Lowering springs question

[jbanks25]

I had my lowering springs installed, and I think they may have been reversed (Front on Back, back on front. I'm honestly not sure though. My front sits very low. (Had to slightly roll the fender to jeep my 185/60/13's from rubbing around corners). The back however has I would guess 2.5 inches of wheelwell between body and tire. Keeping in mind I have no interior (Only the battery is weighing down the back) does this sound correct)? If it is, I'm going to have a coil cut out, if it's not, I'll have it switched. Let me know what you guys think....

[mattswabb]

Here is a pic of them. Maybe someone can point out for him which ones are the front and which ones are the rear. I'm not sure.

[Guest]

they are marked on the coils themselves.. skinnies on the rear..

[Safety Guy]

I know the stock coils are made of slightly thinner stock in the rear and are slightly smaller in coil diameter.

Don't know about the FMS springs though.

Karl

[jbanks25]

I think they are on correctly in that case. I'm fairly sure tall and skinny ended up on the rear. It must just be jacked up because of the lack of weight... I'll have them check for markings (Roger said they should be labeled) when they pull the back off.

Looks like if they are correct the back will be minus a coil... That should take care of it.

Thanks for the input.

[Guest]

are you using aspire struts or have the aspire brake swap? That would make it taller in the rear..

[jbanks25]

No, all festy parts. After I found wheels to fit the Festiva bolt pattern I decided to just hang with the Festiva Suspension.

[FestYboy]

look at that picture again, the springs on the LEFT are the fronts and the progressive springs on the RIGHT are the rears. i just installed a set on my festy and the front does sit a little lower than the rear but there's less weight on the rear, and i still need to move my battery. i have to roll my fenders as well but I'm rolling on 185/60/14's which are slightly taller than your 13's. If you're not satisfied with the ride height, i suggest putting some spacers between the coils. you can get these at your local pepboys or autozone. personally I'm going to try to place some helper springs all around to help keep from bottoming out. i found a set at autozone that should just fit over the strut and inside the normal spring, i just need to figure for the correct length and a way to keep them from sliding around while driving. if you're confused about what I'm describing, think of a dual valve spring set up and you'll see what I'm getting at.

[Guest]

^^ let me know what you find.. I want to put my stereo system back in, but it weighs too much even on the Aspire rear struts..

[FestYboy]

just went to AZ and measured the helpers out. they come out with a 3" OD and 2.5" ID or there abouts. they will fit between the struts and springs. they're 14" long and when i measured the stock spring height under load, they sat at 7". So one pair cut in half will cover all 4 wheels especially if you have the lowering springs installed. the pair are rated at 1250 lbs. and cost $22.99. I'm using the lowering springs right now and i need to remeasure the spring height under load, but my guess is that if i install these, the ride height will increase .5" while decreasing roll when the helper springs come into play during a turn.

[FestYboy]

as it sits now w/ 185/60/14s

will get an after pic this week i hope

[Silv3rBull3t]

I like the lawn divider (aka front chin spoiler) I think I may actually do the same I need something that wont get ruined when I destroy cones! -Kyle

[FestYboy]

for more pix, look here: http://www.fordfestiva.com/forum/vie...t=5320&start=0
I'll redo it tomorrow and add supports to the corners to keep with the curvature of the bumper (unless the flair looks better :wink: )

[FestYboy]

well i just installed the helper springs that i was talking about earlier and here's the results:




as you can see by comparing these pictures to the one earlier in the thread, there's been no noticeable difference in ride height.

here's how i did it:

i first removed the rear struts and cut the helpers in half as you can see here:


this is a test fit to see if they slide down the center, they do w/ room to spare.


i wanted to keep the dust boots so i had to cut off the top (this gets reused) and take out 1 1/4" of boot along the vertical seem, then flip the boot upside down for a better fit.



the caps that you see on the helpers had a small lip on the outside edge that needed ground down to ease the fitting process.


here's the completed product:

*note*: i would advise anyone doing this to place a piece of rubber between the top helper cap and the cup that sits on the bump stop (the bump stop cup makes contact with the helper cap while driving and makes a clicking noise but doesn't hinder the operation of the spring)

installed:

[FestYboy]

so i went to fix the noise coming from the suspension mod, turns out that if you switch the positions of the helper spring caps (top is bottom and visa versa) the noise goes away. this is because the stock bump stop makes contact before the cup does and engages the helper spring a little sooner. there is still no difference in ride height by doing this.