Need a little help figuring something out

[SSLance]

I'll have to compress the 600# springs approx. 1/2" to pre-load them on the shocks.

So this was interesting, and I wonder if the exercise I went though yesterday is why people to use a shorter shock and a stiffer shorter spring when putting a coil over setup on a G-body or similar frame rather than the 3.6" travel shock and 10" spring.

The good news is though, I figured out a way to make it a pretty easy install.

After trying 3 different spring compressors with no luck in getting the spring on the shock, I took the whole assembly back apart and started from the beginning. I knew I was going to have to use either my press or the weight of the car to compress the spring enough to get the spring on the shock. With the shock's top mount apart and in my hand, it hit me...

I put the lower plastic ball part of the mount into the hole in the frame from the bottom. I then put the lower spring adjuster all the way down on the shock body (mistake, will explain later) then the 10" spring, then the upper spring retainer and the aluminum top mount with the clip in place. The length of the spring made the top mount not go all the way down on the shock, but that was okay.

The lower ball joint was loose, so I slid the shock into place in the A-arm and put the bottom bolt in place, then lifted the A-arm while directing the shock assembly into the hole in the frame. Once it touched, I put my screw jack under the A-Arm and used the jack to lift the A-arm and shock up, compressing the spring at the same time. As it got there, I guided the lower ball joint into the bottom of the spindle and lifted it up until it was tight in place. I inspected the top shock mount and everything was right in place.

At this point I kicked myself in the butt as I just did in 10 minutes what I had spent the last three hours trying to do...unsuccessfully.

I put the top two pieces of the shock mount in place on top of the frame and tightened the nut down. Boom...coil over shock installed. I did the same to the other side and lowered the car down to check the ride height. Fender was about an inch lower than we wanted it, that meant the bottom spring adjuster needed to go up about a half inch. While I was doing the passenger side, my brother finished up the install on the drivers side including the sway bar mount and the cotter pin in the ball joint stud. Second mistake...

We tried to raise the adjuster up with the spanner wrench but the adjuster being at the very bottom of the shock down in the dropped A-arm mount, there wasn't room to get the spanner wrench in there much less turn it with pressure on the spring. The smart thing to do would have been to bust the lower ball joint loose again, lower the A-arm taking pressure off the spring, run the adjuster up by hand and re-install. We did it the other way. We used a hammer and a punch to turn the adjuster about 3 turns before we could get a good bite on it with the spanner wrench to run it the rest of the way up we needed. This isn't particularly easy and I strongly suggest to not use this method, but we made it work anyway.

Once both of the adjusters were ran up a half inch we lowered the car down again, jounced the suspension up and down a bit, rolled the car back and forth and measured again...we need another couple turns on each and it was good. We then stopped for the night and today I finished up the install and test drove.

What we've learned here is that it is possible to run a 3.6" travel shock with a 10" 600# spring in the front of a G-body. The pressure it takes to move the front down on the springs feels very similar to the 575# conventional springs I had in it before and it drives very similar as well.

I haven't started adjusting on the shocks yet. I set all three settings at -12 clicks on all 4 shocks for the initial test drive. The rear feels a little bit more stiff than before but the front feels VERY similar to the old setup. Travel, turn in, weight transfer, control, ride, all are very nice as is...but I'm certain I can make them all much better with some tuning, which is next. I need to clean up the shop and spend some time with my wife for a day or so first...then get back after it.

Hopefully this will show though that you can make a long travel coil over setup work on a G-body without resorting to putting a super stiff spring in due to space constraints or install difficulties. It really isn't that hard to do now that you know how.