Cutting aftermarket springs?

[Smarz1018]

Okay, flame suit and tie are on....

Long story short I am happy with the ride quality with my steeda ultra-lite springs, but unhappy with the stance. Since I have an ecoboost it seems as if the front sits slightly higher then the rear. I am happy with the height in the rear but I would like to lower the front another maybe 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch. I have never cut springs before but I do have a grinder with a cutting wheel and don't see it being an issue. From the research I have done it appears that cutting linear springs, such as the ultra-lites, shouldn't cause a problem. I only imagine cutting maybe an inch or two off the bottom side of the spring.

Any advice, negative or positive is welcome

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[Shouldhavegotthegt]

You're just going to ruin those springs. Sell them and buy some sportlines or steeda extreme springs.

 

[Tb8983]

let them be. I have a ecoboost pp with the progessives on it and it sits level. It took it almost 2500 milies to do it(suspension settling) and now car sits flat and even

 

[Dominant1]

Cutting spring is rice, you must want to bounce more..just replace the springs

 

[TheHydro]

I say cut them, I would do it if I was unhappy with the looks.

 

[turbosc297]

Cutting springs will increase the spring rate and ride like crap

 

[HappySquirrel]

First thing's first: have you reclocked (loosened and then re-torqued) the appropriate suspension joints after installing the springs? Also, how many miles do you have on the springs? It's possible they haven't completely settled yet due to either of these issues.

Regardless, I've never heard anything good about cutting springs.

 

[CrazedAntelope]

I had the same issue with my ultralites on my ecoboost. I used a 10mm spacer in the rear to lift the rear about 19mm. The car is about even now. I'm probably going to pick up some extreme ultralite linears later on.

 

[Smarz1018]

Thanks for the input fellas, picked up a set of sportlines springs from another member on here for a great deal. I think I'll be happier with them, and my ultra-lites will be for sale in the near future. I did have the car aligned after I lowered it, so not sure if I'll need another alignment when I switch springs? I plan on bringing it to have it checked just in case.

 

[timd38]

Thanks for the input fellas, picked up a set of sportlines springs from another member on here for a great deal. I think I'll be happier with them, and my ultra-lites will be for sale in the near future. I did have the car aligned after I lowered it, so not sure if I'll need another alignment when I switch springs? I plan on bringing it to have it checked just in case.

You need another alignment when you remove the struts, plus the ride height will change, so you need to align to the new stance.

 

[Smarz1018]

Installing my new springs this afternoon. Question with the sway bar, with the front of the car up in the air on jack stands, I always have a tough time removing the driver side endlink from the strut. The passenger side comes off and slides out of the strut no problem. However once I remove the end link nut on the driver side, the end link is so tight and it's almost like I have to lift up on the hub assembly to get the bolt side of the end link out of the strut. Is this normal and should I always have to re-install the one side of the sway bar after the car is back on the ground and under load?

 

[Norm Peterson]

I think the chassis bushings for the front sta-bars on the PP cars is bonded to the bar, and they can't turn in the chassis brackets either. In that case, some resistance to removing the second endlink would be expected. When you remove the first endlink bolt, does the bar end on that side move up slightly?

It is also possible that there is some preload on the bar, but I can't say if that would have been intentional by Ford.

I suppose you could tie something like a barbell weight or two to the passenger side bar end after removing that bolt from its strut tab, as that would pull the driver side of the bar down instead of you having to push up on the driver side suspension.


On cutting springs . . . it's not always going to be the guaranteed fail that others (including a couple of contributors to this thread) tend to think it is. But you do have to have some idea what it is that you're getting into (spring engineering).


Norm

 

[Smarz1018]

Appreciate the help. While I continue to side-track this thread, I have another question. I was thinking of maybe running the sportlines up front and leaving the ultra-lite linear springs in the rear. I prefer the slightly raked look, and it seems most springs don't offer that and are more about leveling the car out. The drop with the ultra-lites is 1" out back and the sportlines are 1.5 up front, similar ride height to the CJPP springs on the GT. I understand the sportlines are progressive. Any input on running progressive springs in the front with linear springs on the back?

AFE springs are linear/progressive but with the linear spring in the front.

 

[Norm Peterson]

First thing to find out is whether they're true progressive springs (where the rate starts out soft and gradually increases over a significant amount of suspension travel as the closely spaced coils don't all have the same coil-to-coil spacing and gradually close up) or what's essentially dual-rate springs (where the rate shifts from the soft rate to the firm rate over a very short amount of travel because the closely spaced coils all close up at the same time).

Note that dual-rate springs could actually be at their firm rate with the car just resting statically on its wheels up to some unknown amount of suspension extension from there.


Norm

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