Can you cut your springs?

[Rthomas]

I have a 70 Chevelle and I have a set of Edelbrock 1/12" lowering springs on it. I also have 20" wheels in the rear with 285/30/20 tires. I want to lower the car another 1". Can I cut a loop out of the springs? Will that have any negative effects?

[70bird]

Sure, you can cut them. Use a big cut-off wheel, chop saw etc. Try to cut through them quickly as to not heat the spring too much.
For a 1" drop you should start at 1/2 coil or less.

[Spiffav8]

Don't go crazy and take to much. I've seen a few where they took a coil and all of a sudden it was to low. Might want to be cnservative and only take .25. Better to do it twice than buy another set of springs.

[The WidowMaker]

you will increase your spring rate. in addition, you will worsen your already bad geometry of your c4l rear suspension.

post up some pics, id like to see that tire size.

[MrQuick]

I believe the rear Edel's are pig tail on both ends. So nope. Fronts yes.

It was hard to determine if you had questioned with the front or rears?

[The WidowMaker]

my original plan was to run the 11" rear springs with only a pigtail on the bottom. there shouldnt be a need for a pigtail up top. the springs in my pics in the sig are the ones i speak of.

[Norm Peterson]

They need to be long enough so that they don't get loose at full droop as limited by the shocks or move around due to lots of clearance around the post. There is some question whether cutting off the upper pigtail will leave the top coil flat enough to fit in its chassis side seat properly. End coils can be flattened, but if you don't know what you're doing or aren't very careful it is also possible to end up with springs that will crack after a while in service and put you at a real risk of having the broken spring pieces fall out. Never mind how I know this.

On the other hand, chassis seat spring posts could be made larger in diameter and longer, leaving only the "flatness" of the end coils as something to be dealt with (eccentric loading tends to make compression springs less stable).


Norm

[JEFFTATE]

Are the springs New ???
Drive it a while , and it will settle a little bit.
You need to put about 500 to 1000 miles on a new set of springs before they settle.

[Chevy]

a few thoughts...
Your spring load can change quite a bit in the first 1000 miles or so depending on the kind of steel used, so if they're new i agree, don't cut yet. Your spring rate will NOT change because of removing a coil or half coil or whatever, but your spring load will...that is, your car will be lower.
You can flatten the end pretty easily by heating it up with a torch about 1/3 of a coil from the end. Heat it red hot, then flip it over and press the hot coil into the ground with you body weight. Herb Adams has a description and some good pictures of this in the book Chassis Engineering on page 35.
Good luck!
paul

[Bad Bird]

a few thoughts...
Your spring rate will NOT change because of removing a coil...
paul

I really hope you aren't suggesting that cutting coils won't affect the spring rate.

[jerome]

Chevy, you may be a bit confused:

Cutting the spring will increase the rate.

Also, springs may "break-in" and settle slightly lower than initial installation, but the rate does not change.

[protour73]

straight from Hotchkis Tech Support......yes you can cut up to one full coil from their small block springs, without affecting the spring rate.

[greencactus3]

straight from Hotchkis Tech Support......yes you can cut up to one full coil from their small block springs, without affecting the spring rate.
i think that is probably a misphrased sentance.
maybe they meant without affecting the spring rate significantly.
especially if the coils come with closed ends originally

[Derek69SS]

Doesn't surprise me Hotchkis would be way wrong on something so basic...

[Norm Peterson]

They could be correct, but you'd have to know in some detail what their small-block spring actually looks like to call it either way. If the end coil being cut off is inactive (bottomed out against the next coil as-installed), it has little or no effect on the spring rate to begin with.


Norm