Spacers in Springs

What are these in the pictures? I knew they were there and wondered about them since I bought the wagon but just got around to take a picture when I was replacing the shocks with Monroe's. It definitely needed it. The fronts were trashed but I had red Koni's in the back that seemed okay.





I would wager a guess that they limit travel and stiffen up the front. Also, not stock?

Now, they are still in there but should I remove them? I think I would go lower if I'm going through the trouble because I would guess I need to go through all the steps to remove the springs unless I can bang them out at full droop? They were somewhat in the way before I got the shocks lined up and tightened. Couple scratches to my Monroe's unfortunately.

Any ideas?

Shades of J.C. Whitney!  I haven't seen anyone stick those in a car since 1970!  I'll bet they add 50 horsepower, increase traction, and improve your love life.

What you have there are true relics of the past.  Along with extended brackets on the rear leaf spring of the '57 Chevy Bel Air, these were used to jack up a droopy suspension, or add a bit of forward rake to a cars profile by forcing the spacing in coils apart.  I can't think of a single instance where they did anything good.

A decent set of severe service shocks up front, and coilover shocks in the rear will do more than those rubber turds any day.

If you can put a socket or wrench on the ends of the "spring savers" you can twist them out, just like a bolt. They can lift a sagging corner, or in your case the whole front. When you remove them, you should be back at stock ride height. They will also stiffen the spring rate because you take a whole turn of spring out of the equation. When you remove them, have the camber checked. You are effectively lowering the car, and you will get some additional negative camber. Measure your ride height before you remove them (fender opening to top of the rim), and after. Subtract the after from the before, and you have the amount of lowering. For every 1/2 inch, you must remove 1/32 inch of shims from all four alignment stacks to return to your original camber settings.

The last picture is the lower bump stop. It softens the thump when you bottom the suspension. If you put lowering springs on the car, the bump stops need to be shaved about an inch or so (the tapered part). Bottoming will become more harsh. If you are at stock height, I would not worry about them.

dmg4 wrote:

Shades of J.C. Whitney!  I haven't seen anyone stick those in a car since 1970!  I'll bet they add 50 horsepower, increase traction, and improve your love life.

A decent set of severe service shocks up front, and coilover shocks in the rear will do more than those rubber turds any day.

Then i should definitely keep them! Im going to put my jegs sticker in the back window for even more power!

I just went to monroe severe service 50012/50013. Big improvement over the very tired stockers.

Blast from the past,indeed.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

If you can put a socket or wrench on the ends of the "spring savers" you can twist them out, just like a bolt. They can lift a sagging corner, or in your case the whole front. When you remove them, you should be back at stock ride height. They will also stiffen the spring rate because you take a whole turn of spring out of the equation. When you remove them, have the camber checked. You are effectively lowering the car, and you will get some additional negative camber. Measure your ride height before you remove them (fender opening to top of the rim), and after. Subtract the after from the before, and you have the amount of lowering. For every 1/2 inch, you must remove 1/32 inch of shims from all four alignment stacks to return to your original camber settings.

The last picture is the lower bump stop. It softens the thump when you bottom the suspension. If you put lowering springs on the car, the bump stops need to be shaved about an inch or so (the tapered part). Bottoming will become more harsh. If you are at stock height, I would not worry about them.

Fred, you're just seeing the bottom of the second picture. I do know what the bump stops do.

I'll see if I can twist the spacers out. Thanks for the name. I've definitely heard that term but couldn't remember what they were.

The next question is - are my springs stock? or cut? or aftermarket? It seems like I'm pretty low. My front air dam will scrape sometimes going over bumps but I think this will be minimized now that I have shocks that actually dampen.

Thanks for the alignment tips again.

You need to measure the distance between the top of the wheel opening, and the top of the rim, then compare it with the stock measurements from another car with the same wheels on it.

The airdams will catch a bump now and then, even with stock ride height. Shocks will do wonders as well.