Aftermarket springs sagging prematurely?

[Gary Wells]

Anybody ever have any problems with aftermarket springs sagging /collapsing prematurelY?
I am running Kirban stock height replacement "stiffer" front springs, and now my front passenger side is about 5/8 lower than the driver front side. The rear springs are "Kirban" stock height replacement stiffer springs also, but they are within 1/4" of each other, which might be in my measurement method/process. These springs are only about 10 months old and have about 2K miles on them. Anybody ever have similiar problems with moog, Dana, Hotchkis, or Eibach springs as far as matched sets?

[Gary Wells]

I and the suspension shop checked yesterday and both front springs are in their spring pockets and both have the isolaters located/seated properly.I have recently heard from a very reliable source that Moog & Dana springs can and do suffer poor height matching right out of the box & premature sagging. I have also heard that Kirban uses Moog springs. I also heard that Hotchkis & Eibach are generally well matched out of the box and do not suffer premature sagging. Unfortunately both Hotchkis & Eibach only make/resell/remarket 1" lowering springs. I can't go an additional 1" lower on the front end as I have already gone 1" lower on the tall lower ball joints with the pole position uppers, or SCNC Street Comp Stage II package. It is about 5/8" difference at the front end if I measure from the ground to the underneath of the wheel outline at it's highest position, but if you know about it, it is visible or detectable visually. If I measure the difference from the top of the tire to the underneath of the wheel outline on each side it looks more like an 1" difference. I can band-aid it temporarily by using a spring isolater from a particular year series of F body, 3/8" or so thick, which will raise the dropped front end passenger side about 5/8" or so, but that is not a good fix on the long term.

[neki67]

you could try a weight jack. Landrum is making them. This will give you the ability to alter the front height of the car. It's basically the same set up as ATS is using. Mark Stielow also used this set up on the Thrasher (I think it was the Thrasher).

Have a look here: http://www.daymotorsports.com/product/1057/c/S27/

Cheers,
René

[chicane67]

..its cheap non USA steel.

[Gary Wells]

Update:
Sat I got out and looked under the car good and I did notice that the driver side rear spring progressed somewhat different than the passenger side. On the driver side I noticed that the lowest 3 spring coils touched one another, then seperated after that, but on the passenger side, the 4 lowest coils touched one another, then seperated after that. This would lead me to believe that the driver side is a little higher than the passenger side. I also looked at the front end of the car good, and much to my suprise, I noticed that the front bumper had a noticable passenger side lean to it, maybe more than the car itself. The bumper had a total lean of about 1", with about 1/2" of that being the basic car lean, so I readjusted the bumper to agree with the basic 1/2" lean of the car, and now the car lean is no longer apparent. So now the entire car leans about 1/2" to passenger side, both front and rear, but does not show, and I can live with that until I come up with some extra thick front and rear spring isolaters. Maybe I will learn to live with this. I cannot stand anything aesthetically or cosmetically imperfect.
On TB.com someone posted that spring isolaters are really thick from about '88 or so to about "92 or so "F" bodies factory springs. Anybody have any knowledge of this, or any knowledge about extra thick spring isolaters in general. I need some about 3/8" to about 1/2" thick, preferably the 3/8" thick ones, front & rear both.
If i decide to "airbag" the rear springs/spring, what are the benefit or airbagging both springs over the passenger side only, and if I airbag the passenger side only, will pressure there raise the front of the passenger side somewhat?

[Marcus SC&C]

Gary, Energy Suspension makes urethane spring isolators in different thicknesses as well. Keep in mind that the motion ratio of the spring is near 50% so in theory 3/8" at the spring will raise the car 3/4" (minus the compression of the isolator). An airbag in the right rear will help plant the car on hard launches but naturally it`ll give you dissimilar effective spring rates side to side. Preloading the right side rear should have some effect on the front by jacking weight to the left front. If you do bags on both sides make sure you put seperate valve stems for each one so you can tweak each side individually. It sounds like your springs are the problem though and they may continue to wear at different rates so it may be best to loose them now rather than fuss with them repeatedly over the next few years... Mark SC&C

[Gary Wells]

Looking at those now, Mark, thanks for the info. So far, according to their web-site, they only show the isolators for the rear and they do not show what size is for the Buick Regals, and the generic # that they do show for all full size Buicks is not listed on their chart.

http://www.energysuspension.com/pages/sboots.html