Eibach Springs on Gen 2

[Luisv]

There have been plenty of threads on this but, as you have come to expect (I Hope ) from me... I wanted to let you all know what I did and give you some photos of the job and the before and after. Like the other mods I have done so far, none of this is rocket science, but I feel that I have gotten some good shots that sometimes the other threads fall short on. Also, I tried my best to give you before and after shots in similar positions so that you can get as good a before and after as I could give you. I may be getting worse with the search engines with age, but I could not seem to find a true before and after of this change. I hope mine helps.

Again, not rocket science, so I am not going to go into huge detail, but I will mention some things to help those that are thinking about the mod. It really is quite simple but just requires some thought, the right tools and a bit of muscle or leverage (depending on how you look at it ). You can do this one corner at a time but, as you'll see in a bit, if you need to get all four off at once, you'll have to lift the car and place it on stands. I put in a few shots of that just to give folks an idea of what I do to get it up on jack stands. Where I locate them, etc. So here goes.

I have the benefit of two floor jacks. As a result I lift the front and rear with two jacks at a time. This way, i lift it evenly and I don't tweak anything. I lift the front first then the rear. Once it's up on the four jackstands, I put the floor jacks at the front lift points and just pin them in place. They are just there as safety/backup and to give it more "left to right" stability.



Here is were I place the front and rear jack stands.







Since the car is on coil overs (although fixed) replacing the springs is basically just a matter of getting the shocks off and then swapping out the springs. To get the coil overs out requires the removal of two bolts per corner. If you want to make life a bit easier, on the fronts, you can remove the sway bar links from the lower control arm. This allows for easier removal of the lower shock bolt. I did that. What I discovered in the process is that the boots don't last 10 years. The links are perfect on the sway bar tie rods, but the boots are damaged. I'll upgrade/change those later. For the sake on completeness, I've included a shot of the four bolts, two for the front and the two rear. However, it's obvious when you look in there.

Front top and bottom bolts.





The rear top and bottom bolts. Yes, this is after they have been replaced. Those are the new springs.





I'll continue on the next post.....

[Luisv]

Ok so now the shocks come out over the top. In order to get the bolts off you'll need a good pry bar or a long lever to get the lower control arms pushed down a bit. I used a long breaker bar and slipped one of the floor jack bars over the end to give me a longer leverage arm. Don't need a ton of force, but it makes for an easier job.



This is the front shock with the stock spring on there. Looks easy but the problem is the coils are too close to get the typical strut spring compressors in there. I eventually took the springs to a shop... more on that in a bit... for now the stock shock, spring and the compressor. You'll see it does not fit without damaging the spring and the body of the shock.







The rears are identical except that the lower mount has a fork to allow the half shafts to go through to the rear wheel hubs.

Below are the photos of the new springs. I just put those just to show that the fronts and rears are different. They do have different rates and coil designs. You can see the difference in length but in addition to that Eibach is kind enough to designate the springs with numbers. The 001 springs are the front and the 002 springs are the rears.







You have a couple of options for the springs. I went to a shop (buddy of mine in Miami and a member in a club I am in) that has a wall mounted strut spring compressor. The catch is that not all wall mounted compressors work. The main issue is the rears. Since the rear Eibachs are variable rates (hence the tighter upper coils) you have little to grab onto to compress. What you need is a compressor that has an "offset" top or a hole on top so that as you compress the top of the shock clears. I grabbed a shot of the one my buddy has as an example. While tough to see, the screw on top that pushes down is offset from the center line such that the shock will clear. Remember, the shock's center line and the spring center line are the same for the coil overs.



The jaws or bars mounted on the moving, upper part/carriage are tapered so that they fit between the coils safely without marring the finish. It really is the easy way to go.

Here is a full shot of the rears mounted. Note the compressed upper portion. That is what makes it tough to get on. The fronts are simple.

[Luisv]

One note, did not get photos of this, but I did want to mention that I adjusted the shocks prior to installing the springs. If you look at the body of the shock in one of the photos above, you will see that the Koni shocks are adjustable. To do that, with the springs off, you remove the rubber bump stop in the shock and the plastic washer from the shaft of the shock. You then slowly compress the shock until it just bottoms out. You then slowly twist the shock until you engage the mechanism. You will feel the shaft drop into the notch. With the shock still down in the notch you simply turn it clockwise to increase the damping. Counter clockwise reduces the damping. In my case, I had a pad and paper ready to count the turns to go to full counter clockwise. In my case all four were identical. Half a turn from the softest setting. The stock shocks have 5 settings in two full turns of the shaft while engaging the adjustment notch. I'll go from 0 to 4. If you consider full soft (completely counterclockwise) zero, then setting 1 is half a turn clockwise, setting 2 is one full turn, 3 is 1.5 turns and setting 4 is 2 turns (full clockwise). Again, mine were all set at setting 1 or half a turn from full soft.

Since the spring rates increase with the Eibachs, you should increase the damping. In short, make the shocks "stiffer". You don't have to go full hard, but definitely more damping. Based on what I've read, (a great deal) many have gone with more damping all around, but have kept the rears softer than the front when going to Eibachs. Given the "lively" nature of the Vipers, leaving the rears a little softer should make it more stable under acceleration. In short, I went with the rears set to setting 2 or one full turn from full soft. The fronts at setting 3 or one and a half turns.

Once the four springs are on the coil overs you simply need to re-install them. You will need to leverage/pry the lower arms down in front and rear to drop the shocks in easily. The upper and lower bolts are torqued to 100 ft/lbs of torque which is spec.



