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New Rear Lateral Spring


XJ-Wagon

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Newb here, just posted in new member intros. I have a 93 Cutlass Supreme S 2 door and thanks to GOT 2B GM all ready have a RSTB & some ST front Springs, so I was planning on getting a new Flex-A Form rear spring. Thinking of a 180 - 200 lb spring rate? Does that seem about right? I was also reading up and it seems that Birchmount has better reviews? Are they Noisy? How much heavier are they?

 

Any and all advice is appreciated.

 

Thanks.

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Might as well do a rear coil over conversion. I haven't seen anyone mention a lowering leaf spring on hear in a long time, a rear coil over conversion has always been the desired route. I`m hoping to do one myself one of these days but I don't have the parts for the front just yet. 200lbs might be a little too soft IIRC.

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Check out the locked thread titled "How to lower a W-body" at the top of the suspension section for a start off point, there are also several other conversion threads out there as well.

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My Flex-A-Form rear spring is a perfect height match for the ST front springs. Spring rate is 185-lb. I've had it for over 8-years now, no problems whatsoever, no noise.

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I called flex-form, he was helpful but not sure about spring rates and with a 2 month wait time I decided to call Birchmount. Tony Vidinovski at Birchmount fed-ex'd me a spring for a 2" drop the next day. Very easy, fast, great service.

Edited by XJ-Wagon
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Just out of interest -- can you buy these after-market springs in a "stock" form, height, etc.? Without lowering? Is it just a matter of specifying such, or is there something that inherently makes the after-market steel springs more suited to lowering applications?

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Just out of interest -- can you buy these after-market springs in a "stock" form, height, etc.? Without lowering? Is it just a matter of specifying such, or is there something that inherently makes the after-market steel springs more suited to lowering applications?

 

 

I would use one of the two flex-a-form springs I got for my lowered tgp, but I have a sub in the trunk and always haul groceries in it for work. like stuff the car with tons of weight. so that could be bad on a performance lowering spring unless it was steel which of course is heavier. I unfortunately, use the car more like a truck so I cant use them.

 

I use the red tgp with the stock spring and load it down all the time and it takes it so far. unless I try to drive it with 5 people inside which is always dumb.

Edited by Garrett Powered
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Just out of interest -- can you buy these after-market springs in a "stock" form, height, etc.? Without lowering? Is it just a matter of specifying such, or is there something that inherently makes the after-market steel springs more suited to lowering applications?

 

The Flex-A-Form 300lb spring was about stock height on my car, though my car was pretty high before, like a 4x4. The earlier W's had a higher stock height.

 

Although if you're looking for stock height, a junkyard spring would be considerably cheaper. If you're concerned about sag, the earlier FE3 springs (88-89) never seemed to sag.

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Yes you can purchase an after-market spring in stock form. You would just have to specify that when ordering. I just made the purchase from Birchmount for a steel spring, because they are very familiar with the set up on the older w-body lateral spring and new exactly what I wanted. It seemed like more guess work with flex-form. The steel spring is going to be maybe 30 lbs.? heavier.

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