Contour Blues -- ride height adjustment consult plz

67GTFB

Member
Nov 29, 1999
122
4
19
Good evening everyone --

apologies for the long post ---

would like some assurance from the "experienced" on front coils and ride height adjustment .... yes, I did quite a few searches on the matter and have garnered quite a bit a good info …. but I’d like a tad bit more in the way of hard numbers if possible just to ensure I’m on the straight and narrow …. but first, what’s what and what's been done ….

Car details – ’67 FB factory “GT” with power discs, manual steering, 289 “A-code”, 4-spd top-loader …. other than headers and an old hyd 6250-C Shelby cam (circa 1971), rest is plain vanilla/stock (but upgrades to follow) ….

Recent work just completed -- Global West UCAs and 1 3/8” drop (using GW template), retaining LCAs (MOOGs) as these have little mileage on them and in great shape, new Contour “Blue” 620s, 1” drop coils .... have not yet agjusted camber/toe (but as she sits now, she quite bow-legged -- lots of positive camber consistent with 2" up height) ....

fast forward …. install of UCA went well and new springs installed OK …. but (as several others have noted when they did this), the front end sits about 2” higher than I’d like/expected …. before installing the springs I used a jack to swing the suspension assembly through its travel range – no binding/sticking/etc …. the 2” height increase is IMO solely due to the springs and is measurable as the difference between the center of the lower spindle “knuckle” (where ball-joint mounts) and the center of the LCA pivot bolt (this is the GW recommended way to measure this -- they want the difference to be no more than +/- 1/4" .... btw, this is consistent with the difference measured from the spindle center to fender wheel arch top) ….

OK, common knowledge in the forum says if nothing is binding, then I should eventually cut the springs to achieve the ride height I want (is this correct, or am I overlooking something here??) …. my other questions are –

1) How much time and or driving should be done between adjustments?? (Yes, I did move the car around the driveway after finishing, so it’s not that “camber grab” problem from a dangling suspension.) How long should one wait between adjustment sessions?? Perhaps I’m too impatient here as I was hoping for instant gratification on ride height.)

2) When cutting the coils (I’m assuming that’s what I’ll have to do – hate using that spring compressor!!), common practice is to lop off 1/4 of a coil at a time. But, what’s common experience (for like kind of car) in the forum on how many 1/4 cuts need to be made if one wants to reduce ride height by 2”?? Guess that equates to roughly 1” of compressed spring height as the UCA geometry amplifies the amount of height changed by roughly 2:1 (but not exactly). If anyone has installed the Contour "Blue" coils in a similar situation, would really appreciate hearing your story. For better or worse, I'm shooting for around 13" as the front ride height to allow for 1/2" sag over (long) time.

3) I bought the springs through CJPony. They did not have a different spring for small vs big block. Is this an issue? I queried them about this and they said it should be OK. OR instead of all of this spring cutting, should I get springs from some place like Maier???

I want to plan on how much time I need to devote to this part of the mod work or wheter I need to buy different springs. Thanks in advance to all who provide their sage advice and wisdom … misery loves company!!

hate those spring compressors ….

Scott
 
  • Sponsors (?)


you metioned replacing other parts as well. did you make sure to tighten all the suspension bolts with the car on the ground? things like lower control arms, sway bar bushings and end links, strut rod bushing, etc should not be tightened until the full weight of the car is on the suspension. you might try lossening everything up (except the UCA's) and the re-tightening everything to see if the suspension settles, also sometimes you have to actually drive the car for a few miles if the entire front end has been off the ground.

so, i would first suggest driving the car around the block to see if the ride height comes back to normal. one thing that concerns me is that you stated the car has a lot of positive camber right now, which leads me to believe there may have been some bolts tightened with the car still in the air but this can also happen if you have pretty sticky tires and just let the car down.

anyway, drive it around the block first, if it doesn't settle then jack the car up loosen all the bolts back off a bit, probably about hand tight, set the car back down on the ground and re-tighten everything. if that doesn't fix it then and only then should consider cutting the springs but i wouldn't even do that until the car has been aligned. good luck and let us know what happens
 
More install info ....

thanks for your replies guys .... no, I only just completed the GW UCA installs and I know it's in dire need of an alignment .... the comment about having tightened up the other suspension components is now nagging me .... I did not loosen up any of the other suspension parts, including lca adjust bolt .... OK, I will do that before hacking on the springs .... but my "thinking" (a novel experience) follows like this .... even with the tire off and supporting the suspension assembly with a jack from underneath, I get this 2" "lift" ... as I said, I know the suspension doesn't bind when moved through full travel without the springs .... it's when the springs are installed and full front weight is on them that the ride height ends up roughly +2" (noted with and without tires) .... now, with tires on the ground, I can bounce the front end up and down freely .... I think the excessive camber is due to the fact that I haven't relaxed the lca eccentric from the very old set-up from 1975 of 390 GT race springs to get lift to clear GR70-14 tires (<-- hot stuff at the time) that required the lca to go inboard to compensate for the lift with stock camber curve .... but I don't see how the lca can keep set the ride height unless it's locking up the suspension .... BUT, since you were generous enough to question me on this, I will lossen everything up and scoot the lca outboard as needed to correct the "bow legs" .... again, thanks for your input(s) and I'll get back later when I get a break from the holiday action (and snow) ....

