[Shotimes] lowering front end

[George Fourchy]

On Sat, 26 Apr 2003 20:06:25 +0000, Nathan Brown wrote:

>I was going to do the same thing to my '93... but I noticed that part of the 
>strut (where the spring sits) sticks out over the tire and has less than 
>3/8" inch vertical clearance. I'm running 215/60/R16 tires original 
>motorcraft struts.
>
>Has anyone else successfully been able to lower their Gen-II in this manner?

You have found the limitation in properly lowering the front of a Gen 1/Gen 2 SHO. 
The way to do it and still keep the CV joints happy is to lower the strut in the
knuckle, but you only have about 1/2 inch (with 225/55s) to work with.  Either the
tire shoulder will hit the spring seat, or the bottom of the strut will hit the
rubber boot around the outer CV joint.

The solution is to custom fabricate a pair of struts which are shorter overall, and
to also move the spring seat upwards, which when combined with a shorter spring will
allow the tire to sit higher in the fender opening, which is the desired result. 
You'd need to know the EXACT amount of spring compression required for the new
springs... in hundreds of pounds per inch, and the center of piston travel inside
the modified strut would also need to be precisely located, to allow adequate
damping in both directions.  Another partial solution would be to custom fabricate
knuckles that move the strut from over the top of the axle.  That would create quite
a load for the arm of the knuckle that carried the strut, especially on the race
track or over a very rough road.  You'd still need the short spring and to relocate
the seat, but a precise, very talented welder could do that.

How much money do you have?  How well do you know the CEO of Tokiko?  If you can get
them to make a pair, I'll take two more pair.

George