So now some before and after shots. I've seen folks measure gaps before, but that never makes sense to me. The better, more accurate and, frankly easier way to do that is to measure from the floor. If you don't change wheels and tires then the wheel diameter is fixed. In short the top of the tire is fixed. If you measure to the top of the wheel well then you will know what the drop is and you will not make a mistake by not holding the tape measure at a different angle ect. So now that I have cleared up that I am a nut... :rolaugh:... here is the before ride height to the wheel well.

These are the BEFORE shots. The first shot is the rear wheel well. The front is the next shot. Notice there is a one inch difference. However, don't worry about it. The important thing to see is the before and after.





These next two shots are the AFTER.





The result was a one half inch drop up front and a full inch on the rear. This was shot after a drive in the evening. The springs will continue to settle a bit and I may get another 1/4 of an inch or so all around as the springs cycle a bit more. It has happened with all other cars I've lowered to date. But let's see... I will let you know. Regardless, the difference is VERY NOTICEABLE. You can see the gap significantly reduce. Here are more shots.

Front wheel shot BEFORE and then AFTER.





The rear wheel shot BEFORE and AFTER. This is what I had a huge problem with. Definitely looked bad with the huge gap.

[Luisv]

Here are the last before and after shots. A pair of shots from the side and then off at a slight angle. While not perfect, it should give you all a great idea.





The angled shots...





Now that I've bored you to death and then some.... the important stuff. The ride and handling.

A few notes. I have not tracked the car but I have driven it quite a bit. Let's call it "spirited" driving. A few fishtails. Some nice mountain roads on a trip (I live in Miami so our twisties are the on ramps to highways ) and some drag strip launches. You all get the drift.

With the settings on the shocks I mentioned above and the new springs the overall ride feel of the car is very similar to the stock. In other words, I don't feel a significant difference going over the typical city bumps, road reflectors, manhole covers, etc. It is not stiffer when it comes to that. However, when you push the car the car is definitely better planted. I feel I can accelerate harder out of turns. I had to get on it harder to get it to fishtail, for example. I took it to the drag strip and made a few passes. The track was not in "optimal" condition, but I did drop my 60' times by about 15 hundreds. Not bad for just a suspension change. In the end, I would say that the variable rates of the springs give you a day to day ride that is similar to the stock setup but does give you better handling characteristics when driving harder.

So... hope you all enjoyed this and I hope the before and after shots help those trying to decide what to do...

[99RT10]

Very well done Luis!

[Citrus080]

One note, did not get photos of this, but I did want to mention that I adjusted the shocks prior to installing the springs. If you look at the body of the shock in one of the photos above, you will see that the Koni shocks are adjustable. To do that, with the springs off, you remove the rubber bump stop in the shock and the plastic washer from the shaft of the shock. You then slowly compress the shock until it just bottoms out. You then slowly twist the shock until you engage the mechanism. You will feel the shaft drop into the notch. With the shock still down in the notch you simply turn it clockwise to increase the damping. Counter clockwise reduces the damping. In my case, I had a pad and paper ready to count the turns to go to full counter clockwise. In my case all four were identical. Half a turn from the softest setting. The stock shocks have 5 settings in two full turns of the shaft while engaging the adjustment notch. I'll go from 0 to 4. If you consider full soft (completely counterclockwise) zero, then setting 1 is half a turn clockwise, setting 2 is one full turn, 3 is 1.5 turns and setting 4 is 2 turns (full clockwise). Again, mine were all set at setting 1 or half a turn from full soft.

Since the spring rates increase with the Eibachs, you should increase the damping. In short, make the shocks "stiffer". You don't have to go full hard, but definitely more damping. Based on what I've read, (a great deal) many have gone with more damping all around, but have kept the rears softer than the front when going to Eibachs. Given the "lively" nature of the Vipers, leaving the rears a little softer should make it more stable under acceleration. In short, I went with the rears set to setting 2 or one full turn from full soft. The fronts at setting 3 or one and a half turns.

Once the four springs are on the coil overs you simply need to re-install them. You will need to leverage/pry the lower arms down in front and rear to drop the shocks in easily. The upper and lower bolts are torqued to 100 ft/lbs of torque which is spec.



So now some before and after shots. I've seen folks measure gaps before, but that never makes sense to me. The better, more accurate and, frankly easier way to do that is to measure from the floor. If you don't change wheels and tires then the wheel diameter is fixed. In short the top of the tire is fixed. If you measure to the top of the wheel well then you will know what the drop is and you will not make a mistake by not holding the tape measure at a different angle ect. So now that I have cleared up that I am a nut... :rolaugh:... here is the before ride height to the wheel well.

These are the BEFORE shots. The first shot is the rear wheel well. The front is the next shot. Notice there is a one inch difference. However, don't worry about it. The important thing to see is the before and after.





These next two shots are the AFTER.





The result was a one half inch drop up front and a full inch on the rear. This was shot after a drive in the evening. The springs will continue to settle a bit and I may get another 1/4 of an inch or so all around as the springs cycle a bit more. It has happened with all other cars I've lowered to date. But let's see... I will let you know. Regardless, the difference is VERY NOTICEABLE. You can see the gap significantly reduce. Here are more shots.

Front wheel shot BEFORE and then AFTER.





The rear wheel shot BEFORE and AFTER. This is what I had a huge problem with. Definitely looked bad with the huge gap.

Hello, I am going to lower my 2000 RT/10 soon.. This post will help so much.. Thanks