New Front lowering spring issue

[samert111]

Installed a set of 2" lowering springs in the front of my 68 C10 and the driver's side spring one of the coils is rubbing on the upper frame pocket hole.

I made sure that the bottom coil end was in the pocket in the lower control arm so I know they are not clocked wrong.

I notice on the OEM springs the ends of the coils are clocked in line with each other but the new springs they are 180 degrees from each other. The upper pig tail end forms a "D" shape and the same "D" shape is stamped into the upper frame spring pocket. The flat part of the D on the spring is supposed to align with the flat in the stamped upper pocket but it's not and that is pulling the spring off center in the upper pocket and causing the rubbing which I can actually hear sometimes.

Called supplier and they are clueless as to what to do. Standard answer is it's always been this way and we've never had a complaint.

All the photos I see for lowered springs they all are made the same way but that could just be a stock photo they use. But the pics of stock height springs all show the ends in line with each other.

Anyone had this same issue and what did you do to resolve it?

[SCOTI]

Bumping this for you.

I've always cut the original springs & used spindles to drop mine. If I had to increase spring rate, I used replacement Moog coils & trimmed coils to dial in ride heights.

As far as aftermarket coils go, I've only used BellTech stuff (as part of a kit install for someone). Not sure how theirs compares to other manufacturers.

[hewittca]

If these are CPP springs, I have heard that all they really do is use the same base spring and cut it to meet the advertised drop. I've never counted coils or anything, but that would explain why the ends are not clocked correctly. I have the 3" springs and mine is pretty close. I think it was off about 30 degrees or so. What I did was just rotate the spring until it sat correctly on the D on top. The bottom was then only about 1.5" rotated out from being fully seated. I think that's fine enough on my application. I have a friend who has 1" springs and his is clocked about 90 degrees off from where it should be. What he did was actually cut the extra bit of coil off the bottom such that it was fully seated when the top was aligned correctly with the D. I think it dropped it about another 1/2". In any case, I think it is definitely a good thing to get the top clocked correctly.

[samert111]

Well, l ended up trimming the bottom coil of these new springs to align the coil ends and put them back in and now the springs are centered in the upper frame pocket. That dropped the front another inch which is what I was thinking it needed anyway. So now I'm at a 3/5 drop and it sits nice I think.

[SCOTI]

Glad you were able to find a suitable solution.

[samert111]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Glad you were able to find a suitable solution.

Thanks. It's been fun getting the stance and handling where I wanted.

I replaced all the front steering components, added the CPP front sway bar kit, No Limit rear shock relocation kit, CPP tubular rear trailing arms, new shocks front and of course the 3/5 drop springs.

[hewittca]

That's good to hear you got it sorted out and your solution worked in your favor. Sounds like the resulting spring you ended up with after cutting is about what I have with the 3" drop spring. Did you notice much of a difference in ride quality with the cut coil?

[samert111]

Originally Posted by hewittca

Sounds like the resulting spring you ended up with after cutting is about what I have with the 3" drop spring. Did you notice much of a difference in ride quality with the cut coil?

Not much at all. I only cut about 1/3 of a coil off to line up the ends. It rides a little firmer but I expected that with the front sway bar and rear shock relocation kit.
The steering was a bit sensitive if you know what I mean, but since I had it aligned after all the new parts its much better. Everything I read said to put about 1/8" toe in and that's about where it was but the tech suggested just the opposite at 1/8" toe out and if I didn't like it he would change it. It was much better after he was done with a little toe out.

[hewittca]

I'm glad you mentioned toe because I have also seen conflicting information about whether its 1/8 out or in. In the alignment thread here he swears by 1/8 out, but a number of other threads say they've had luck with toe in. Sounds like your truck likes toe out! I have to align mine soon after lowering it and I'm leaning towards starting with 1/8 out.

[samert111]

Originally Posted by hewittca

I'm glad you mentioned toe because I have also seen conflicting information about whether its 1/8 out or in. In the alignment thread here he swears by 1/8 out, but a number of other threads say they've had luck with toe in. Sounds like your truck likes toe out! I have to align mine soon after lowering it and I'm leaning towards starting with 1/8 out.

I've driven it both ways and I like the toe out setting better.

I'll watch the tire wear but I don't expect much with everything new up there.