Front spring question

[C5GTO]

Originally Posted by Gbalko

C5GTO. DId you have clearance issues also? Is that why you installed shock extenders? How much travel does your shock have? My shocks are approx 14 extended and 9 collapsed with 5 inches of travel. If I did shock extenders I could gain more clearance but at the sacrifice of losing shock travel and adding a potential weak link in the system.

I haven't noticed any clearance issues on my CR from the perspective that my shocks have never been damaged from hitting spring perch. Maybe they would if fully compressed without a spring in place, maybe they wouldn't. I don't know as I don't recall ever exercising the suspension without the springs in place. I honestly don't remember why or from where the shock extenders on my car came from. I built the car about 25 years ago and don't remember all the detail. I just know they're being used and I'm sure must have been needed or I wouldn't have put them on. If I were to be changing anything on the front suspension now, I would just lower the upper shock mount and get rid of the extensions. I like simplicity and extra parts aren't simplicity.

I haven't directly measured the amount of wheel travel in compression on my CR with the car in use. My best guess is that it's about 2" or so. I have the ride height set fairly low, there just isn't that much room between the tire and fender lip, and the tire has never touched the fender. That's after 50K miles of driving and hitting my fair share of pot holes. So the amount of actual shock travel in use isn't really all that much.