Compressing Factory Coiled Springs
Compressing Factory Coiled Springs
(OP)
Im curious to know how this process is carried out,
Ultimately Im wanting to offer this service to a small local crowd of people in New Zealand whom are all enthusiast with lowering of the suspension.
Advice that would point me in the right direction as to heat treating to retain original spring characteristics, heating temperatures, post cooling, tempering methods etc any related info would be much appreciated!!
Thanks, Jono
Ultimately Im wanting to offer this service to a small local crowd of people in New Zealand whom are all enthusiast with lowering of the suspension.
Advice that would point me in the right direction as to heat treating to retain original spring characteristics, heating temperatures, post cooling, tempering methods etc any related info would be much appreciated!!
Thanks, Jono





RE: Compressing Factory Coiled Springs
RE: Compressing Factory Coiled Springs
It's done to a finished spring, roughly speaking just overcompress it without damaging the end coils in particular.
Cheers
Greg Locock
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RE: Compressing Factory Coiled Springs
If I were to offer economic lowering services, an old prefered method is to cut a certain mount off the spring with a hot flame (oxy acetylene torch) and use the heat to quickly force the cut end down,for a factory seat, let the spring cool slowly,then finish the cut end. I know it sounds scary but lots of professional suspension designers can vouch for this method.
But its pretty hard to determine how much to cut,considering all the factors (ratio of the suspension,added stiffness of new shorter spring, unpredictability of the new flattened end)
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RE: Compressing Factory Coiled Springs
Dan T
RE: Compressing Factory Coiled Springs
I've scrounged the "yards" for springs...too laborious.
Last time on a new '83 Turbo Coupe, I had new springs wound up by a custom shop. That's the way to do it. Not terribly expensive and much less labor intensive.
These days, sadly, everything comes in a "kit" requiring only $$$ to achieve just about any results one would wish.
Rod
RE: Compressing Factory Coiled Springs
I'm not even sure that you want to do that. Reduced clearances in 'bump' suggest that a somewhat higher spring rate would be preferable.
Even if you did manage to arrive at the desired ride height by only heating and collapsing a coil or two, when that/those coils go solid ,the spring rate will have gone up anyway and the strains and energy per unit volume in the rest of the spring will also have gone up.
If specifying a custom spring is not an option, I'd start with replacement springs of similar ID/OD and end configurations that are stiffer and/or longer free height and a higher rated load and cut them down.
Norm