Well.....with all the discussion recently about leaf springs and a saggy rear-end on a Maverick....I decided to take a few pictures and some measurements. This first pictures is on my car as it sits right now. As I hope you can see....the rear-end is very saggy!! I took thse measurements: Center of rear wheel to top of wheel opening (as Russ did on his post) = A Ground up to top of rear bumper just where it starts to curve over flat = B Stock Measurements: A = 14" B = 20"
For this next picture....I took a floor jack and placed it under the bumper and jacked the car up. I would look at it from the side. Once I detemined the car was 'level" and looked "correct" in my opinion....I took measurements. A = 14 1/2" B = 21 1/4" By only raising the car up an inch and a quarter in the rear.....it looks so much better!! P.S. I airbrushed out the floor jack.
For this last picture.........I decided to go for a slight "rake" look to the car. Not crazy "shackle/air shocks" rake....but just a slight rake. Again...the measurements: A = 15 1/4" B = 22 1/2" Again.....all I did was raise the car an inch and 1/4 over what I consider "level"....or a total raising of 2 1/2" over "saggy". It is amazing what a big difference this small little change can make in how my car looks.
I haven't measured mine.... ....I was going to replace mine eventually. I know the bushings are quite worn. I am pretty sure that these are the original springs with over 187K miles on them. I think it sits a little higher after I swapped the bumpers. Mine are not the heavy duty springs. Seth
I've come to the conclusion thet thee is no consistancy with spring steel. It seems to fatigue at different rates. One car will sag, while another of relatively the same age does not. Cutting one coil of one set of springs drops the ride only slightly, while doing the same to another set of springs drops it quite a bit. One new set of leafs gives a 2-inch lift while another simply puts the car at stock height. In any case, I think that with Craig's car, some front coil cutting is in order...
Yeah, Mr. Craig, thanks for taking the time to put all of your research down on here! One of these days, I'll put my new springs on..........and maybe then a year or so down the road, I'll get a pic of it........ Preston
Yep that last pic is what I was hoping for. But I ended up with the first pic "look". I should have ordered the 2" lift springs. Hindsight is 20/20. I'm sure there are tolarances in the making of the springs. So not every set of springs will be the same hieght. I'm guessing that there would be at least 1/2" tolarance in bending a set of springs. ESPO matches their springs, so two differant sets of spring could be off by 1" What would be nice is if someone had the "Tech" data from a frame alinement shop. That would give us some "factory" ride hieght specs to work off of. Thanks for taking the pics Craig it's funny how just 1 or 2 inches make a differance. Russ
