Cutting my Festy's springs

[bhazard]

The Rio struts are too long. Charlie can chime in on this.

[TominMO]

So, what you are saying is the Rio strut raised the height no matter what spring was put on it? Curious. So the strut, in effect, has more to do than just dampen things?
Is there height difference in spring perch? I imagine the Rio strut is longer. I am on a learning curve here. I have been wanting to check out the Rio's, haven't yet.

P.S.
How did you find the # rating of the springs?

I put the Festy KYB next to the Rio KYB. Exact same spring perch height. I looked at the top pieces too. Didn't see anything obvious that would explain why both were 26" on the car. But I didn't drive it with either uncut spring on it; I only drove with the cut springs. So maybe the uncut ones would have settled down somewhat, but definitely not to 23 7/8".

In a thread called "Spring rate calculator", zoom zoom posted spring info. I'll try to find it again and add the link.
Here it is; see post #5: spring rate calculator

[drddan]

So, what you are saying is the Rio strut raised the height no matter what spring was put on it? Curious. So the strut, in effect, has more to do than just dampen things?
Is there height difference in spring perch? I imagine the Rio strut is longer. I am on a learning curve here. I have been wanting to check out the Rio's, haven't yet.
Thanks for posting, Tom. :happy1:

P.S.
How did you find the # rating of the springs?

[Gomez]

I am not sure what ride height was when I did the Rio front swap on my other car. I cut 1.5 coils off the Rio spring and ride height looked a bit lower than stock. Ride was definitely firmer BUT waaaay more pleasing in just about every aspect. I always avoid holes in the road and generally the roads here are acceptable. Somehow I remember someone doing the math on 1.5 coils off the Rio to be in the area of 185 lb/in (may have been in the area of 200 lb/in though). Would be perfect with a stiffer rear end.

[TominMO]

Had some new 2001 Rio front KYBs I've been wanting to stick on the Festy, and now it's warm enough to work in the garage again, so I went for it today. I'm new to suspension tinkering, so bear with my ignorance.

Rio KYB shaft thickness = .792".....Festiva KYB shaft thickness = .707". The idea here was to find a strut with better dampening.
Original ride height with my tires was 23 7/8", measured from the ground to the fender arch.
Put 'em on with the Rio springs; ride height was 26".
Put 'em on with the stock Festy springs (which are taller than the Rio ones); ride height was also 26"
Cut the Festy springs (cutoff wheel, ~10 seconds per spring) by two coils; too much! Ride height was only 23" after a short drive to settle the springs. Also, the ride was terrible over little bumps and depressions like for manholes. Not sure what the spring rate is now with them cut. The Rio struts should be better at dampening, but apparently not enough to make up for the springs.

I have two sets of front Aspire ~110-lb springs and also a set of the Rio 175-lb springs. Thinking of cutting the Aspire ones maybe 1 coil, then 1.5 if needed to get the ride height back to 23 7/8" or 24". Maybe fool with the Rio springs. Any thoughts?

Not doing anything with the rears right now. I have ordered various metal and rubber spacers to fit between the rear coils, just to experiment.

This was all very much easier to do with my cordless impact wrench on the spring compressors. Saves lots of time, and the lower back.
I used the cordless impact on the center nut to remove the springs too. Strut on the ground, bottom of the strut against the wall, and held on to the top hat with one hand to dampen how far the parts went when the nut came off. Put a couple of boxes in front of the top of the strut to capture the parts (mainly the nut). Worked great, and no damage to me.