Front spring question

[C5GTO]

Originally Posted by Gbalko

Hey C5GTO. You mentioned that you changed your lower control arms. QA1 is telling me that the 1/2 inch bolt that currently supports the bottom of the shock is strong enough to support a coil over system. What do you think?

Originally Posted by Gbalko

C5GTO, also forgot to ask if that is a 8 inch spring you installed.

While my lower control arm is tubular instead of press steel, it still uses a 1/2" bolt for the bottom of the shock. I'd suggest using a grade 8 bolt, but yes the same bolts have worked fine on mine for about 25 years now.

I didn't know if the 8" spring measurement you were asking about was free or compressed length, so I broke out the floor jack and took a bunch of measurements.

- spring compressed length = 7"
- spring free length = 8 3/4"
- shock compressed length = 14 1/2"
- shock free length = 16 1/2"

There's a 2 1/2" extension on the top of my shock so the actual shock length is what I gave above minus 2 1/2". I'm guessing the extension is a CR thing given the tall shock mount on the top. I'm guessing you might also need a shock extension unless the shocks you have match the measurements above. I don't recall when or where I got those extensions but I bet they are not optional on a CR.

The height adjuster on the shock is right about the middle of the threads and there's about 1 1/2" of threads above it. So an 8" spring would work but the adjuster could be getting close to the top of the threads. Again, I have Cararra shocks so the QA1 shocks maybe different.

I hope this info helps you out.