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rear suspension


ThunderBat

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I've noticed quite a few other Luminas running around town suffering from a severe case of the saggy butt. I guess you could say mine is showing the early tell-tale signs (and if I keep punching it and sticking its nose in the wind everytime I get on the interstate I'm sure I'm gonna accelerate the process)...even inthe driveway it has the ever-so-slight nose up stance (this will never do)...are the strut springs at fault here or is it that transverse leaf? I've also considered lowering the car but I don't want it pan-dragging...how have some of you guys remedied this problem? (if your car has or has had it)

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When the rear of the car sags, it's the transverse mono-leaf spring. People have fixed the issue with:

a.) utililize the cheap but effective Moog Leaf Springs inserts

b.) grab a new or semi-used leaf springs and install

c.) or go all out and grab rear coil-over springs and remove the leaf spring completely.

Basically, it's up to you. If you want a cheap fix but with a more bumpy ride, the Moog inserts will work.

If you're looking to lower the car, and have some serious fun with tuning a rear suspension, then the coil-overs are excellent!

People who have the coil-overs love them, just ask around... they'll post their input about em'.

 

- Erik

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the coil-overs sound like the best option. I'm guessing these are akin to the Koni adjustable type. I would like to lower the car at some point in the future but I think that just got put off for awhile. I went by my local tire and front end shop this morning for rotate-balance-alignment and found I have a tire with a seperated belt and two others are near the wear bars so it looks like tire time. This would be a really cool time for ne wheels and lower profile tires (to go with the lowering) if I hadn't just plunked down all those duckies for the new exhaust! I guess its another 40-50k miles worth of stockers. (of course there always is the notion of having winter tires) so lowering cant be too extreme. I probably wouldn't want to go crazy low anyway, I travel up New York way about twice a year to visit relatives and the roads up there are terrible.

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...I probably wouldn't want to go crazy low anyway, I travel up New York way about twice a year to visit relatives and the roads up there are terrible.

 

Well, the ride height is adjustable so that fixes that problem!

But, you can drop it just enough to level out the car, and the spring rate won't let you bottom out.

 

- Erik

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can the adjustable coil-overs be used on all four corners? (we are talking about a unit that replaces the strut assembly, right?)

 

The FFP Coil-overs are only adjustable on the rear end.

The front end doesn't really need to be adjusted, just slightly leveled and lowered.

And, unfortunatly, I haven't seen any front coil-overs available... yet...

 

- Erik

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The last time I asked, FFP should have some by the end of the year, but that was a few months ago, and its also about 7 days away. I would email them and ask how the front coil-overs are coming along.

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hey slick94, that sir is one tuff lookin GP!...I've owned a couple of white cars and I hated trying to keep them clean (especially on the nose, I swear I think the toughest glue in the world is made from bug guts!)...but man o' man when they are clean they look so damn slick! nice ride boss!

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I installed some Coil-Overs last year.

I went with a light spring in the back, I recall it being #200

Which translates to 200lbs.

So it takes about 200lbs to compress the rear springs down an 1 inch.

 

The nice thing is you can adjust the rear height to whatever you want.

It is a pretty simple installation and pretty easy to adjust ride height.

There has been alot of talk that it is not safe to have Coil-Overs in the Z34s because of structual integrity is compromised. The only thing your really adding under the shock is the coil spring which may cause some stress because of the stiffness.

 

I would still go with Coil-Overs or if your really concerned about it have a new leaf spring made that will lower the car. Still you cannot beat the handling with independant Coil-Overs.

 

There was also a company I think it is FFP .. I think. They had some Coil-Overs for a 1995 Monte Carlo which has the same suspension as the 1991-1994 Lumina Z34. THose Coil-Overs should work and I'm still looking into doing that as well.

 

Ciao

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I installed some Coil-Overs last year.

I went with a light spring in the back, I recall it being #200

Which translates to 200lbs.

So it takes about 200lbs to compress the rear springs down an 1 inch.

 

The nice thing is you can adjust the rear height to whatever you want.

It is a pretty simple installation and pretty easy to adjust ride height.

There has been alot of talk that it is not safe to have Coil-Overs in the Z34s because of structual integrity is compromised. The only thing your really adding under the shock is the coil spring which may cause some stress because of the stiffness.

 

I would still go with Coil-Overs or if your really concerned about it have a new leaf spring made that will lower the car. Still you cannot beat the handling with independant Coil-Overs.

 

There was also a company I think it is FFP .. I think. They had some Coil-Overs for a 1995 Monte Carlo which has the same suspension as the 1991-1994 Lumina Z34. THose Coil-Overs should work and I'm still looking into doing that as well.

 

Ciao

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