I was playing around with some '88 springs, a press, a tape measure, and a bathroom scale. Here's what I came up with.

'88 Front spring ARD: 171 lb/in

'88 Rear spring PUC: 122 lb/in

I had these two springs measured at a race shop a couple years ago and was told 175 and 100 respectively.

To check the accuracy of my method I measured a couple Eibach 250 lb x 8" springs I had lying around. Both measured 237 lb/in which is 5% different from my measurement Based on this, it looks like my measurements of the Fiero springs are at least close.

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Doug Chase
Chase Race
Custom roll cage fabrication available
Custom exhaust fabrication available
'87 Fiero SE V6 5-spd for sale $2200

These are the rates that are listed in the MVMA specs for the 88's:

Front - 205.6 lb/in.
Rear - 142.8 lb/in.

Pat

Bump in case anybody else is interested.

Has anybody else measured spring rates? If so, I'm curious what you found.

Doug

I always thought the rear of my 88 felt soft. I remember reading somewhere that for the 88 models GM softened up the springs quite a bit but increased the stiffness of the shocks and struts. I changed rear struts on my 86 and 88 recently and found quite a difference between them, the 88 had resistance on compression and rebound where as the 86 only had resistance on compression. I had thought about coilovers for the rear of the 88 and Held had recommended 275 springs to start with,doesn't that seem a little stiff,almost double the stock spring? Has anone tried 200-225 springs? My understanding of suspension is that it is supposed to be compliant so that it can follow the terrain instead of being too stiff, that bumps upset it. Anyone have the spring rates for the 84-87 models?

This is just a bump to keep this thread from going to the archive for a bit. I have new information that may be more accurate than what I posted above and I don't want this thread to get archived with incorrect information.

Until then, if you're interested in the new information read here: //www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/044403.html

Doug