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Slammed Metro
Topic Started: Nov 5 2016, 05:31 PM (1,209 Views)
Metrodude231
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I'm getting my 91 metro lowered next Saturday and I'm not sure how much to tell the shop to cut off of each spring. A website said to measure how much you want the car lowered, then cut off half of that on each coil spring, so if I want the car 4 inches lower they would cut off 2 inches on the springs. Is that correct? I'd like the car to be as low as the slammed civics if possible.
Thanks
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Murf 59
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Unless you make travel limiters, your springs are going to fall out when you jack the car up. For out little cars, one coil comes out to about 2" So I cut one whole coil in the front and little more that 3/4s of a coil in the back. Works great. With 4" lowered, its going to be a rough ride. But to each his own.
I remember when Pepcon blew up and messed up a bunch of Henderson. Do they still have rocket fuel in the ground water there from that?
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Murf 59
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Get you some H&Rs and it will work great, ride great too.
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Metrodude231
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Murf 59
Nov 5 2016, 06:34 PM
Unless you make travel limiters, your springs are going to fall out when you jack the car up. For out little cars, one coil comes out to about 2" So I cut one whole coil in the front and little more that 3/4s of a coil in the back. Works great. With 4" lowered, its going to be a rough ride. But to each his own.
I remember when Pepcon blew up and messed up a bunch of Henderson. Do they still have rocket fuel in the ground water there from that?
Well the car already rides pretty rough as it is, also I am going to have the shop do the lowering for me. So how many coils should I tell the shop to cut if I wanted the car lowered about 4 inches. Maybe two whole coils? And yeah the dirt over in the Pepcon area of town is still full of toxic chemicals, they are trying to move the dirt away.
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Woodie
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I don't think four inches is possible, it would certainly result in a car which is unusable for anything except billiard table smooth surfaces. Murph 59 has given you excellent advice, H&R's or one coil front 3/4 coil back. Either one of those will net you about two inches drop with the suspension still working.
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solerpower
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I don't think the h & r will bring it down far enough. There are other options for springs. I would never cut springs to lower, but each his/her own.
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Murf 59
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If your going to go big, and it looks like you are, go slow. Sneak up on it by taking a little out at a time. Yes its extra work. But once its cut, you can't put it back with out replacing the springs. And in case it does not go like you want, I have a set of used stock springs for sale. PM me if you need them.
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Bad Bent
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Facetious Educated Donkey

Metrodude231
Nov 5 2016, 05:31 PM
I'm getting my 91 metro lowered next Saturday and I'm not sure how much to tell the shop to cut off of each spring. A website said to measure how much you want the car lowered, then cut off half of that on each coil spring, so if I want the car 4 inches lower they would cut off 2 inches on the springs. Is that correct? I'd like the car to be as low as the slammed civics if possible.
Thanks
Probably not on all accounts.

I took 1/2-3/4 of a coil out and it lowered it close to 2". Still a gap above the tires and fenders. Taller tires?

But it can LOOK like a slammed Civic if you change the bumpers and side skirts. http://geometroforum.com/single/?p=281235&t=2899979

http://geometroforum.com/topic/2899979/1/?x=25

You just won't have any of the handling problems slammed Civics are reported to have.
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t3ragtop
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Turbo3 and Twincam Tweaker

from my experience, anything much over 2" will require that you fabricate and install front upper strut mounts that enable you to correct extreme negative camber. with the rudimentary suspension on the suzuki variants, lowering the car by shortening the springs moves the tops of the tires inward so that the negative camber cannot be corrected on the bottom sides of the struts. you have to build upper mounts using a spherical bearing on a sliding plate that allows you to move the tops of the struts outward to correct the camber.

not much can be done to correct the negative camber on the rear end as the upper rear strut mounting area is too small to allow any usable correction.

the guys are also correct that shortening the springs sets up a situation where the coil springs won't remain within the spring perches. this is a really bad deal on the front strut assemblies as there is no way to maintain the stack height and the strut bearings pop out of alignment and get ground up in short order.

when i put together my track suspension i had to use cables to capture the front strut extension and limiting straps on the rear control arms to keep the rear springs from flying out of their perches whenever suspension travel exceeded the height of the springs. ;)

also, just cutting springs without doing the work of prepping the suspension with polyurethane bushings and other stuff is a waste of time, money, and effort. i say that, again from personal experience.

i'm only giving you advice knowing that you will do whatever you will. i had to learn this stuff myself, too. ;)
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IrishManson
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dang i was wanting to lower the front of my metro by cutting the springs also. i really just wanted to make it level or a little lower than the rear of my car. this is what im working with.

Posted Image

what about mabey putting a torch to the springs?
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Car Nut
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It almost looks like you have broken, or collapsed springs on the rear. Everybody wants to lower their car. I'd like to find brand new oem springs to install on mine, and get that nice Cadillac ride back. Lower rides, usually mean rougher rides.
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IrishManson
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Im pretty sure they are broken. Is it hard to replace them? I have decent ones on my parts car that i can swap over but ive never done this before and i dont want to hurt anything or hurt myself. I have all the tools but not the know-how
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t3ragtop
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Turbo3 and Twincam Tweaker

the rears are very easy to change. you don't even need to use a spring compressor.

jack the rear end up, remove the wheels, loosen and remove the pinch bolts on the knuckles at the bottoms of the struts, bang the knuckles down and off the ends of the struts, push the knuckles down until you can pull the old springs out.

installing the replacement springs is basically the reverse. insert the springs, get the bottoms of the struts located in the knuckles, either use another jack to raise the knuckles back up to seat the struts or lower the car and let the weight of the car seat the struts in the knuckles, replace and tighten the pinch bolts, and put the wheels back on. ;)

the front spring replacement requires removing the strut assemblies, taking them apart to replace the springs, and getting everything put back together.

there are detailed "how to" threads for this here on the forum.
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IrishManson
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Thanks alot, ill look up the how to. From what your say the rear springs sound pretty easy. i dont know what this "pinch bolt" is but im sure ill find out.

thanks
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suzukitom
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Tom

Picture of the strut removed from the car. the pinch bolt when tightened, clamps the strut (not shown) to the knuckle.

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Edited by suzukitom, Nov 28 2016, 03:29 PM.
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