Front coil springs
 

Bought a set from eaton, 1 inch lowering springs last year, i have the spc upper arms with the taller ball joints, & the umi lower arms with the taller ball joints.............since everyone that got the stock springs claimed they were too tall and you would need to cut...........thought i would just get the 1 inch lower...........that didnt turn out well, lol, the car is sitting a little too low for me now...........question is, when ordering new springs, do you take in account if you have alum heads, alum manifold, alum radiator..........looking to get a set from ks, cant remember the name right now...........already wasted 200 bucks on these eaton springs, dont want to waste another whatever the price of these new ones will be.

As long as im wasting your time on this, they say to index the springs top and bottom, how do you manage this when the springs ends are the same, not like stock.

Rich

Call Eaton. They should replace them for you if you bought through them. When I dealt with them, thats what they did for me. And yes, they should be taking into account all you've done to lighten the front end. As far as indexing goes, if you have the stock A arms the springs index into place. If they aren't doing that for you, I don't think its the spring.

73, i did check with eaton, they said when you order the 1 inch lowering spring, its yours forever, no refunds on these, i dont have the stock arms, they just told me to index it in the lower, so not much help there...........gonna give another company a try.

Rich

If Eaton will not accommodate you there is a solution that I used .
Years ago when I restored my 70 I used stock replacement springs and all was fine.

Then four months later I added 90 lbs to the nose of the car with a blower and 2 carbs, and to top that off I put on wider but lower front tires.

My solution was to install load leveling ft shocks with the springs on them.

This was just enough to bring the car back to stock ride height and yet not really effect the ride quality.

PS.

To tell you the truth I don’t know if they are made anymore!

The front spring should only have a pigtail on the bottom end where you index it in the lower control arm (only). The top of the spring should be ground flat because it does not get indexed in the spring pocket of the frame. See photo of my UMI spring as reference. The photo shows the top side of the spring has been ground flat which allows it to fit into the spring pocket of the frame in whatever orientation has been dictated by indexing it in the lower control arm.

https://i.imgur.com/wDbZCzjl.jpg

Hey thanks Karl, and 25 steven............Karl, the springs i got from eaton, didnt have a pigtail on them and the top was not flat.........guess when you pay 200 plus, you dont get these options. lol...........will check into the umi springs seeing i have there lower control arms............

25 stevem...........will look into this also...........that last line of yours got me worried. lol

Im gonna see if i have some better pics of my install, all i know from umi was to put the rubber insulator in the lower control arm and but the spring into that.........the top goes where the top wants to go............odd

The lower A arms with the tall ball joints lowers the car 1/2"

See if you can exchange them for a lower arm with the standard BJ

LOL, i got those things so scratched up, im thinking its a no go on that deal.........between the lower and upper arms lowering the car just by having the longer bj"s im wondering if i should get stock springs 1 inch bigger than stock.............suppose i could get stock ball joints for the lower arms seems like a waste of money at this point, i think i can make up the distance with stock springs........its only a 1/2 inch

Im probably looking at this all wrong.

Rich

Make up a shim of whatever thickness you think would be the correct ride height. Install above the spring. The idea of the longer ball joint is to make the spindle taller for less camber change during bump and roll. Street cars it may not matter much but race cars it does. If a shim is made you may not have to buy more parts just some trial and error to get it to your liking.

Here's a list of Moog choices I put together in order of spring rate.

https://i.imgur.com/7FMN92A.jpg

Assuming your talking Abody, I've never seen a spring that didn't have a pigtail at the top that engages the index slot in the frame to keep the spring from walking around in circles and squeaking.

Global West also has some different spring spacers that are contoured to have the spring end lay in the control arms better.

I just swapped put the drag front springs and put back in my Guldstrand autocross springs I used to run in the 78 TA. They were out for maybe 20 years plus dropped 50 lbs off. The freaking front end was up 4"! that is not just the difference in aluminum heads being uncompressed also had to make an impact.

Yep A body 66 gto...........got to see if i can find a pic of the springs i got from eaton, but they were identical on both ends...........not cheap either when you order 1 inch lowering ones. lol

Skip, will look into the global west springs, and see what i can come up with.

Rich

Ok, couple pics i found, neither spring looked anything like ZeGerman Ham posted, the pic of the old spring i took out, not idea if stock or not.........but it did have different ends, longer top to bottom, the eaton springs were identical top to bottom........from pics of moog springs they look similar. Maybe this is why im getting all sorts of squeeks and rattles. lol

Front springs for 1964-67 GTO are square in both ends and indexed at upper end (spring end visible in frame pocket hole at upper control arm shaft).

1968-72 GTO front springs has one square end and one tangential end. Square end down and indexed in lower control arm hole.

NO pigtail end on front springs!

X - 2 - This - ^^^^^

Kenth, are you able to see this indexed correct if you have aftermarket control arms, i have the spc brand on top...........

Anyone have a good pic of a 66 front spring, so i can see excately what i need to look for.

Rich

If you're just wanting to raise the front 1/2", simply replace those taller lower ball joints with stock height joints. Taller lower BJs lowers the car. Taller upper BJs have no effect on ride height

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sps-95332
SPC makes these shims that fit under the spring pocket of their lower control arms. Those or something similar may work on the UMI’s also.
To figure the ride height change you would double the shim thickness because of the suspension geometry. 1/4” shim would raise the front 1/2”, 1/2” shim would raise the front 1”,etc.

Thanks for that info, i thought the taller uppers had an effect on them also..........thinking i need the car up at least a inch more.......will have to look into this some more.

Rich