Suspension

I have a new set of Hotchkis Springs 1″ lowers in the front and the rear. However my rear is a little low. The Hotchkis part numbers are 1901R, or 19930003 springs, but I’m going to install something that give me a little higher rear as the front springs are a little too much of a pain to change.

Trying out a pair of Moog, 5413’s, they should arrive from Amazon.Com tomorrow. I’ll show the after photo later.

Decided against the new rear springs instead went with Air Bags and I kept the Hotchkis 1″ lowering springs.

You can see the bug is a little higher, but not too much so, overall I’m happy with the look/stance for now. Next year I’ll probably cut the springs.

Update 4: The bags I have are these  and officially they are called Drag Bags.

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Update 5: My tires on the front and rear are 28″ tires. 275/60 R15s on the rear, and 235/70 R15’s on the front. I could lower the front by putting on a smaller tire, but the tire would also ride below the wheel well.

I purchased a set of Hotchkis 1901F’s and installed in my Chevelle. The ride height looks a little high, I am wondering if I need to cut the coil or re-clocking it will help.

If you see the above picture, the end of the coil should be at the 9 o’clock position, but it’s at 5 o-clock.

To install I used the following mechanism.

1. Unbolted lower shock, but left it in.
2. Chained the coil to the frame (big-a$$ chain)
3. Jacked car and put on stands.
4. Put floor jack under lower control arm.
5. Jacked it up.
6. Removed spindle bolts.
7. SLOWLY lowered lower control arm.

Of course cutting re-clocking means another alignment… Arr…

Update 1. I reindexed the right front coil to the correct position and guess what, the car is about an inch higher in the front after moving to the correct position. Hopefully driving it around will fix it a little, if I remember it settled about an 3/4″ after a few months. I’ll probably do this again next spring and cut a coil to lower the front.

Update 2. Learned about spring seating. Here’s how it’s seated.

Here’s how it looks from the top, and it looks like it needs to move over a bit, because it looks like it’s on the lip.

Update 3: I ended up cutting a third off the right spring. I know sounds crazy, but it actually leveled the car. I drove it and it seems fine though the right camber is a little off and I’ll need to shim it again (but not this year). Next year I’ll lower it a little more and even them out. p.s. Hotchkis Actually Recommends Cutting Their Springs.