Season Greetings To All

Scott
 
GET IT ALIGNED then drive around for a while (the longer the better) then see where you're at.

If you do decide you need to drop it more, cut 1/4 coil at a time using a cut off saw (no torch)
re-install
re-align
and break it in again get it to settle (repeat if neccessary)
 
Well I was in the same boat your in not to long ago. I dont know WTF is wrong with these springs now-a-day, But when I installed my Maier 600's I sat pretty high off the ground too. Tried everything I could think of, got real good at using a spring compressor, I asked stangnet for advise to no avail, and finally cut the springs. I wound up cuttting off more than I figured necessary to get the ride height I wanted. Forgot the exact amount but it was probly 1 whole coil give/take a little. If you cut, use a chopsaw and dont allow the metal to get red hot. Be sure and get the original un-sprung height as well as the un-sprung height after every time you cut 1/4 off. When you cut a spring (I think), the spring rate goes up as well. You may want some softer shocks.

Tyler
 
tylerrocks said:
Well I was in the same boat your in not to long ago. I dont know WTF is wrong with these springs now-a-day, But when I installed my Maier 600's I sat pretty high off the ground too. Tried everything I could think of, got real good at using a spring compressor, I asked stangnet for advise to no avail, and finally cut the springs. I wound up cuttting off more than I figured necessary to get the ride height I wanted. Forgot the exact amount but it was probly 1 whole coil give/take a little. If you cut, use a chopsaw and dont allow the metal to get red hot. Be sure and get the original un-sprung height as well as the un-sprung height after every time you cut 1/4 off. When you cut a spring (I think), the spring rate goes up as well. You may want some softer shocks.

Tyler

yes the spring rate will go up when you cut the springs.
 
Thanks for your inputs ...

some more info ... I rough checked the camber and it's 3 deg positive m/l -- so perhpas not as bad as my original post may have led one to believe .... spoke with GW (Doug) about this too ... he said that 67's are wild-cards when it comes to predicting ride height results .... Doug said I'd probably have to cut the spring 1/4 to 1/2 coil (his judgement was 1/4 coil = 1" drop) .... so moving forward, I'll go with common wisdom here -- 1/4 coil cut/align/break-in .... repeat as necessary until complete satisfaction achieved .... Doug also siad I could remove the 3/8" spacer/shim from the UCA if I needed additional neg camber or tire clearance ... so, lots of work to do and things to try .... I'll update the forum with my results so as to add to the body of knowledge/wisdom building here ....

Seasons Greetings!!
 
cut-to-drop ...

spirockp --

as far as I have been able to tell, 1/4 coil cut yeilds about a 1" drop .... but there a lot of variables, so your mileage may differ .... collective wisdom here seems to agree that 1/4 coil cut, install, settle/align/drive is the best approach to getting that perfect ride height .... I'll have to update this thread soon as I have pretty much worked through the excessive camber issue -- most of it went instantly away when I removed the 3/8" UCA spacer (as per GW/Doug's suggestion) :D ....

--67GTFB
 
contours and GW ...

interesting comment there jester67!! .... no, Doug did not mention anything nor did he offer up any inquiry of spring manufacturer .... do you have some insight on this?? -- real curious as to how a specific spring would differ **if** the spring coil diameter (inner specifically) equal OEM specs .... you know, I never actually measured the coils to see how they compared to OEM inner diameter, hmmm .... anyway, Doug seemed more "concerned" that I was working on a '67 -- he said (repeating), those cars are wildcards in predicting the ride height or whether to use or ditch the 3/8" spacer .... Doug suggested ditching the spacer as it is an optional item and see what I get .... so, I went back and removed the spacers, and voila, the camber and wheel "stance" came back more in line with what I expected to happen .... so I think my original issue had more to do with the excessive outward "projection" from the new GW UCAs without comensurate outward projection of lca (which I didn't do -- not aligned at the time of install) .... I was reluctant to try to adjust out the 3/8" with lca eccentric, hence why I removed the spacer ..... also, this resulted in keeping the tire inside the fender well, so clearance is no issue with 225-50/16s on V45s (4.5 bs) [yeah, I just like the vintage look] .... got a three-bubble C/C guage from Longacre Racing and will do my own alignment .... have driven the car around the neighborhood a few times and I really like the ride of the "620's" with Gabriel Stryders [yeah, I'm really old school] .... firm, but not harsh ... and I'm anxious to get the alignment done and really check out the effect of the "GW drop" (1 3/8") .... oh, btw poular wisdom here rules -- cutting springs does increase spring rate -- spring rate is inversely proportional to the number of "active" (aka "free") coils ....learned a lot about that too ....

cheers -- 67GTFB
 
well, isn't that just special .... when I ordered my parts through CJPony they made no note of the fact that I bought contours and GW uca's .... thanks for the vector, I'll check out MU's note .... but my experience now says that that may not be an absolute restriction as I have contours and GW uca's in OK working order .... still baffled by why a specific spring manufacturer would make a diff unless the spring design is way out of whack -- which I don't see how they can be .... but who knows ....

--67GTFB