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Front Drop Coil Springs: 2" or 3" - '65 C10

Lakeroadster

Lakeroadster

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My truck currently has P.O. flame heated to drop stock front springs. I like the stance but want to do this the right way.

I am wondering if anyone here has done a coil spring only drop using 2" or 3" drop springs. If so, what's your opinion of the ride and did you have any issues with front end alignment? Some photo's of your ride would be great also.

Thanks,

John

 
I cant tell you anything about drop spring John. What i did to mine was cut 3/4 of one coil off my springs. And its not bad but i realy need to do something about the leaf spring in the rear. This old farm turk has 8 leafs per side! lol. Its a little ruff.

I do hear a lot of guy going with drop spindles. Every thing stays the same just move the spindle up. Hence lowering the front.

Good luck in what ever you do. Im sure it will look great!
 
Mine with 3/4 of a coil cut.
 

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64shortbed said:
Mine with 3/4 of a coil cut.
Click to expand...

Awesome. Could you do me a favor and measure from the wheel well opening to the center of the axle... as shown below?

Due to differences in tire diameter and camera angles I find it difficult to compare one drop to another visually.... It's the one dimension that gives a true apples to apples comparison... well except for engine weight differences :rolleyes: So, what ya runnin' a I6, SBC or BBC?

I have received feedback on other forums where folks have cut new stock height coils with excellent results. Based on their input, and yours, I am now wondering if cutting new stock coils may be a better option than drop coils.


 
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Mine is 16" but I'm running 215/70/15s. And my coils came out of the 85 1/2 ton I got the A arms out of. I'm running a 350/350 combo. Hope this helps. It's 2" lower then when I first put the 85 front end on.
 
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Tires shouldn't effect the 16" dimension, but all the '85 parts make a comparison between our two trucks problematic. But I appreciate the input nonetheless.

I am wanting to keep the stock drum brakes. Nobody makes a drop spindles with drums, at least nobody I have found does.
 
John after giving this some thought, if you have the stamina, find yourself a set of freebie springs from any c-10 73 to 88, drag them home and cut off one coil and install, sense your originals been torched like mine we have no measured values to go by with a stock spring even used just cut would give you an idea what we could get away with stock spindles even stock disc spindles.
 
I hear ya Rich. If we could just get fellas to give us some feedback on the dimension they have, as shown below, it would help to zero in on the drop and give us something to compare to our current set-up. Other than weight of engine, this dimension isn't affected by tire and wheel size.

LMC and other sites show photos and measurements from the fender lip to the ground, which varies drastically based on tire and wheel combinations.

Maybe you could post this question and the photo-diagram below over at that other website and see what kind of feedback you get?

Basically we are looking for the distance from the wheel well opening to the center of the axle.

 
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I still have my original 64 front springs. The truck was originaly a inline 6. So that's what the springs would be for. If interested let me know.
 
Here`s a pic of antiricer`s truck found on the net, he was doing a front drop, one coil cut off stock spring, no other changes, 350/350 combo, looks to have eight inch rims on front....all we can do is guess at the fender clearance.
 

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Mine is 17 inches on both sides. Back in 1997 I installed 1 inch lowering springs in front, but over time the drivers side sagged an extra inch. I installed a 1 inch spring rubber on that side to bring it back to level. It looks even higher in the front than it is because my front tires are just under 27 inches tall when new. The tire/fender gap also increased some when I removed the inner fenders. All things considered I think mine rides pretty close to stock height:



Because the rear tires are just over 29" tall when new, it still has a pretty good nose down rubber rake. It doesn't sit level as it appears in the first photo:

 
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Lakeroadster said:
I hear ya Rich. If we could just get fellas to give us some feedback on the dimension they have, as shown below, it would help to zero in on the drop and give us something to compare to our current set-up. Other than weight of engine, this dimension isn't affected by tire and wheel size.

LMC and other sites show photos and measurements from the fender lip to the ground, which varies drastically based on tire and wheel combinations.

Maybe you could post this question and the photo-diagram below over at that other website and see what kind of feedback you get?

Basically we are looking for the distance from the wheel well opening to the center of the axle.

