Suspension GURU's, Is this Normal?

Hello,

I have a 1962 Mercury Comet 4 door custom. Samll 170 ci I6 3 on the tree. I went to lower the car a hair, the fronts are coil and the rear leaf.

I pulled the front passenger side apart, pulled the spring out and cut one entire ring off spring. I put it all back together, thinking that the passenger side would be lower than the drivers side. Well, upon lowering the car back down, I in all essence, leveled the car. I couldn't believe it. I loaded the family up and went for a drive to see how much it would sag after a ride. Got home, pulled the yard stick back out and iboth sides are within an 1/8" of ech other.

My question is will the passenger side start to sag now with the different spring geomoetry? I realize this is a cause and effect of 50 year old springs and mostly driver, no passenger that has depressed the drivers side spring further and more permanently than the passenger side.

Could I now make this my new equilibrium and take off a half a spring ring at a time from here on out, or would that not work in keeping it level?

 

If all you did was pull the spring, cut, and replace, the only things I can think of that would cause that are:

- If you didn't place the spring back onto the perch properly. There's a tab on one side that the end of the spring has to touch, but not go over.

- If the rubber ring at the top of the tower got wadded up somehow.

- Or if the shock is somehow bottomed out and is supporting the car.

If you had disassembled the suspension and tightened all the bolts with the suspension sagging, you could have preloaded all the bushings causing the car to sit high.

 

Dude,

First of all, this is dangerous.

Right now, the drivers side spring is trying to hold the car up and this will effect the emergency handling of the vehicle.

Detroit Eaton has a 3" lower front spring set that still maintains the proper spring rate. If it still isnt low enough for you, cut some off of them untill you get it where you want...

If nothing else cut the other spring, drive it a bit and check your ride height again. That vintage of Merc will have saggy rear springs that will effect the overall stance so you may have to replace or have them re-arched to level the car side to side.

 

Before I even touched the car's suspension, the driver's side sagged ~1"-1.5" lower than the passenger side. Same original springs on both sides.

The front suspension has the shocks through the middle of the coil spring, so to remove the coil springs, all I had to do was take the shock out, compress the spring with the spring compressor and pull the spring. Nothing else was unbolted or adjusted. Brand new shocks all of the way around. Less than a month old.

After I cut the one coil from the passenger side spring, I reinstalled everything back the way it was before, being careful that everything lined up correctly. When I put the wheel on and lowered the car off of the jack stands and lowered the jack, the car ride height was the same on both sides.

Is it dangerous to ride with two different length springs on there even though the driver's side spring was sagging that much before hand?

On my old S-10s the driver's side spring would sag, and to fix this, I put a 1/2" spacer perch on it to lift the spring seat to level the vehicle. The handling actually improved and eliminated the "Lean" from the sagging spring.

 

Good advice already given. I'll add my 2 cents. You should carefully compare the 2 springs and see if someone heated/cut/broke that l/f or something before you got the car. I wouldn't want 2 different spring rates up there. That said I have never really seen a car that sits perfect side to side but it should be close. Also have a real good look at the rear suspension. The early 60's fords were notorious for rotted out torque boxes. If the rear is wrong it can affect the front. If you don't find anything it's time to check frame/floor trim heights for a problem. If that all checks out you need to inspect/compare items one by one to isolate the issue.

 

So the driver's side was 1.5" lower than the passenger side to start with... you cut one coil off the passenger side and it leveled it out... and we still don't know if the stock shocks are bottomed out and supporting the weight of the lower-than-stock vehicle...

... is that about right?

 

The shocks are not bottomed out, not even close. They have anywhere 5-7 inches of travel as it sits right now.

I will take a closer look at the rear suspension. When I inspected it before, nothing seemed out of place. I replaced the rear shocks, and brakes, with that time under there, I did not notice any problems, I will however, check the mounts and the leafs for excessive wear.

I am pretty sure that that driver's side sping is sagging due to being 50 years old. I will check it and compare it.

With the set up as it is now, would this be dangerous?
If, I were to cut the same amount off of the driver's side spring (to equal out the spring rates) and the drivers side sagged again due to the old spring, would that be anymore dangerous than it is right now?

I appreciate your comments, I am not unfamiliar with suspension, but my experience is raising vehicles, not lowering them.

 

Replace the springs. They are way less expensive than a funeral (and easier on your family).

 

Yep - buy new springs and cut coils to get the ride height you want, or (better idea) work with someone like Eaton to find replacement springs that give you the ride height you want outta the box.

Also, test drive BEFORE loading up the family next time.

 

Try these:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/GLS-S-24F/


While your ride height may be the same side for side the spring rate surely isn't. Change the springs, enjoy doing something right.

 

As is stated above, get new springs to get to the ride height you are looking for, also know that you WILL have to align the front suspension after you change the ride height. If you dont I would expect the front tires to have a great deal of negative camber and a great deal of toe in. I have been known to cut springs to get to the ride height I am looking for if I know that the springs are in good shape (I.E. new), however if you have to cut more than a coil off the spring rate increases to a point that the ride quality becomes harsh.

 

I cut one coil from my 64 comet cyclone and 65 fairlane, about 2.5"- 3" drop, shocks ok and could be aligned. That is the most I would go or run into probs.
I agree with most I would not do one side only.

 

another thing to keep in mind when you are playing with ride heights, make sure the sway bar/anti roll bar is disconnected. I would not drive the car with the bar disconnected. Just have it disconnected to check ride height after you make a change.

 

with a sagging car the first thing I'd have done is removed both springs and set them on the floor to see if they were the same height. if they were not I'd have replaced them both.

 

From someone who races cars and plays with springs to get the car around an oval, you need to undrstand that what you do to the right front will have a major effect on the left rear and visaversa. A soft left front will make the right rear go up, a stiff right front will shift more weight to the left rear making it squat more. When you watch a NASCAR event you will hear about something called wedge. Wedge is adding or subtracting weight diagonally across the car.
Stiff shocks on a the rear can sometimes make the front sag. If your best shock in on the right rear it can cause the left front to appear to sag.
Playing around with spring rates and shock rates can turn into a 3D nightmare in a hurry.
Start with good spring and go from there...and watch the bump steer when you lower a car too. Might be a good idea to leave the family out of the test drive learning curve too.

 

Lay off the donuts...


then get a new set of springs. My '63 galaxie used to do the same thing, i put one of those rubber wedges in for a while, til I found another set.

 

OK HAMBERS, I have ordered the ones from Summit Racing. They should be here in about two weeks, and considering I had snow on Saturday, I don't think the car will see any movement for a while. Thanks for all of the comments, I will let you know how the install goes.

 

I have one question?

Have you moved (rolled or driven) the car back and forth at least 6 feet each way since you put the springs back in?
If not I would try that before you do anything else.

 

Yes, I took it around the block, then checked stuff, then ran into town to get some lunch. Backed it into the driveway and the garage. Yeah, everything seemed normal.

 

I didn't see any mention of a front sway-bar. If it has one...take it off and have another look.

 

just to add to the confusion,dont forget when you cut a coil out of a spring you make it stiffer-more lbs to move it an inch