poor mans coil overs

so ive come to the conclusion that performance parts for a camry are not readily availible (99 camry LE). therefore, its time to get creative. im looking at lowering the car a little. cutting springs is not an option due to the shape and progressive nature of the coils. just dont feel comfortable with it. in looking, i kept coming actoss the "ebay" coil over kits. they look like a knock off ground control collar and adjuster, with an aluminum top plate and some cheap sp[rings. my thought is to buy them just for the heardware, and swap the coild for some hypercoils or afco springs from the circle track guys down the road. thinking 450 front, 550 rear so i can get a little more rotation out of the car. only looking to lower about and inch or an inch and a half.

so, the main questions i have are 1. all the pictures look the same, despite application. are they? 2. why is this a bad idea? 3. anyone used them for soing something like this?

let me know before i do something stupid, guys.

michael

Ebay coilover kits have made their way to at least a couple challenge cars. Not sure on the dirte30, or the 2002, but at least one of them had e-bay hardware with eibach springs. The complaints/issues on some is the mounting bolts/screws can slip and crappy springs.

I don't know how they mount, but the Ground Control coil-overs I got for the Celica have a weld on washer type thing that goes on the strut housing where the threaded spring perch needs to land. No way it can slip- it's kind of sitting on a shelf there. I had to do them twice because I made my short-strokes too short the first time and a friend of mine just cut me out another set of the big washer deals with his plasma cutter and a hole saw on a drill press. You could get the job done with a hack saw and grinder, it would just take a little longer. And once you get to standard 2.5" springs, good springs are available in every rate imaginable and they're not that expensive.

Go for it!

The ebay ones don't tend to just be one size fits all with set screws holding them onto the shock body. Ground control ones have a ring that usually sits on a perch or snap ring and the fits the inside of the sleeve. If you have the ability to make that ring (lathe) , you should be alright.

So, do these sleeves slip down over the strut/shock body and retain themselves there with a set screw type affair or what? You re-use the stock shock/strut and slip these things on? Is that how they work?
Do any of the kits tell you what their spring rates are? These seem like an inexpensive way to equip your car with adjustable springs for ride height/ corner weighting purposes. Any good??

the pair i scrounged out of my old crx parts today dont attach to the strut in any readily identifiable fashion. havent really looked too hard at them yet, though. but essentially, they "appear" to slip over the factory srut body (threaded portion). have a locking adjustment ring (pair that you do like jamb nuts on these) at he bottom of the spring. stepped locator ring for the top of the strut that has an id close the the srut prshron od. looks like the collar is just held in by the tension on the coil i have not seen aset with identified rates in their advertisements.

This is what I do for cars with strut tubes and cartridges. Ignore if you have a car where the strut is the cartridge. Grind away old spring perch if needed, clean up strut tube, and weld on a piece of pipe with a split in it to act as the lower perch locator/lock. I like to use black gas pipe or left over roll cage tubing. The split in the pipe allows you to slide it around the tube and then clamp it back down tightly. If you only weld the lower edge of the pipe where it comes into contact with the strut tube, you can use a screwdriver and pry out the top of the pipe to form a scalloped edge that will lock the sleeve in place and prevent it from spinning as you spin the threaded perch.

I've thought of going this way too (ebay sleeves)! Price your Eibach and Hypercoil springs. You will find that for a few more bucks you can skip the fabrication hassle and buy the Ground-Control setup. Bolts right up. GC comes with Eibach's.

I went the fleabay route twice, basically for the sleeves. The springs are complete crap, but there's a ton of used Eibach, Hyperco etc springs floating around out there.

I have bought Ground Control's stuff and been very pleased with it. The Acme thread on the GC's is made to better tolerances than the cheapie stuff and I like their clampable lock ring better than the double nut system but sometimes you just need to trim a buck or 3.

There's a guy on ebay who sells used coilover springs. I can't seem to find him anymore. He had a spring rate tester and sold them at their tested rate not their specified rate. If I recall correctly I was looking at about $70 for all four coils, then you would need the perch/sleeve/hardware

Taiden wrote: There's a guy on ebay who sells used coilover springs. I can't seem to find him anymore. He had a spring rate tester and sold them at their tested rate not their specified rate. If I recall correctly I was looking at about $70 for all four coils, then you would need the perch/sleeve/hardware

$70 for all 4 springs. That's agreat deal. Makes the eBay sleeve's route cost effective.