Hey Guys,

looking at using a spring thats 35mm lower than std height spring on a normal strut.
anybody got any easy ways to keep the spring captured when the wheels lift ?

Cheers Jeff

Helper springs would be ideal. Straps to stop the arm from dropping too far might work though...

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This is on a normal strut with stock spring seat, right? Not a coilover?

35mm should still be captive I would think?

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build-threads.com

yep normal strutt, not coilover.
its 35mm lower than the lowered spring height.

i wonder if i could cut a bit off the std springs and use that as a helper to pack up the spring height.

That would be too stiff, the helper spring is generally a flat spring that is a very soft rate and just crushes flat when the car is on the ground.
you'd need machined pieces to hold it all in line as well.

I'd find shorter shocks myself, shocks from something else can be very cheap!

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I drilled a series of little holes through the top and bottom srings seats, wound oxy welding rod through the holes in the top spring mount and around the top coil of the spring, fitted spring to strut, put it in car, put enough weight on the car to get the spring captive and repeated the process for the bottom mount.

Been like that for three years now

Dodgy ? yes. Does the job? so far.....

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1970 ex Group A Rally P510
1971 P510
1972 180B SSS
1965 SP310 Fairlady
1966 SP311 Fairlady

yeah shorter shocks might be the answer.
hmmm that might actually be better !
Its for the rear of a front wheel drive race car
rules are that we can only use retail available springs
so a bit more stiffness couldnt hurt i guess.

should the back of a FWD be stiffer than the front or the other way round ?

If you are going to use a normal rate spring as your helper the car will just sit higher. In that case you might as well not bother with the extra 35mm low.

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Jeff - does this mean you're running the Excel at Lakeside on 11th? I'll be there in my new FWD, so it can be the battle of the FWD newbies . I don't know a lot about setup on FWD's (in fact, I know zip - specially on tarmac). I think mine is fairly well sorted to start with, so shouldn't be too much of a drama.
I know that the concept of having soft back springs to allow weight transfer (specially in gravel cars) doesn't quite apply for FWD's.

As far as holding springs captive, I've known of people using cable ties. Unfortunately looks like Dave is an amateur when it comes to dodginess

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They have drifting in forests now?
What will they think of next?

LOL - Yes its the Excel series circuit car.
I figured that the guys on here would have some good ideas.

I KFA about fwd stuff, but I have found the best springs that I could retail and the rears are a bit low.
I'll sort something out, she might sit down a bit in the bum

Can't you just use rubber spacers?

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1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun

Cool. The guy I bought the Honda from also has an Excel series car - I'll have to put a bomb under him to get him out there too. I think that minimising weight transfer is the key, although I know that judicious use of sway bars makes a big difference too. SOme of the older guys at Daihard had some pretty quick FWD setups. Marc used to lap Morgan Park about 1.5 sec facter in his Detom than I could manage in my WRX (and faster than Paul Ruzic in his GTR as well). He had coilovers, semis and some good geometry settings and little else done to that thing.

Mine's been a rally car for 15 years, so I think that it's been fairly well sorted in that time. If I start fiddling with the settings I can see myself going backwards. Better to learn to drive it first, then start thinking about settings.

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They have drifting in forests now?
What will they think of next?

very possibly.

yes they are already flogging skylines in street trim