[Amc-list] Re; Need specs for ride height - 71 Javelin

["John Elle" <johnelle@xxxxxxxxx>]

Snip
Does Frank S or anyone else have the technical spec's for a 71 Javelin
AMX in terms of ride height in the front and back ? 
 
the coil spring I ordered from an AMC
vendor awhile back might be wrong and look like they are from a station
wagon. The front end seems to be sitting too high
 
Jeffrey Thomas
Orlando Florida
Snip
 
Jeffrey, 
It has been my experience that the 70+ and others but I will limit this
to 70+ as the front suspension components on 70+ cars are all ball joint

and with the exception of Pacer and Eagle the major components are 
interchangeable that ALL of the front ends sit too high! They were made 
that way, don't know why but won't argue with it. 
Also don't like it personally. 
To answer part of your question I don't have ride height specs handy but

might come up with them if I scrounge through my library, but I do have
front spring information. 
So--------
First of all, despite rumors to the contrary, the factory did try to 
select springs for specific cars and applications such as with and 
with out A/C and different engine packages, body varieties and other
factors. 
However------
as time passes and in the case of your 71 36 years of unknown ownership
and repair history and or abuse springs can sag, or maybe they didn't
or maybe they were replaced or maybe they weren't but-------
if they were replaced the aftermarket did not make a whole bunch of
different
springs for a given application or maybe they did or maybe the
replacement
springs were reverse engineered or maybe the factory gave out data to 
the aftermarket manufacturers to base their designs on and maybe it was 
used or maybe it wasn't. And today maybe there is only one source or
maybe
it is old stock or who knows for sure after 36 years.
But!!!!!!!!!!------
According to my TRW coil spring replacement chart for, read carefully
now, 
for the 1971/1972 8 cyl, 2dr hd tp Javelin AMX-SST the TRW part number
was 
CS3112 used as a regular duty spring for both sides, with and with out
A/C
and no heavy duty option available!
Note that no matter what the factory put on it you get an after market 
choice of one!
This same spring was used on the Matador, 8 cyl Hornet with A/C, and the
6 
cylinder Ambassador with and with out A/C and many other combinations. 
This was at the time, very typical of the industry both then and now!
This particular spring, CS3112 had an inside diameter of 5.02 inches,
a wire diameter of .690 inches, an installed height of 9.50 inches, 
installed load rating of 1591 lbs. an installed spring rate of 306.4 
lbs/inch and an approx. free height of 14.70 inches. 
Thus when I rebuild a front suspension to verify aprox. what spring 
might be in the car when I get it I compare the dimensions to these 
numbers when I have the spring removed, therefore I depend on the 
free height for the most valid information whether it is or not!
In doing so I found that the springs that were in my Spirit when 
I rebuilt it were the wrong ones, but a set from a Hornet that I used
for parts met those dimensions so I used them. Note, I neither knew 
nor cared what the body/engine/A/C combination was.
Then when I put everything back together, disliking the nose high 
attitude that prevails on AMC cars and using a general rule of thumb
that you can drop the nose of the car aprox. 3 inches per turn I cut
off using a SAWS ALL about a little over a half a turn from the end
that sits on the spring saddle and reassembled everything and was 
happy with the final ride height. Note that removing a portion of a 
coil increase the spring rate per inch of the spring, thus giving a 
little stiffer ride. 
As Frank says, it is getting hard to find springs that work on a 
37 year old car that has been out of production since 1988 or 
earlier if you consider the Spirits last year (and it used the same 
front suspension components) was 1984 making it 23 years old all 
I can add to that is----------
Well Duh!!!!
But then again, I really do not get all upset about it. I have not
had to buy a new set ever and the only time I had to replace a 
front spring I was able to get a set out of a Donor AMC car. 
Good luck, but you know, if you don't like the way the front of the 
car sits, lower it. It is not a big deal. 
John. 
 
 
 
 
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