Hi Lewis,
If the donuts that came off the car were compressed or torn, then putting
new ones in can make quite a difference in ride height, especially since
anything you do at the spring perches has double the effect on ride height -
i.e. a 1/4" difference in (installed) rubber donut height will make 1/2"
difference at the wheels.
I took a set of CAT springs off my front end when I disassembled it, and
they were wound tight enough that I couldn't get my spring compressor's
fingers inbetween the coils, so I ended up doing something else (probably
something dangerous - I forget exactly what) to decompress them and remove
the lower control arms. The springs had been installed slightly off-center
on the donuts and had wrecked the molded rim on the donuts in the process.
Some versions of these springs are apparently long enough that they will
coil-bind when the suspension is fully compressed, which is very hard on the
suspension components. I measured mine up and as best as I could determine
they would have been very close to binding, depending on how much the bump
snubbers would have resisted compression.
These springs were about 10 1/2" free length and calculated out to 330 or
340 lb/in, based on my measurements, where the stock springs are about 280
lb/in if I recall correctly. The extra spring rate is a good thing if you're
intent on driving the car on track days or at autocross, but I think there
are better springs out there for that purpose.
To figure out what exact spring you've got you need to measure the free
length, the number of coils (turns) on the spring, the wire diameter (to at
least 0.01" accuracy) and the overall coil diameter. This will allow you to
determine the spring rate, first of all, and since the various aftermarket
Tiger springs are all a little different in their overall measurements, it
will probably help you figure out where exactly the springs originally came
from.
Good luck,
Theo
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