that wasn't the right choice either huh.

I'll probably order some 7"-8" springs in the next week or so. Thanks for the help, I really needed someone to confirm that 10" is too much for my goals.

That's really weird - I also spoke with MM when I did mine, told them my goals, etc, and Jack recommended 10" up front, 9" rear. That's weird they would say 11" for the rear - they did know you were talking about the rears? I would say 7" or 8" is what you probably want, you'll just need to make sure the shock isn't bottomed out with that short of a spring. Hmm - maybe they said 10 or 11 because the shock you are using doesn't like smaller springs? I don't know, grasping at straws here on why they'd say that.

 

[Ferocious]

That's really weird - I also spoke with MM when I did mine, told them my goals, etc, and Jack recommended 10" up front, 9" rear. That's weird they would say 11" for the rear - they did know you were talking about the rears? I would say 7" or 8" is what you probably want, you'll just need to make sure the shock isn't bottomed out with that short of a spring. Hmm - maybe they said 10 or 11 because the shock you are using doesn't like smaller springs? I don't know, grasping at straws here on why they'd say that.

Maybe Jack was smoking that good stuff.

The only thing I didn't tell him was I was going with Strange shocks.

In the rear I would use a 175lbs/in x 11" x 2.25" coilover spring. This will be a good match to the front spring that is in the car currently.

Sincerely,
Jack Hidley
Maximum Motorsports Tech Support

He may have assumed I was going with their bilstein setup. Regardless I don't think the difference would have been astronomical.

 

[Ferocious]

I guess now I just need to figure out whether I want drop brackets or new springs all together. And just looking at summit racing it seems all the eibach 7" or 8" coil springs are on backorder til the 29th.

Just my luck.

 

[slow90coupe]

The shock will be bottomed out with anything less than a 10 inch spring. My 10-125 springs bottomed out and hit the top mounts when I had the coilovers maxed out before putting drop brackets on.

 

[mcglsr2]

Maybe Jack was smoking that good stuff.

The only thing I didn't tell him was I was going with Strange shocks.



He may have assumed I was going with their bilstein setup. Regardless I don't think the difference would have been astronomical.

Smoking that good stuff is right. That totally surprises me - it might have been a good match for the front spring-rate-wise, but not for moar low.

 

[sleepn_sn95]

Yeah from all the research I had done it looks like drop brackets are the best option. Shouldnt be too hard to fab some up and have them welded like [MENTION=16454]slow90coupe[/MENTION] had

 

[Ferocious]

The shock will be bottomed out with anything less than a 10 inch spring. My 10-125 springs bottomed out and hit the top mounts when I had the coilovers maxed out before putting drop brackets on.

Would you be willin to make another pair of those drop brackets if I paid you?

 

[slow90coupe]

This was what it looks like maxed out and compressed with no drop brackets



And this is the ghetto drop brackets I made so you get an idea of what I'm talking about.

 

[mcglsr2]

The shock will be bottomed out with anything less than a 10 inch spring. My 10-125 springs bottomed out and hit the top mounts when I had the coilovers maxed out before putting drop brackets on.

Ah, that sucks, I guess that's why Jack said what he did? Regardless, looks like drop brackets it is...

 

[slow90coupe]

Would you be willin to make another pair of those drop brackets if I paid you?

I'm a little afraid to say yes. Trust me, I'm no master welder and wouldn't feel right welding something up for someone I didn't know and then have something happen to your car because of them failing.

 

[OnyxCobra]

can someone enlighten me about how these drop brackets work? I'm having trouble envisioning this.

 

[mcglsr2]

The bottom of the shock mounts to a bracket that is bolted to the rear axle. To install the drop bracket, you remove the "stock" bracket from the axle. You then take your drop bracket, which basically moves the shock mount closer to the ground, and bolt that to the axle where the stock bracket used to be. What you are left with is a bracket that now has the shock mount moved several inches closer to the ground. Since where the shock mounts at the top hasn't moved, and the shock is a fixed length, it will now not fit between the top and bottom mount (it's not long enough). Thus, the entire rear axle now must come upwards in order for the shock to fit. The entire axle moving upwards effectively lowers the rear ride height without changing the length of the rear shock. In summary: you are moving the lower shock mount down, which forces the entire axle to move up in order for the shock to fit.

The downsides I can see to this are: you better hope the drop bracket is strong - that's a critical mounting point for the shock, and if the drop bracket is weak or inadequate in any way, bad things can happen (bent axle mount being more common) - this is why [MENTION=16454]slow90coupe[/MENTION] feels iffy (rightly so) about making brackets and selling them, your car could get seriously damaged. Also, you have moved the entire axle upwards (another way to look at: moved the body of the car closer to the axle and ground) - better have a pinion snubber in place, some good bump stops on the shocks and the correct spring/damper combination to prevent bottoming out - but this is a concern with any lowered car. The UPR drop brackets linked in a previous post here will end up pushing the bottom shock mount a little further away from the axle than the stock design - it has to do this due to its ability to adjust heights. This will change the rear shock geometry a little - probably not really of any noticeable significance, but it is a change none-the-less. If you are racing your car, there's a lot to consider here. Lastly, using the drop brackets will make it much harder to install a pan hard bar (and maybe impossible). The pan hard bar uses the stock lower shock mount location, and the shock one side mounts to the pan hard bar; using drop brackets will greatly affect installation of the pan hard bar - you will probably have to make something up to get it to work, but then you are altering the original design and everything may go out the window at that point. Nothing wrong with using the drop brackets, just things that should be considered.