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This 1936 plymouth has a 383 stroker mustange II front end that had 2"dropped spindles . It was to low and hit speed bumps, so I put 4" longer coil springs on and left the old shocks. The car is raised up but does not ride good. Should the shocks be changed also to give it a longer movement?
I would think it would help you, the shocks are extended out more now just sitting there, so I would imagine when you go over bumps the travel of the shock is limiting the travel of the springs giving you a rough ride imo. :D
This is just my opinion, but the most sensible thing you could have done is to replace the spindles with stock ones. With the extended springs, you've now screwed up the geometry of the suspension. Everything you do from here on will be a crutch and the car will never be right. Go back to stock springs and spindles.
Set the car up with the lower a-frames level with NO springs in the car. Thats your ride height...no maybes or ifs thats it if you want to drive it . Now if the car is too low you need to ditch the 2 drop spindle. Now with stock spindles do the same thing......lower a-frames level thats your ride height period. You only get it 2 ways if your not building it. Now cut springs to keep the lowers level being very careful to make them too long so they can take about and 1 inch set later.
Big dia spring wire will get a heaver rate than a small diam wire so .The bigger dia go up in rate as they get shorter.:toocool:
Unless you use coil overs or airbags most any spring will have too be cut. Try to do it cold and not with the torch.
Soooooo thats your starting point. After that you measure shock mounts and go shopping for the right lenth shock. But get the ride height correct first. Like i said you only have 2 choices after its built...so go find out were you are. Well you have 3 but i bet you dont like the 3rd....cut the frontend out and start over
:HMMM:
One thing I was wondering about having the springs in there on a mustang II.
My truck doesn't have tires on it yet, but I have the A-arms propped up so they are parallel with the ground. When I originally set up the front end I put the springs and coils in there, but I didn't have tires so I couldn't set the car down on the suspension.
Basically the springs were fully extended as far as the shocks would go, and I was worried about the tension they were putting on the shock.
I don't really know much about the construction of a shock.
Are they made to handle a large static tension like that?
It will probably be another couple months before I have wheels and tires to set it on, but it would be easier to get those coils in there before I assemble the front body.
Take the shocks off and put 'em on the shelf for now......
If you want the arms at ride height, assemble some 1/2" threaded rod, washers and nuts to replace the shocks and screw the nuts down to the desired length.
thanks
that's the way I have it set up now. I took the springs and shocks out because I thought it would put too much of a load on the shocks for a long period of time.