Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension Cut springs!!!

Yes off the top although it didn't look like it would matter on the fronts. They did fit back inot the assemblies fine except with that great of an angle and my crappy spring compressor, I had to hold the top in the right place...but with a bit of worked...they went fine.

Congrats! How much did it drop your car?

I measured it before an after and if I remember right not even a whole inch in front...like 7/8 or so...maybe after they have settled a bit more, but I lik it now...not too low, but looks good.

Cutting the spring is not necessarily dangerous!

Man, this isn't rocket science and its not voodoo either!

A spring is designed to carry a certain load and travel a certain distance.
First you assume that you don't affect the heat treatment of the spring so it will not loose and of its physical properties in the compressible area and that it is a linear rate spring and not progressive. (I can justify this assumption as long as you aren't using a cutting torch)
If you lop off one coil then all you do is reduce the length of the spring and the ultimate load it can carry before it bottoms out. That is it and there is nothing dangerous about that. As long as you clock the spring into the correct position then it isn't going to make a rats a$$ is you are 1mm to 1cm off in your cut from right to left. This is because 75% of the whole first coil is sitting in the spring seat on the strut mounts.
Again, less coils mean less load bearing ability and less travel distance, nothing else.

In addition to Warmonger's statement, I would like to hear logically how a cut spring has an increased spring rate...Logically, it is still the same spring, just missing a coil or two. So where does the increased spring rate come from?

if removing coils is causing the spring to be able to handle less load...wouldn't that make the car too heavy for the springs making it not able to properly distribute the weight?

In the end, making your car handle like a$$?

No.





To clarify:
The car doesn't weigh any more than it did before.
Less if you count the missing coil?

Two, you have to understand just how much weight is at each corner of the car and how much compression is on the spring AND how many coils you cut.
Assume you cut ONE Coil; The designer factors in the maximum load (published on the car door sill sticker) and the maximum travel distance for the spring. Then he adds a little margin of error for the moron who overloads the car and hits a dip at high speed so that it doesn't bottom out.

If you cut one coil then you remove a portion of the travel when the car is fully loaded and you may bottom out on a hard dip, but otherwise it should handle exactly the same since the normal spring travel is much shorter than the whole compressible lenght of the spring. Handling would get screwy only when the spring bottomed out.

If you still are unclear, you will have to look at the mathematical expression for the force of a spring = -k*x
which tells you that the spring generates more force as it is compressed a distance x. If you shorten the length then you limit the overall force the spring creates. You can calculate just how much ultimate force you will need in the spring by determining the total load with forces applied while driving and seeing how much travel distance is available in the spring. If you cut more than that then you will bottom out and handling will go to [censored].
This is the bounce people are talking about.

so the biggest factor that decides whether you'll have the bouncy effect or not is how much of the coil is cut

well what about these spring compressors which don't cut anything?

The only factor is whether there is enough travel in the spring to suspend the weight while driving. Cut too many coils and you will bounce and bottom out.
Spring compressors just do the same thing as cutting, they take away a portion of the springs travel distance and ultimately its load carrying capability. No difference in the end other than being able to take them back off. Using spring compressors is probably a worse idea than cutting IMH because the spring is constantly compressed in the middle and will weaken over time.