Click to expand...

Not that my values are any good but surprizing...15.5 inches...:eek:

This just showed up on the dark side 2.5 spindles with one inch drop springs, 4 inch drop springs rear, big block..
 

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If it ain't broken.... don't fix it!

Upon further review I think I will keep my front P.O. "flame lowered" coil springs. A few years back I replaced the stock bump stops with some aftermarket ones. The ride quality is acceptable as is and the bump stops engage before the springs are fully compressed.

I'll inspect them by dye checking them when I do the front suspension re-build to make sure there aren't any cracks.... but I just can't see replacing them with new ones when they will change the stance and be of a questionable ride quality From what I can gather my truck has around a 2-1/2" to 3" front drop and everything I have read online about 3" drop springs is that they provide a miserable ride.

Bottom line: I like the current stance and I'm not having issues with them.

Make sense to you fella's?
 
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Yep ~

If YOU like it , how it rides and drives , leave it be .

After all , you're the one paying for it , right ? :rolleyes: .

OTOH the young 'un's creedo is often : " if it ain't broke , fix it until it is " :p .
 
I just finished installing CPP 2" front and 3" rear drop springs on my 63 longbed, the old springs must have sagged in 50 years as I now have the same ride height up front. I've asked around and found I should not be in a hurry to align it as it will sag a little, and to weight the front end with bags of sand to help speed the "break-in". If I had know i probably would have bought the 2" drop spindles and used the old springs, I also installed the CPP front disk brake conversion kit.
 

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Looks Good

I'd align it right away ~ if those new springs " settle in " soon , they're junk and will flop and be worthless in a year or so .

Poor alignment causes rapid wear of everything else in the front end and the tire$ too .

How do you like the ride / drive now ? .
 
Thanks for the advice. I drove it around the block a couple times and parked it, alignment appointment next week. I plan on putting a few miles on it after that, I'll let you know what I think.
 
You can't believe everything you read on the internet, and free advise is worth what you paid for it. I decided that if I'm going to pay for the alignment the ride height should be what I want so I cut my front coils, about 2/3 of a coil. This dropped the front about another 1-1/2", but the alignment couldn't' be done as the springs wouldn't seat in the pockets so I can't say that did the trick. Here is a link to some great information I wish I had read before I cut my coils.

http://www.eatondetroitspring.com/cutting-coil-springs/

I ordered the 3" drop springs.

I also had issues with my disk brake conversion. The hoses that run to the new calipers were too long and we're rubbing on the tires so I tried snaking them to take up the slack. This seemed to be fine, until I made a full turn of the wheels and the hoses kinked. I bought shorter hoses at the alignment shop and when I get the new coils installed and bleed the brakes I'll bring it back for a second attempt on the alignment.

I thought seriously about the drop spindles but I didn't and opted for the springs instead. Knowing what I know now, (even though I'm not done yet) if I were to do it all again I would go with the 3" drop spindles and new stock height springs.

I should mention that I used the 3" drop rear springs and it was a bit low compared to the front drop I initially got. I plan to haul things in this truck and I don't want to be dragging the rear with a full load so I re-installed the half-leaf overload springs that came on the truck. It rode real smooth on my short trip to the alignment shop and back and raised the rear about an inch. I can always swap the overloads to the top of the mounts if the final ride is rough or if I need to lower the rear more once I get the front end down to the final ride height.

I have to put in a good word for our sponsor, Classic Parts. This is not my first project and I don't have any build threads as I'd rather be in the garage than in front of a computer. I've bought parts from a lot of different vendors, I can't rate Classic Chevy's customer service as I've never had to use it. I've always been happy with the quality of the parts. There you go.
 
Porterhouse,

Could you measure and then post the drop you have now, and also give us an update when you get the new 3" drop springs?

That would be a big help. Measure from the top of the wheel opening to the front axle c/l, like this:


Thanks in advance!

FWIW: I used 4" Heavy Duty Drop springs on my truck. The standard drop springs, be they 3", 4" or 5" are wimpy compared to stock. Heres's more on that, go to post 266: https://talk.classicparts.com/showthread.php?t=13928&page=18

John
 
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