last year i cut my front springs by 1 coil, it dropped the car nice and even but i wanted a bit lower, so i took the springs out again this year cut another 1/2 a coil off of them, they have been cut the exact length and are exactly the same height but when i installed them my drivers side is now 5/8" higher than the passenger, i thought the sway bar or the shocks might be affecting it so i disconected them, i loosend all the front suspension nuts and bolts to let it settle and such but no luck, i've bounced the car up and down but it's just not resting even, so i cut more out of the drivers side coil (had to do this a few times) but it's still not sitting level, i have no idea whats going on, and i dont know if i should pursue trying to fix these stock springs or just buy some lowering springs. a stiffer rate would be nice for autocrossing aswell

Did you make sure that the spring ends are seated in the right locations. The rubber cap and the LCA have places where the sping ends go into, if they are not lined up right it can cause this to happen. You might have done this, but since you didn't mention it I thoght I would suggest it.

i must have taken out and put the springs back in about 25 times now and yeah everytime i made sure they were seated properly in the lower control arms and in the right spot in the spring perch, thanks for the suggestion though

[This message has been edited by Zac88GT (edited 01-19-2006).]

how have you been cutting them? maybe you heated one up a little more than the other and messed up the spring rates? I know I cut mine once, lowered about 1.5-2" in the front and sits just right (well within 1/8th inch anyways). what year is your car? I may be selling my set soon as I would like to go full coilover setup in the spring.....

Justin W

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'88 Fiero Formula 4-spd- Edit, turbo install done, now starts the HALTECH tuning and blowing up the factory 104,000 mile 2.8. Project 300+ HP shortblock in the designing phase.

Build page: [URL=https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/043670.html[/URL]

1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX - Daily driver soon to be in the 13's.
Bring on the snow!!!!

i just used an angle grinder to cut them so they didn't get to hot. it's an 88 with coil overs in the rear, i thought the rears may be out of adjustment and throwing off the ballance but i checked that and the back is fine. it's just so frustrating because everything went perfect when i cut them last year

[This message has been edited by Zac88GT (edited 01-19-2006).]

You are a victim of the fact that springs are kind of individuals. The metal in all leaf and coil springs is composed of metallic domains or large groups of atoms that are in metallic lattices. These domains are affected greatly by heat and pressure. The metallic bonds and metal atoms they bind can be altered. Any heating of these domains can cause changes in the metal that weaken it tremendously.

Your two springs do not have the same inherent tensile strength by length. They were even in height and strength when they were original. Each loop adds to the whole in terms of height and strength but the metallic domains in one were weaker than the other in different loops... so even though you were careful in cutting them the same length, your springs are never going to be the same.

I would go to pick a part, get two more springs and then try again. Be sure to minimize the heating to the spring when you cut it. I have cut springs and they turned out equal. I set the springs in water and used an air cut off wheel to slowly cut through. The water kept the heating minimal and the spring strength at a maximum. I then put the coils in carefully and made sure to set them into the bottom notch correctly.

One thing you may miss is the lubrication of the top rubber grommet that slides onto the top of the spring. If you don't lubricate this rubber it will seat too low and make one side possibly higher than the other. Check this.

Best of luck to you.

Gary

[This message has been edited by yosemitefieros (edited 01-19-2006).]

i read threads on this site all the time about people that spend thousands of dollars on engines,bodies,and interiours and then when it comes to lowering their car they cheap out and cut down their stock springs.i wont give you a lecture about metallurgy ,but i will tell you this:cut springs are dangerous.they are made from hadened steel.you cant cut them without damaging them.in the province of ontario ,cutting springs is a safety infraction that can get your car impounded.
spend some money on eibachs .much better quality than originals.

Totally agree with wtfb, perfect response.

What is the GM suspension guru. I can't remember the name, but he took a Fiero out. Ran it around the track, brought it back, did exactly what everyone says not to do, chopped a coil and then put the springs back. Said yep that was the single best thing he had done to the car.

Zac it could be that the springs need to re-settle after this chop. Personally I think chopping More than one coil is going to have you hitting the stops and bottoming out the suspencion quite often. But I guess only time will tell.

My first suggestion was going to be check the rubber stoppers for the springs but it sounds like you already got that covered. It might be time to just break down and buy a set of springs. Not sure about the availability of front only spring sets for an 88 though.

I plan on doing coil over on the rear of my 85 V8 car but I can get front only for my car through KC Whitney.

