Coil-overs at stock ride height?

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Coil-overs at stock ride height?

July 30, 2007, 08:11:33 PM

I gave Maximum Motorsports a call today to confirm that Koni DAs would work with my car and was told that if I went with coil-overs my ride height would be at least two inches lower than stock.

Can anybody confirm that stock ride height is not attainable with Koni coil-overs?

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #1 – July 31, 2007, 01:32:06 AM

I can't imagine why ANY ride heighth would not be possible with coilovers. I can see needing to move mounts up or down depending on the springs or shock-travel available.
I wish you luck with your project.

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #2 – July 31, 2007, 11:40:57 AM

The fronts are what concerns me now. I know one needs to use brackets on the rear to give sufficient bump/rebound travel.

I'd rather not drop $1k and then find out it won't work, even if I'm pretty sure it will. Plus I'd like to get MM's advice on spring rates/lengths for my setup. That would be hard to do when they are certain it won't even work. :hick:

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #3 – July 31, 2007, 07:39:04 PM

Well, I hope you get it worked out. I want to see your's when its done.
Dave

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #4 – July 31, 2007, 10:43:44 PM

How about this...

Anybody know what how much rebound/jounce our suspensions have from ride height?

I know what a Mustang's is, but I haven't found what it is for our vehicles. Not found in the factory manual.

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #5 – September 03, 2007, 08:51:11 PM

I took off a strut today to measure it.

As best as I can tell, this is the original strut. 248k on it.

The warning sticker partially blocked what looked to be a date stamp. "10 02 85" is what it looked like.

Some measurements.

The first is 20.5". Monroe calls it the extended length.
The travel goes about halfway up where the rod begins to show rust. 6 5/8"
The last picture is of OAL. 23 5/8"

There are measurements of the Koni strut on corner-carvers.com, but the site is currently down. IIRC, the Koni strut is a tad shorter, but not so much that I will have to lower my car 2" to have correct bump/rebound travel.

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #6 – September 05, 2007, 10:35:51 AM

Ive got the MM Koni DA coilovers on my 86. I'm pretty sure you want to use the SN95 version because they're a little longer than the Fox struts but still shorter than the T-Bird struts. A 2" drop from STOCK sounds reasonable given the 4X4 ride height of these cars.

Here's a picture of how my 86 sits...

Just keep in mind that the rear shocks on the T-Birds are MUCH longer than Mustang units... Hence the reason for Chuck's spacers. John fabbed spacers for the rear coil overs on this car. Here's a pic of how he did his on my car.

By the way, I have no rubbing issues at all even with 9" wheels w/245 tires on the front and the control arms moved forward 3/4". That's with the steering at full lock. However I do use rack limiters.

Oh, one more thing. I am running 375 lb springs on the front. I cant remember what the rear spring rate is but the suspension is STIFF. I like it but some may not. You can feel every painted line on the road, heheh.... Body roll is minimal. The car handles awesome but that's a combination of the whole package.

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #7 – September 06, 2007, 05:37:02 PM

Corner-carvers is up again. Tremendous.

Using the above measurement as a guide:

'87-'88 Motocraft Strut
CL: 13.375"
EL: 20.5"

Fox Koni DA
CL: 13.016"
EL: 19.141"

If I want to split bump/rebound travel 50/50 I will have to lower ride height by ~1.2". I may try and move the strut down to lessen the drop.

I just ordered the whole shebang from MM. My checking account is noticably lighter. :(

It is going for a good cause though! :birdsmily:

MM recommended 275 lb/in springs, so my wheel rate is going to increase by ~140%. :eek:

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #8 – September 06, 2007, 06:23:52 PM

good deal. good to see you arent gonna be forced into a 2" drop in order to run the c/o's.

140% ppssshh. my front springs are 400's

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #9 – September 06, 2007, 07:30:36 PM

275's are softer than youd think.

Ill be running 450's

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #10 – September 06, 2007, 09:17:51 PM

thread hijack....what kind would be recommended with, oh, say a 650 lb. motor?

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #11 – September 17, 2007, 11:38:09 PM

Hey Dogcharmer, any chance you've got some more pics of those spacers for the top of your shocks? I want to make some but having some rough specs/dimensions would help get it going quicker.

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #12 – September 18, 2007, 12:01:43 AM

I'll pull a wheel off and see if I can get some dimensions for you. Probably wont be till the weekend though.

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #13 – September 18, 2007, 11:28:37 AM

thanks! that'd be amazingly helpful!

Coil-overs at stock ride height?

Reply #14 – September 25, 2007, 03:31:17 PM

Can someone with a stock '87'-'88 car measure droop travel for me?

The easiest way would be to measure from the top of the fender to a point on the tire/wheel. I measured from the fender to the wheel lip.
Measure once with the car on the ground, then measure again with that side jacked up high enough so that the wheel isn't touching the ground. The difference is the droop travel.

I currently have 1.5" of droop travel. I'm a total dumbass and forgot to measure before I took the whole shebang apart.