got some new springs all around, but the car looks a little tilted, it looks like the passenger side is 1/4 to 1/2 inch higher, at least in the rear. when the car was on the lift the other day at town fair tire i was checking it out and the passenger side spring doesn't look like it's seated the same, so i took some pics, here's some links :

Passenger side rear spring
Driver side rear spring
Both rear springs at angle

a friend of mine helped me redo all the suspension, he told me it doesn't matter how the rear springs are seated. granted he knows these cars pretty well, but i thought i'd look for some more input.

FYI the springs are from tokico, they came in a kit with the illumina shocks & struts part# ILK208 and they are supposed to give a 1.25" drop to ride height.

 

did you forget one of the spring isolator? since the springs are so short if you have the car up on the sub-frame or taking the load off the rear end the springs will be loose on the rear end and when you lower it they wont seat properly, look up in the pockets and see if there seated on the prevision right and if you can see if both isolator on top of the springs

 

none of the isolators were forgotten, of that i'm sure. the end of the top coil is sitting in the isolator properly, right before the little hump area where the isolator drops to meet the next coil.

is there by chance an index point for the rear springs that i'm unaware of, like in the front?

i was just under the car a few mins ago, i took the load off the rear on the passenger side so i could move the spring, i rotated it so the end of the bottom coil was exactly opposite from where it was. i made sure the spring stayed in the isolater properly, and it raised the rear on that side a half inch more.

i did check it against the driver side rear spring before i moved it, to see if the coil ends were in the same position and they looked like they were.

i took measurements at each wheel, from the ground to the top edge of the wheel well, this is what i got:

driver front 26 7/16" driver rear 26 10/16"

passenger front 26 13/16" passenger rear 27 1/16"

front difference 3/8" rear difference 7/16"

the only other thing i can think of, which is pure speculation on my part, would be the adjustable panhard bar isn't adjusted properly and is somehow lifting the passenger side of the car, thereby also causing the front to be slightly off as well? is that even a possibility?

the panhard bar went on at the same time as the springs, and is the first adjustable piece i've had, but to my knowledge the adjustability only comes into play to center the rear end to the body. i've never heard anything about it lifting the body.

thanks for the reply, please keep the suggestions coming

 

Just sounds like it's not seated fully on either top or bottom. Panhard would move it just a tad but not 1", sounds lik eit's just not sitting right. You have to lower the car slowly and recheck as it goes down to make sure it seats, with my 9" it;s always a PITA!!!

 

in my original post i did say 1", but that was just an estimate by eye looking at the rear of the car at ground level. i took measurements tonight and it's actually 7/16" higher, or just under 1/2" difference.

i raised and lowered the car about 7 times tonight. i adjusted the spring a few times and kept checking that the spring was seated in the isolator and the isolator looks to be seated well on the body also. i did do it slowly while checking it and it actually all seems to be seated well. however it was already getting dark when i got home from work and i don't quite fit under the car as well anymore, lol, so i couldn't get a real good view.

i'm gonna put the rear up on ramps tomorrow so i can get a better view while keeping the load on the rear, and see what happens.

got any good tips for measuring/centering the rear end and/or adjusting the panhard bar?

 

Honestley, I just used a lakewood fixed mount and it worked fine. My car was lowered by 2" and it never had any probs.....

 

When I put new springs on my car they looked the same way. But I also put a new rear and tq arm in too. Im not sure what "fixed" them, but I adjusted my pinion angle and took it for a couple rides, and now they are perfect.

 

well, after messing with the spring seats for a few hours yesterday and talking with my friend, i think i'm gonna wait a bit longer and see if they seat down more on the pass. side. i remembered that i did take measurements at all four tires after the springs were installed and it was at 27" on all sides. i rarely carry passengers so me being the only one in the car most of the time, maybe the driver side just seated down first. that's something i wasn't even thinking about so i'll give it some time. thanks for bringing that up.

other than that i think i got the panhard adjusted pretty well, so the rear is centered and the bar is parrallel with the rear. i measured the spaces between the tires and the wheel wells and it all looks good, other than the height thing i mean ... i'll have to check it all again if the springs seat down more.

thanks to everyone who posted. if it remains an issue after another 2-4 weeks then i'll post up again.

 

could you put up an outside pic of the car? I was thinking about getting that kit, but I wanted to see how a car looked with it first.

Also, how does the strut / spring combo ride?

 

sure, i just started messing around with my comcast page, so i'm hosting all my images from there. i just took some recent photo's after the install and those are the only ones up right now, no before photo's... but i'll be adding some soon. here's the link :

My Photo Page

the ride quality all depends on how you set the shocks/struts, the illumina's are 5-way adjustable. setting 1=softest & setting 5=stiffest. i tried a few settings so far, setting 3 at all four tires seems perfect, i love the turns... it's soft enough for a good smooth cruise, and stiff enough to hit the curves hard

i tried setting 4 all around, it was very stable in turns, but the ride quality was a bit harsher. i think i may actually drop it to setting 2 for a while and see if that helps break in the springs more on the passenger side. i really wanna get my sfc's installed so i can compare the ride to the eibach pro kit on my buddies car... he has the same setup as me for shocks/struts/sfc's, only difference being the springs.

IMHO so far i love the combo, tokico did a great job with their kit, and it's less expensive than grabbing seperate components and different springs, i got the whole kit with shocks/struts/springs for around $550 shipped, whereas the eibach springs alone are around $250

 

Nice. That stance is exactly what I want. I just gotta keep saving money and see what happens then. What website did you get them from??

Also, check out NECF, its free to post on the forum, and $5 nominal fee to actually join the club.

http://www.necamaro-firebird.org/

 

i ordered the kit from jdmwerks on ebay ... i couldn't find them cheaper anywhere. he deals with all suspension components for many cars, here's a link : jdmwerks13

it's funny you mention that, because i know AC and 86sc, 86 is the one that helped me do the suspension on my car, lol. i already signed up on the site ...couple weeks ago actually, it already showed me as the newest member. but havent been able to log in and never got the confirmation email. i was hoping to go to the show you guys had last week, but i stayed at 86's house and were were up til 5am playin call of duty hehe. hopefully summer nats will turn out better