[Shotimes] My Experience with Suspension Altering (long)....was: Lowering the SHO (sorta long)

[George Fourchy]

I've sent this out several times over the last year or so.  As new folks come on the
list, the same questions get asked over and over, and that's fine.  At one point in time
or another, we were all new to the list, and to the car.  There are so many things that
can be done to a SHO to make it a little better, a little faster, and a lot more fun. 
They also tend to bring out the personality of the car that we know and love so much,
which makes this car so enjoyable to own ( as long as we can stay ahead of it
mechanically).  

One of the first things to do to it is to modify the suspension.  I've been doing that
for almost 10 years.  This post summarizes the things I have learned, and I'm pleased to
share them with you.

I first put it together over a year ago, and have sent it out a couple of times.  Here it
is again...  Now the RE730s have 30K miles, and the fixed front and bottom of the engine
have 80 and 30 thousand miles respectively.  But the spring, strut, and alignment data
are accurate.

.................................................................
There are several ways to lower the car, front and rear.  I've tried them all.  Another
factor to consider when you change the ride height of the car is what you are going to do
to the alignment.  As you lower the car, the lower control arms become straighter/more
parallel to the ground, and you increase your negative camber, as you move the bottom of
the wheel out from the centerline.  This is good up to a point, and makes for better
handling, but it is hard on tires over a long period of time.

Basically there are three ways to lower the car.  Cut the springs, put shorter springs in
place of the stock ones, or lower the struts in the knuckles.  There are problems
inherent in each method.  The first two wind up eliminating a lot of your suspension
travel, which you will 
DEFINITELY miss, especially with aftermarket struts. 

Cutting the springs is the short quick way (not the best way) to a lower riding car.  The
problem is, the front springs of Tauri are not the same diameter all the way up, and if
you cut too much out of the bottom, the spring won't fit on the seat.  If you cut the top
off the spring, you are messing up the balance of the strut bearings, which allow the
front wheels to steer.  I tried this the first time, and those springs were so bad that
the whole front end sounded like it was going to explode every time I turned the wheel.  
The top of the spring must be perfectly flat, and level with the inside of the strut
tower, otherwise there will be binding on the bearing, which will lead to an early
failure.  

Putting shorter springs has been the standard way of lowering these cars, for the most
part, and I have been running springs that were two inches shorter than stock when
carrying the 900 pounds of car weight of each front corner.  It looked REALLY good when
it was 2 inches 
lower than stock...the tire/fender gap was completely gone.  The difficulties that arose
were threefold....the front bumper cover and subframe took hits like the battleship
Arizona during the Pearl Harbor attack, there was absolutely NO suspension travel in the
jounce direction, and the CV joints were screaming bloody murder...there was too much
angle in the joints, and the power was not being transmitted to the hubs evenly...it felt
like the engine was missing half its cylinders when accelerating.  When I first did this,
I had Koni inserts in some stock strut housings, and Konis only adjust the damp in the
rebound direction, unless you pay BIG BUCKS to have a set specially made that will adjust
in both directions....I was so disappointed in them I sold them and got Tokikos.   The
Helms manual says you cannot have more than a very small angle in the CV joints, a WHOLE
lot less than when it was that low...or the vibration would occur, and the joints would
very soon self destruct.  They are not really 'constant velocity' joints, like GM used to
use in RWD Riviera (for example) driveshafts ....those were REAL CV joints...three sets
of two complete U-joints co-mounted in an assembly that let the driveshaft flex like a
snake, yet the power was totally smooth.  Ours are a distant poor cousin of those 'real'
CVs.  I finally had to raise my car back up, and since I spent good money having those
springs recurved, I used them again, but added adjustable plywood spacers at the top,
between the top of the spring and the bearing plate.  I got lots of termite jokes, but
they were fine when they came out this spring, after 5 or so years of service, and
multiple removals for strut/knuckle/brake/axle changes.  By the way, I have never tried
Eibach springs in any of my SHOs.  I had them in a Mustang, and they were
disgusting...the variable rate was totally useless, and the car kept banging the ground
in the center of the chassis when hitting freeway dips, even with the adjustable Tokikos
set all the way stiff.  After that, I never got any again.  I have driven a couple of Gen
2 SHOs with them installed, and they weren't bad....however I don't like the idea of
variable rate springs....you get the car set up for a corner, and the rate changes as the
weight transfers, and the car does wierd stuff you weren't expecting....I'll just take
standard springs, thank you.

The only way to keep your desired suspension travel is to lower the whole strut in the
knuckle.  This keeps the strut piston centered in its barrel, allowing for a better ride
due to equal amounts of jounce and rebound suspension travel.  The problem here is that
you can only lower it about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch AT MOST, due to /1. the tire tread
coming in contat with the spring seat, and /2. the bottom of the strut interfering with
the outer CV joint, as it goes through the knuckle.  I had to use a cutoff wheel to
remove the section of the spring seat right over the inner edge of the tire, and also,
temporarily, move the wheels out by use of spacer plates, after I lowered the Lowrider
this way.  I have since raised it up again enough to remove the spacer plates....they are
in the car and available for use if the new Bridgestone Potenzas I have waiting for me
are too large in diameter for the struts as they are set now.  It looks better than
stock, but it is only about 1/2 inch lower than stock, at most, right now.  That is about
all you will be able to get, if you are using aftermarket larger tires than factory, as
most all of us are.  You theoretically could lower the strut more with a smaller tire,
but you still will have the CV joint interference and a larger tire/fender gap, and with
a larger tire, you just have to raise the strut back up again because of the spring
seat....vicious circle.....

The last factor to consider is alignment.  I have not had any bump steer problems, that I
have been aware of, when the car was lowered its 2 inches,  Some folks might, however, so
that is another thing to consider...alignment of the steering rack with the level of the
knuckles.  At the 
very least, toe will need to be reset, as it will begin to toe out as the rears of the
knuckles are pulled toward the rack by the overall shortened tie-rods.  In addition, you
have the camber problem to consider.  I very seldom have had to have my car on an
alignment rack...I have gotten 54,000 miles out of the current set of Michelin Pilot
XGTs, even with about 4.5 degrees of negavitive camber on each side...it's noticable by
looking at the car, but when I rotated the tires the last time, after about 10,000 miles
of driving, there was only about 1/32 difference in tread depth from the inside to the
outside.  Several folks o the list have been startled at the amount of negative camber I
have, but it is just a fact of my car's life, and I am continuing to enjoy really good
handling, as well as good tire life.  By the way, negative camber improves the handling
by tilting the outside tire (on a turn) inward at the top, allowing the sipes and grooves
at the bottom to get an even better grip on the road.  

I can't really tell you where all that negative camber I have has come from....I have not
drilled my spot welds on the strut towers.  When the car was way down, obviously there
was more camber than there would have been at stock heights.  Currently, it is only about
half an inch 
down from stock, however I do have modified knuckles with Wilwood ShoStopper brakes
installed, and perhaps for some reason they have a different strut angle built into them
than my original knuckles did.

All I know is, with relatively new original Taurus (not SHO) springs in the front, and
Moog Cargo Coils (actually, the NAPA equivalent) in the back, with Tokikos all around and
the fronts dropped 1/2 inch in the knuckles, it finally handles and feels like I have
been trying to get it to for the last 5 years, and it doesn't look too awfully bad in the
front, and it is perfect in the rear....about 1/2 inch higher than stock.

Any questions or comments, please send them to me....I'll respond to each one.

George and the Lowrider...back together with a nice quiet bottom end....finally, the
engine is DONE, for another 200K miles!!!!!