Steering, Suspension, & Brakes

What you need Mike, are the springs from the second photo in Martin's post.
Those thin flat springs aren't a dual rate setup. They are used to keep the main spring in place in a situation like yours.
Cheers
Fred

hmmm. Thanks for the tip. That sounds like a plan. They must just go solid without much load. Now I need to figure out where to get them.

Eibach calls them helper springs. Google that, they're available lots of places. About $45 a pop. Hyperco is maybe half that.
HTH,

jb

One thing you have to remember, is the lower perch can't go any lower than stock with the wheel/tire in place. As it is, a 7"wheel or wider will end up very close to the strut tube anyway. Throw a perch or a 2.5" spring in the mix, and the tire will hit it. The only reason you want the collar to extend down the tube is so you can spin the perch down to allow easy removal and replacement of the spring with the strut still mounted in the car. Ultimately the lower perch will end up about where the stock location is.(above the tire) Here is what I have found out after building a dozen or so more of these things for other cars. 10" springs will work up to about #250 rates. Anything stiffer than that, and you will have too high of a ride height for most people's tastes. Above #250 rate springs, you need to drop to an 8"spring. Not sure exactly where the dividing line is to drop to an even shorter spring, but I'd guess it's in the 400 to 450 pound range, and trust me you don't want that on a street car. 300 is about the max for a street driven car unless you are carrying some serious extra weight up front. Most of the cars I've set up for fiends end up at 250 or so up front and 225 to 300 in the back. Those cheap ebay coilovers kits that fit everything under the sun for 50 or 60 bucks are all you need, and for the time being the springs that come with them work out well in the rear, but they are a little stiff. The kits come with four threaded collars, four adjustable perches and 4 springs. Enough to do all four corners. The picture of the crazy looking struts Mike posted are for a rally car where you need huge suspension travel. Those won't work on a road car unless you either use much shorter springs, really narrow tires, or wheel spacers and flares to get the tires away from the spring. If you go the helper spring route, you won't be able to get the wheel back on the car because the spring/perch will be lower than the top of the tire.

Thanks. I'll be ordering one of the cheap coil over kits. I may try the spings that come with it, but I'm guessing I'll end up looking for some softer ones. Depeing on how things fit, I may go for the helper springs. I'll be mocking up my tire and wheel setup this weekend, so I can see what kind of space I have to work with.

Using the helper springs shouldn't cause any issues with the tire/strut/spring perch clearance.

They only take up 3/4" when loaded. And then expand to 3" when the suspension is in droop, to keep the main spring in place.
Cheers
Fred