did you roll it back and forth? There arent any significant dimensional differences between the stock and gw arms. What perches did you use?

edit: nvm, I see you used OT's perches.

 

I installed them with the engine out and it was higher, installed the engine and its still 2" higher, I have driven it jumped up and down on it....etc. Looks like I will have to cut the springs a bit.....is there a way to extend the shocks a bit? I was thinking of 1" pieces of tubing and longer bolts as if I cut the springs more there wont be much "compression" travel left on my koni's.

 

Before you do any cutting make sure the aliagnment is correct. I installed control freak tubular arms with roller spring perches and witnessed the same thing. Until the aliagnment is set correctly it will be up in the air.
I wound up cutting off a 1/2 coil which lowered the front 5/8" "because I like the look of the front down".
BTW; the roller spring perches will sit the spring approx 1/4" higher than a stock perch. Do the math. Measure twice cut once.

 

huh, I didnt realize that the roller perches were 1/4 inch taller... I have poly perches, but come to think of it, I think I did the springs at the same time as I did my gw stuff.

 

I don't suppose you know what the free length is
of the coils you've got? Probably a little late,
since they're in the car right now
I can give you a pretty good idea of how close
they are to "reality" if you do know free length.
Alignment is a wild card- you must be in alignment
to have good ride height measurement.
You also have another slight variable in the location
of your upper arms, since they are in the
1" down location and not the lower GW position.
(All it will do in reality is slow the rate of
negative camber gain, the system will still work
OK for you)


ex-Global West GM
1991-1994

 

did you tighten up the nuts/bolts on the suspension when the engine was out? If so, loosen up everything and then retighten.
Lots of people here have done that.
hth,
Russ

 

I have the G/West upper and lower arms, with the vari able rate springs the ride height was fine. I replaced them this spring with G/West springs and found the ride height jumped way up. Following the G/West instructions I cut 1/4 a coil. Nope, still too high, I contacted G/West who told me to keep cutting. In the end I cut a total of 5/8 a coil off.

One more thing to consider, the G/West drop is greater than the Shelby drop, another 3/8 of an inch if I remember correctly. I'm sure that alone won't make much if any a difference. By the way my Koni's work fine with the new springs.

 

did you tighten up the nuts/bolts on the suspension when the engine was out? If so, loosen up everything and then retighten.
Lots of people here have done that.
hth,
Russ

If he has the G/West lower arms, when you tighten the bolts won't make any difference. These arms have heim ends, no binding like a rubber bushing might.

 

Is there a way to extend the shocks a bit? I was thinking of 1" pieces of tubing and longer bolts as if I cut the springs more there wont be much "compression" travel left on my koni's.

A number of people will use a spacer under the upper shock mounts, this will give your shock more travel, I think I would use a solid spacer as opposed to the tubing you mentioned, unless the tubing has some pretty thick wall thickness.

 

Spacers or you can get opentrackers Shock Tower Caps.

 

I had them in for a while, I used some shaft collars. There were thick, sturdy, and looked good. Unfortunately, there were also slightly too tall, the edge of the eye of the shock just touched the underside of my hood. Thankfully no dent, only a small mark in the paint.

 

ralph may not have Global West lower arms. He
didn't mention them in his post. He could very
well have torqued stock lower arms while they
were in droop and the car was in the air. That
will definitely cause a ride height issue.
The rest of the ride height variables are the
alignment, spring length and spring perch.
The physical location of the UCA also would
be a variable. If he had pressurized shocks
like a KYB, that also would be a factor.

And for those with 67/68 cars who would like
more shock travel in front, you can use the
65/66 upper shock mounts- they give you about
3/4" more upper shock mounting height on the
67/68 cars AND the shock's new position won't
hit the underside of the hood either.

ex-Global West GM
1991-1994

 

I dont have the lower arms yet but will, I have koni shocks (non gas) and am using opentracker roller perches. I orig had stock ford (nos) a arms and stock ford perches with 620 drop coils with 1/3 or 2/3 coil cut off, I was able to remove the springs without a spring compressor but had to use a compressor to put them in after the GW UCA's were installed, I even had to cut off some of my compressor's threads to do it., from what I can tell the ball joint bind on the GW arms bound in the opposite direction of the stockers which makes sense so I figuired why I needed to compress them, I dont know the free measurement of the springs but as I remember I did cut the 620's when I installed them as they did sit higher than my cut old stockers both were installed with the shelby drop. Its not a big deal, I will cut the springs more they still had an excellent ride even with the koni's at 3/4 stiff so if I cut more I will soften the shocks and use spacers or early model shock mounts. I guess I will wait till I get the lower arms and strut rods to do the cutting but I just installed a 408 which should have 500 hp and want to take it out and see how it feels compared to my 360 hp 351w..............

 

Make no mistake, they are short springs. Using
their 540's, the free length was about 12" on
a 65/66. On a 67/68 only slightly longer.
With a 620, they would be really stubby.

At ride height, with the suspension settled, you
should have about 1 and 1/2 fingers clearance
between the ball joint guard on the GW upper
arm and the rubber bumper at the bottom of that
sheet metal piece that surrounds the coil spring.
The lower arm should be roughly parallel to the
ground, the inner and outer measurements listed
in the instruction sheet should be within 1/2"
of each other.
I can give you more direction on this if you
need it....

 

Thanks, I may need some advise.

 

i installed the same setup with Maier 500 springs. i had to cut almost a whole coil to get the car to ride at the height i wanted. also, if they are new springs you might want to leave 1/4" for the springs to sag. after a couple of weeks my car dropped down about this much.


....also to note. when i was cutting the coils i cut a small amount at a time. i think i cut, installed, and recut them 3 or 4 times before i was happy

 

I have seen the 620 (1 inch lower) make a car sit up higher than stock before. I have the global west arms. I don't have that problem.