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85GT 5spd ,93 Eldorado 4.9 Dual O2 Custom Chip, Archie Clutch. Custom Exhaust. MSD Everything 245/50/16's Cant wait for Dyno Time and Track Results. Not Your Average 4.9 Capt Fiero Com --- My Over View Cadero Pics Delta Cam and Allante Intake Soon.

quote Originally posted by Capt Fiero: What is the GM suspension guru. I can't remember the name, but he took a Fiero out. Ran it around the track, brought it back, did exactly what everyone says not to do, chopped a coil and then put the springs back. Said yep that was the single best thing he had done to the car.

Herb Adams.

There's nothing wrong with chopping springs if you do it right.
You end up with a stiffer spring thats shorter than stock. Huh, sounds kinda like what you could spend a lot of money on too doesn't it?
Don't heat them up, make sure they match to begin with, and cut the bump stops to match and its all good.

Thank You. It ws Herb Adams that did the cut the spring on the front of the fiero article a long time ago. I think the recomended way was with a band saw as it heated them the least, but a zip disk on an angle grinder would be a close 2nd, just dont use a grinding wheel on the angle grinder.

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85GT 5spd ,93 Eldorado 4.9 Dual O2 Custom Chip, Archie Clutch. Custom Exhaust. MSD Everything 245/50/16's Cant wait for Dyno Time and Track Results. Not Your Average 4.9 Capt Fiero Com --- My Over View Cadero Pics Delta Cam and Allante Intake Soon.

Did you make sure you put the cut ends either both facing down or both facing up?

I did some experimenting on my 88 with cut coils. With the cut ends facing down (the cut end to the center of the car in the lower control arm pocket), the car would ride about 1/2" higher than it did when I placed the stock ends at the bottom and moved the cut portion to the top.
The cut end does not lay flat anymore, so the location where it makes 1st contact and starts to compress makes a difference on ride height.

I believe something is not put back right I have been running cut springs for 20 years and never had problems and will say again if done right cut springs are as good as before they were cut. I'm not saying you could have a bad one that could happen, rare but possible. I also invite any one to ride in my car with cut springs and guarantee you would never know it had cut spring if I did not tell you. I will say if I was going to cut more than one coil on back and no more than one coil and 1/2 inch on the front pre 88 I would buy drop spindles front and coil overs back. But that is just my opinion. Could you post some pictures maybe we could see something you have missed?

Well another spring problem. I am a racing suspension spring engineer so here is my 2 cents.

If you have coilovers you HAVE TO SCALE THE CAR. You may have put some wedge into the car. The other thing you have to do is measure the freelength of the springs and make sure they are the same as well as make sure the coil count is the same. If one has fewer active coils it will have a higher rate. It will take more load to deflect a higher rate spring. Also as you remove material the Stress will go up in the spring and cause it to take set. Now for the easy question did you check your bump stops?

quote Originally posted by seabird296: If you have coilovers you HAVE TO SCALE THE CAR.

Why would you say you have to scale it? I put coilovers on my car and adjusted them by length to be the same on each side. It worked great.
I had my car scaled in November (a year after installing the coilovers) and we ended up taking only one turn out of the rear left to get cross within 1% on each side. There is no way any normal driver (or even myself) is going to notice the difference between a single point of cross or one turn out of a coilover adjusting ring.

well, i had enough of the stock springs, i ordered a set of 350lb/in 1.5" lowering springs from WCF today, these should be better and stiffer aswell, i will still have lots of travel because i cut 1.25" off the bumpstops, but i also lowered the bottom shock mounts 1.25" so i have slightly less downward movement but more upwards travel, which is where it was lacking. when it's back on the road i'll have to drive it and wait for everything to settle and then i'll probably take it to a truck stop and give it a rough scaleing to see if its close. thanks for all the responses guys

Hey Zac88GT, be sure to come back and post on your results with the new springs ok?

I don't have the knowledge, tools or ability to cut springs yet so I went with Suspension Techniques 1.8 front lowering springs and rear coilovers on my 87. To my surprise, the previous owner(s) had cut the springs, which explains tthe horrible ride it had and it wasn't noticably lower than stock. I had considering the WCF springs at the time, let us know what you think of them.

quote Originally posted by jetman: To my surprise, the previous owner(s) had cut the springs, which explains tthe horrible ride it had and it wasn't noticably lower than stock

Sounds like they didn't trim the bump stops. You were probably just driving on bump stops.
I still get comments from passengers about how nicely my car rides, and my front springs have a coil and a half chopped off. The bump stops have been trimmed appropriately.
Make sure you are running KYBs at least, but preferably Konis if you have a spring rate that high. Stock shocks don't even have enough damping for cut factory springs.