Springs And Dampers

[twistysnovagte]

would it be ok to use a shorter spring(im thinking of a 35-40mm drop)on a standard damper/shocker if so is there a limit?????? :roll: :thumb:

[beavy69]

On the whole not a good idea, but it depends. Different springs have different stiffnesses regardless how how much they lower by. They are normally matched to the damper they are sold with. For example you may have seen springs that are more tightly coiled at one end. The matching damper is likley to have more ridgidity at that point of travel (higher resistance oil valve normally). However, a more spaced coil may be more ridgid than tighter coils depending one metal grade.

On the whole its only a temporary solution:

*The fact that the damper stantions are sitting lower at pre load than they are designed to will not do them much good in the long run.

*The car may sit a litlle lower than the spring states it will, as they normally rely on some uprated resistance from the matching dampers.

*The springs will suffer increased wear as a result of this and the lack of resistance under compression. (and although springs rarely break, standard quality springs do become more spongey over time and therefore this would be sooner rather than later in your case)

hope thats helpful

[twistysnovagte]

On the whole not a good idea, but it depends. Different springs have different stiffnesses regardless how how much they lower by. They are normally matched to the damper they are sold with. For example you may have seen springs that are more tightly coiled at one end. The matching damper is likley to have more ridgidity at that point of travel (higher resistance oil valve normally). However, a more spaced coil may be more ridgid than tighter coils depending one metal grade.

On the whole its only a temporary solution:

*The fact that the damper stantions are sitting lower at pre load than they are designed to will not do them much good in the long run.

*The car may sit a litlle lower than the spring states it will, as they normally rely on some uprated resistance from the matching dampers.

*The springs will suffer increased wear as a result of this and the lack of resistance under compression. (and although springs rarely break, standard quality springs do become more spongey over time and therefore this would be sooner rather than later in your case)

hope thats helpful
cheers for the info m8,so would you say use spax springs spax dampers or say could you use an alternative like spax springs bilstien dampers as ive heard of people mixing them if you know what i mean.

[craig green]

Its OK to mix it IMO. Just avoid cheap crap springs.

It depends what engine you are using (bigblock etc) but my fave combo up until now is KONI on the front (1.6 8v). I'd still like the springs a bit lower & stiffer though.

[Jack]

~20 year old Nova dampers are probably long past their best anyway, so you'd be advised to replace them when fitting springs - and if you're replacing them you may as well get aftermarket items!

[twistysnovagte]

razorjack im gonna take your advice and get a matched pair of springs and shocks as the current original items seem abit bouncy if you know what i mean if conering pretty fast it tends to srape and thats with the standard wheels on cheers