Spring Retainers

[Draven]

Hey Guys,

I recently upgraded my rear shocks and at the moment with the swaybars connected the springs 'just' hold in place, you hear them clunk as the are basicly loose, but still stay put.

I would really like to play around with disconnecting the swaybars, but before I do, im trying to figure out how I could retain the spring somehow, so if the spring was a little too short it would reseat ok when the axle came back down.

Has anyone done this before ? Ideas ? Pics perhaps ?


Thanks guys.

[Madmac]

ive done it on my maverick, i used some stainless stell U bolts to hold the coils at the top, and then made some cones that i welded onto the diff housing to guide the coils back on to their mounts.

these are the cones i welded to the diff housing

it seems to work pretty well, makes a bit of noise when the springs reseat, but at least they cant fall out, my sway bars have been removed completely, but im thinking about putting them back and fitting some disconnects, just to improve its on road manners

[Madmac]

i made the cones from some 30mm flat bar with a piece of 30x30 square in the middle, they dont need to be super strong, you could even use a piece of 130mm pipe, or turn some cones up out of a piece of hard rubber or nolathene or similar. hope this helps

[Draven]

Yea thats going to help a heap....thanks for the info.

[The Big Green Meany]

A good one is, A seat belt from Auto Barn and some eye bolts.
You will need to do.

Measure the distance between diff and top mount on full travel.

Get aeye bolt and bolt it to the Spring mount on the diff there are hole there already

Buy a seat belt the length measured

clip onto eye bolt and bolt other end to top of spring mount.

Easy all for under $50.

[dwaynes]

must look into this
i was under the impression if you match your shocks to lift you wont have this problem

no swaybar and 2" lift not much difference on the road

[The Big Green Meany]

must look into this
i was under the impression if you match your shocks to lift you wont have this problem

no swaybar and 2" lift not much difference on the road

yep thats correct , Get the right bits to start with and you wont need retainers. 2' springs should be that hard to match up shocks.

[Draven]

Yea it does help if ya match shocks and springs....but im chasing a bit more flex without lifting it again. (More down travel)

[The Big Green Meany]

Unfortunatly it wont work that way, Once your springs start to fall out thats all ya going to get. The retainer will stop it flexing past that point.
If you want more flex go a softer spring.

[Draven]

um.... i thought the retainer would only clamp one end of the spring.... that way leaving the axle to drop as far as the shock will let it.

[The Big Green Meany]

Ok if you want to bolt 1 end in place yes that will work,But you may have to make up a locator for the other end so it goes back in place correclty!

[The Big Green Meany]

Ok if you want to bolt 1 end in place yes that will work,But you may have to make up a locator for the other end so it goes back in place correclty!

[HeathGQ]

um.... i thought the retainer would only clamp one end of the spring.... that way leaving the axle to drop as far as the shock will let it.

yeah but then there is no downward pressure on tyre for traction, so whats the point of anymore downward travel?? once the spring leaves the seat, traction can be lost.

[Wendle]

just clamp both ends of the springs in. 1 (heavy) plate and 1 bolt at the bottom, 2 plates and 2 bolts at the top. you could run no shocks and the springs won't be able to fall out. i would take pics for you, but i don't own a nissan anymore.

[ozy1]

um.... i thought the retainer would only clamp one end of the spring.... that way leaving the axle to drop as far as the shock will let it.

yeah but then there is no downward pressure on tyre for traction, so whats the point of anymore downward travel?? once the spring leaves the seat, traction can be lost.

but when you think about it, when it comes to downward travel, the spring isnt actually applyin downward force, so there fore, with spring in place or not, the downward pressure applied to that wheel should be fairly equal,