Opinions needed

[70cobrascj]

Thinking of cutting a tiny bit more off my front springs since I have to wait for my replacement radiator. Which by the way screwed me out of going to the Hotrod power your. .
I already had to cut some off the springs because the front end was way too high.
I cut a half coil off and it lowered it quit a bit.
I think it still sits about 1/2 to 3/4 of inch too high.
This is a fairly big job and I hate taking things apart that are already put back together. You tend to chip paint and put marks on all your new bolts. Crazy but I hate score up new hardware.
Here are pics of the before and after of cutting a half coil off. I’d probably only cut another 1/8 off max.
But would like opinions of the stance before I decide to pull it apart.

 

[c9zx]

It looks way high to me. What springs are installed? is everything seated properly? A ROUGH rule of thumb is however much you reduce the vertical height of the spring, the car will be lowered twice as much. Chuck

 

[cv_72mustang]

Agree still high IMO

 

[Cleveland Crush]

Getting better but still too high.

 

[70cobrascj]

It looks way high to me. What springs are installed? is everything seated properly? A ROUGH rule of thumb is however much you reduce the vertical height of the spring, the car will be lowered twice as much. Chuck

I agree it’s still a little high.
No disrespect for those who lower them more than stock. But I don’t think these cars look right lowered. Some models do some don’t. Just my opinion.
I bought the springs from Eaton for a Mach 1 with a 351 and no A/C.
But I have aluminum heads and intake but can’t imagine a hundred pounds should have made this much of a difference.
The springs are installed correctly but I don’t know why they were so far off.
Here is a recent pic. This is after diving the car about a 1000 miles after the first pics I posted above. Not a good angle but you can see it still sits high

 

[RIBS]

Mine was also way high. I wanted a slight drop from stock. My new springs were so high i could move my fist in and out of wheelwell over the tire without touching the fender!

I ended up cutting 1 full coil for about a 4” drop. As you can see it tucked my front tires slightly which is perfect for me.

Make sure your LCA bolts are a a bit loose to allow for settling, and the car is fully built with all weight in place.

 

[Cleveland Crush]

Mine was also way high. I wanted a slight drop from stock. My new springs were so high i could move my fist in and out of wheelwell over the tire without touching the fender!

I ended up cutting 1 full coil for about a 4” drop. As you can see it tucked my front tires slightly which is perfect for me.

Make sure your LCA bolts are a a bit loose to allow for settling, and the car is fully built with all weight in place.

Sit'in nice RIBS

 

[mjlan]

Are the springs new? If so they will settle a little after some use so it might be worth putting some miles on just to make sure.

If the springs are already 'seasoned' then you are where you are.

 

[c9zx]

I agree it’s still a little high.
No disrespect for those who lower them more than stock. But I don’t think these cars look right lowered. Some models do some don’t. Just my opinion.
I bought the springs from Eaton for a Mach 1 with a 351 and no A/C.
But I have aluminum heads and intake but can’t imagine a hundred pounds should have made this much of a difference.
The springs are installed correctly but I don’t know why they were so far off.
Here is a recent pic. This is after diving the car about a 1000 miles after the first pics I posted above. Not a good angle but you can see it still sits high View attachment 89549

I would contact Eaton and send them pictures and measurements. Someone at Eaton made a rather large mistake. As a side note, all 1965-1973 Mustangs had a bit of a "tail dragger" stance from the factory. Chuck

 

[70cobrascj]

I would contact Eaton and send them pictures and measurements. Someone at Eaton made a rather large mistake. As a side note, all 1965-1973 Mustangs had a bit of a "tail dragger" stance from the factory. Chuck

Yeah I know they do just like the 70-71 Torinos and I kind of like it. Especially in the Torino.
I might just call them tomorrow but I have already cut them and I’m really not looking forward to removing them.

