Coilovers Shocks Help Or Ideas

So before I start to order some parts I have need to know your thoughts on coilovers . So my 73 cj5 has lift springs of an unknown age or type . And coilovers shocks on all four corners . No sway bars and 35 inch tires .
My thought is that the coilovers would help with spring rates of the narrow leaves and give a little tune ablity of the ride . I will be mainly use Jeep on road and beach . I plane to leave the 35s and I will be buying new lift springs . I just need to know your thoughts on the coilovers . Seems to me might be a good idea . And I plan to add sway bars down the road .

 

I assume your talking about a standard shock , that has a coil over helper wrap around it?
That type of shock seems like a band-aid for your real suspension.........easy to over shock (to stiff) a leaf sprung suspension.........unless you have a longer than stock flexy spring .

What is wrong with what you have?..............If the ride is acceptable , sometimes your better off working with that rather than introduce new unknown components.

Spring technology has come along way.........so if your planning on weighing the corners and having custom springs made that's OK...........and If you get the right spring rate & mechanical length for the weight of your vehicle .........a basic soft shock is all you need to control it...........but be careful buying new lift springs as they all are inherently stiff..........do to the increase in Arc & mechanical length that creates the lift.

 

Yes I am talk of standard shocks with a coil spring around them . I assume . And the only problems with what I have is old and rusted . So replacement springs are in order . And yes I have skinny lift springs in it now . If you were to read my post , I am trying to see why someone would have installed these to start with . Second if they help with the spring rate of the skinny / narrow leafs of our earlier jeeps ( and skinny lift kits ) , and maybe the fact that there are adjustable would be beneficial .

 

A '73 CJ-5 has 1.75" wide springs from the factory. Jeep went wider in '76, to 2" IIRC. A common upgrade is to the YJ springs (square-eyed Wrangler) which are 2.5" wide front and rear. See Zila's thread about the Rocky Road kit to convert to Wrangler springs. You can do it with factory parts, but you'll need to weld on new hangers and do some engineering. John Stone (hudsonhawk) had an article in our old technical library about the conversion - you can get to that via the Wayback.

Rate and width are separate issues. Rate is simply how much the spring deflects with a given load. You can make a spring of a given rate at whatever width you want. The coil-overs do nothing but raise the rate of the springs. This increases your ride height and spring stiffness, but you can do the same thing with a higher rate and/or higher arch leaf spring. The coils are typically used on the rears of overloaded station wagons and such. Not much value to them IMO. I'd guess they were added to get enough ride height to clear the 35s.

There is a lot of discussion of this topic in old posts. In general, a CJ will accommodate a very large tire without much modification. I'm running 33s with 2.5" lift and no cutting. However, 35s are larger in diameter than the rear wheel opening and likely will hit the rear edge of the front fenders at full flex. Adding a lot of ride height to clear big tires raises your center of gravity, which adversely affects handling on the street and on the trail. If you want to run the 35s, I'd suggest you cut the body and buy tube fenders. Many install Wrangler flares (I think they are from a Wrangler) which makes the rear wheel opening squarish but looks ok otherwise. Tube fenders on the front will move the rear edge back away from the tires.

Another possibility is a body lift - this might look a little odd but should work ok on a '73, since you have hanging pedals.

 

Hurricane to answer your question.................who knows why the PO would have installed them...........more than likely as a way to increase spring rate to perhaps carry more weight due to the original springs not having the capacity or as Tim mentioned above is it a tire clearance issue and were added to increase the spring rate so the tires would not rub?..........and without having internal valving adjustments I question just how much effect a flat wound spring ( I believe that is what those had ) would have once loaded.........can't see where it could be very linear in that application?............... In either case you can't have both a good ride and correct tire clearance by just depending on the spring or shock to do so..............make some room by cutting the body as mentioned above or.........change the tire size or wheel offset or perhaps consider a wider axle up front............

 

Somehow I think coil-overs can be adjustable by moving one end up or down on the shock body.



Overload springs like these clamp to the shock body and can be adjusted by how you pre-load the spring.

Wagoneers often suffer from "Wag Sag" where the rear springs get soft and the car looks like it's going uphill all the time. One solution is springs like these, but it does not help the ride. (An add-a-leaf is a better solution IMO. But new springs are the best solution, and ride much better.)

How much arch do your springs have now? When leaf springs wear out, they go flat. If they are just rusty, you could take them apart, wire wheel and paint, and put back together with some pieces of teflon between the leaves. Might be a suitable interim solution.

 

The PO probably used the coil over shock to add a bit of lift. My old neighbor when I was a kid put a set on his intermediate to gain like an inch or two of lift relatively cheaply. It worked but it rode like poop.....worse than stock. I've seen used on just the front to help support the weight of a snow plow.

This is my simple explanation of why someone may have used them. Not scientifically correct or mechanically correct as the above posts are. Just my layman's terms and layman's explanation. I wish I was smarter.

 

i'll add to what mr. reese did, in that i have successfully run SS 34x9.5x15 tires for a decade with a 2.5-inch spring lift and no cutting or trimming of the fenders. no fender rub, either. there is frame rub on full steering lock, which could be prevented by adjusting the steering stops.

 

Thanks for the help guys . I have come to the conclusion that the PO used the coils shocks as so form of lift. I will be ordering a lift and new shocks and shackels soon . As stated earlier I want to run the 35s . Jeep is in my avatar . I want to keep that stance.
O and I scored a power steering pump and gear box today .

 

Where is this wayback machine? I can't locate it..

 

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