Suspension upgrades

[GT_80]

well, I've been looking all over for suspension upgrade parts on the cheap. I found some new S10 coil springs for a 1992 2.5l S10 at AutoZone for $65. I am pretty sure they are moog because the central portion of the part number is "5660" FCS5660S is their part number. So I am hoping for a 1" drop at least over the cut diesel springs I have in my car now. The spring rate on these 5660 is about 640 and the diesel springs I have in the car now had a coil spring rate of about 350 stock, but I think I cut about 2" off them, so I am not sure what the rate is now. I bet the rate is close to the 5660's. I will start of by putting the front springs in stock and then decide if I need to cut them.

I found a 2 door S10 blazer 4x4 the other day in a junkyard and for $25 I scored the rear sway bar (23mm) and all the hardware- I just need end links right now for the sway bar. For the rear suspension, I plan on buying those cheesy lowering brackets that simply collapse the coils together with saddles like a muffler clamp, and big bolts. I mainly want to use those to figure out how much I need to lower the rear of the car after the front is done. I won't leave the "lowering" brackets in for more than a couple weeks hopefully. Depends on when I can get new rear springs.

The car is at my buddies house getting body work done right now- He does bodywork and paint at a restoration shop that only turns out $50k + builds. Nothing they do is a half *ss. He said my car will have a $10k body and paint on it so I want the body to sit low enough to get rid of all wheel gap, and hopefully help it drive a little better. I want flat cornering, and driftability 🙂 it's not going to an autocross king, but a fun cruiser

 

[pontiacgp]

for the 5660 cut 1/4 coil for a 1" drop

 

[GT_80]

for the 5660 cut 1/4 coil for a 1" drop

I was hoping to drop the front 1 1/2" - should I cut off a half coil and start from there?

 

[pontiacgp]

1/2 coil will give you a 2" drop...for 1.5" cut 1/3 of a coil

 

[GT_80]

Well, i spent some time last night with mu suspension... I know I will take sme flak for this... BUT, to figure out how much drop I need over my current rear springs, I used a super low budget rear lowering kit- I do not recommend using these as a permanent solution, just till I can scrape up the dough to get lowering springs...


My rear springs had the top 3 coils nesting on each other already, so I have no idea really what to do to determine length of springs i will need in the rear... I assume i can measure the distance between mount points when the car is on the ground and use that as my "load height" of the springs for when I order new ones... The way my springs are now, I bet if I ordered a 1" drop spring, the car would be higher than it is now with the spring lox compressing my srpings 1" further than they were...


In the front, I popped the old springs out and realized I installed them upside down last year... Oops- that explains why it was so hard to get them in, and why one side was higher than the other- Misaligned the end of the top of the spring since it is supposed to be the squared off end in the top pocket... When I got the old ones out, I ended up cutting 1/2 coil off the new springs to get 1" lower starting height than the old ones. When I installed the new ones (which was very easy compared to the old ones) the car sat 1 1/2" lower in the front than before and it's even all the way round as far as the fender gap is concerned... No bottoming out, and the ride is identical to what it was before so thats a relief!!





I added energy suspension end links and measure the front sway bar to get the dimension for new bar bushings... To my surprise, 32mm front sway bar! it's not a hollow one, but I think since it is so big, I will leave it alone till I find a killer deal on a camaro hollow bar.

I measured my rear swaybar that I got from the blazer the other day, and it is a 23mm bar- So I just need to get end links for it, and I will be in good shape for now as far as the susension goes. I still need to install the rear sway bar.



Rough measurements on my shocks, they will all work- the bumpstops are not right on the frame, and ironically the front doesn't look like it needs an alignment- maybe because I never had it aligned after putting the last set of springs in- its almost the height it was before the Diesel springs went in... I will get an alignment soon anyway after I change the idler arm and a couple other steering components.