 

[AcesArneson]

I agree it’s still a little high.
No disrespect for those who lower them more than stock. But I don’t think these cars look right lowered. Some models do some don’t. Just my opinion.
I bought the springs from Eaton for a Mach 1 with a 351 and no A/C.
But I have aluminum heads and intake but can’t imagine a hundred pounds should have made this much of a difference.
The springs are installed correctly but I don’t know why they were so far off.
Here is a recent pic. This is after diving the car about a 1000 miles after the first pics I posted above. Not a good angle but you can see it still sits high View attachment 89549

I am finding the same issue. I bought the Eaton sport springs for a 302 engine without A/C as they recommended for my convertible and it is sitting pretty high. I dropped a lot of weight off the front end and may have to go with a different spring or coil overs. Suck to waste money like that. Shipping to Canada is extremely expensive.

 

[AcesArneson]

Thinking of cutting a tiny bit more off my front springs since I have to wait for my replacement radiator. Which by the way screwed me out of going to the Hotrod power your. .
I already had to cut some off the springs because the front end was way too high.
I cut a half coil off and it lowered it quit a bit.
I think it still sits about 1/2 to 3/4 of inch too high.
This is a fairly big job and I hate taking things apart that are already put back together. You tend to chip paint and put marks on all your new bolts. Crazy but I hate score up new hardware.
Here are pics of the before and after of cutting a half coil off. I’d probably only cut another 1/8 off max.
But would like opinions of the stance before I decide to pull it apart. View attachment 89538View attachment 89539View attachment 89540View attachment 89541

I like that height, guess you should take it for a run and see how it handles.

 

[70cobrascj]

I like that height, guess you should take it for a run and see how it handles.

I have driven it over a 1000 miles rides and handles good. Just seems just a tad high but not sure it’s worth all the work to lower it just a 1/2 inch or so. Knowing my luck I’ll lower it too much.

 

[Cleveland Crush]

IF you were to go too low, simply adjust with the appropriate height poly or rubber spring spacer.

 

[AcesArneson]

I have driven it over a 1000 miles rides and handles good. Just seems just a tad high but not sure it’s worth all the work to lower it just a 1/2 inch or so. Knowing my luck I’ll lower it too much.

I haven't put any miles on new springs yet, so maybe one of the other guys that has chopped and replaced can chime in and tell us both how long it usually takes to settle out.

 

[rcadd1ct]

Did you leave the lower control arm bolts snug at the frame until the weight was on them, then let it settle?

I drove on ramps to torque the bolts so there would be weight on them

What shocks do you have? Gas shocks also add to ride height.

 

[RIBS]

A couple things to add. I also talked to Eaton. Measured spring with calipers, counted windings, doublechecked part number compatibility for my specific car and options. They said i had correct spring.

Mine never settled. I had LCA bolts loose, i drove around neighborhood at low speeds went over speed bumps. Fully loaded car in terms of weight. After 6-8 months. I cut the coil. Makes me wonder if Eaton had a bad batch out of spec.

My car is generally stock other than edelbrock aluminum intake and 4 barrel. Probably saves 20 pounds. But i added dual exhaust,H pipe, deluxe interior, aftermarket wiring and other interior enhancements so i didn't lighten the front end.

 

[70cobrascj]

A couple things to add. I also talked to Eaton. Measured spring with calipers, counted windings, doublechecked part number compatibility for my specific car and options. They said i had correct spring.

Mine never settled. I had LCA bolts loose, i drove around neighborhood at low speeds went over speed bumps. Fully loaded car in terms of weight. After 6-8 months. I cut the coil. Makes me wonder if Eaton had a bad batch out of spec.

My car is generally stock other than edelbrock aluminum intake and 4 barrel. Probably saves 20 pounds. But i added dual exhaust,H pipe, deluxe interior, aftermarket wiring and other interior enhancements so i didn't lighten the front end.

I compared my new Eatons to the originals side by side. They were the exact same height and I measured the coil with a caliper and the wire was the same diameter.
I’m no metallurgist so I don’t know if there is stronger and weaker spring steel wire.
All I know I ordered the correct spring according to their website and they were way off.
I’m gonna say there has to be different grade of spring wire. How can the same size spring sit totally different.
I have put over a 1000 miles on it since cutting the springs and haven’t had any driving issues so I would assume I didn’t have something put together wrong.

 

[Don C]

You can look in the AMA specs and it will give you spring sizes and spring rates, and ride heights measured from the bumpers
https://7173mustangs.com/threads/1971-73-ama-documents.23433/

 

[RIBS]

This shows my insanity. I cut an entire coil.