sportline springs

[85foxbody]

looking for some much needed input. I picked up some used eibach sportline springs a while back now tossing around the idea of putting them in. Its an 85gt 5-speed. I converted to 5 lug using sn95 spindles kept stock a arms using steed x2 ball joints up front and used an 8.8 sn95 rear with j&m weight jacker rear control arms , I also have strange adjustable shocks on all four corners, stock caster camber plates for now. The tires on the car are 17'' 04 cobra wheels i think the tire size is 245/45/17. I know the sportline springs lower the car quite a bit, i do know i will need caster camber plates at the least so what i'm wondering is will i have tire rub when turning if anybody using these springs could give me a little input on there setup would be greatly appreciated.

[homer302]

you should have tire rub now with 245s on it. Are you saying you have no rub when turning the wheels or hitting bumps? I have never heard of that. Post a picture of how high the car sits now.

[wraithracing]

A 245/45/17 is @ 25.6" tall which is the same as the stock 225/60/15 so that doesn't really mean that there would be rubbing to start with.

The Eibach springs will drop the ride height around 1 1/4" up front and 1" in the rear IIRC. So a decent drop, but not a ridiculous amount.

I personally have never used the Steeda X2's, so I don't know exactly what affect they have on ride height, clearance, etc. Bottom line is there's almost no way to tell for sure as each Fox is different and unless someone has your exact setup, with springs, struts, spindles, control arms, wheels, tires, etc. there are no guarantees that what works for me works for you.

I run 255/40/17's on 9" Cobra R's with 24mm offset up front, Fox control arms, MM C/C Plates, Eibach 03/04 Cobra springs with an additional 3/4 coil cut off and I only have rubbing when going up or down and incline with the front wheels turned and only a slight rub at that. I do have an additional rack limiter IIRC to prevent a slight rub lock to lock, but not too bad. Just FYI my tires are a bit shorter than yours so that does help.

Most likely you will have some type of rub, but hard to say exactly how much or how bad. You can always add rack limiters to your R&P to help prevent the rubbing, just understand that will also increase your turning radius depending on how many limiters you add.

[erratic50]

I have a really similar setup so I'll start by explaining mine in detail so you can pick out what's different.

I ran 235/60/R15's on all four corners of my 86GT with stock suspension for years. They rubbed pretty bad at times as evident by how chewed up my wheel wells really are. Much to do with not securing the wells after the factory stuff let go from being hit by tires.


I'm running 245/45/R17's with stock K member, stock A arms, X2 balljoints, SN95 Spindles, low miles stock 90 GT front springs, 17" tri-bar rims from a 95GT.

I took a jack to my wheel well trim and forced it up into the fenders and up to the frame rails as much as possible then screwed the fender wells in everywhere with self drilling sheetmetal screws.

I am using a MM bump steer kit for 94-95 spindles on Foxbody. Since I have X2's MM recommended a 3/4" bump steer stack initially as the taller balljoints all but correct the bump steer concerns with sn95 on fox.

im running old school HP motorsports caster camber plates (which advertise 1/2" ride height drop).

The x2's without the spacer that came with them drops the car about 1/2".

I'm running stock struts. Im running camber bolts both top and bottom set to oppose each other at near max. Struts are centered in the towers openings so caster can go all the way back towards the windshield.

Measuring at the belt trim my Mustang is just slightly more than 1 inch lower my son's stock 86 GT rag top.

with this setup the only time I ever have any rubbing is all the way at steering lock. If I would have put in an 87-93 rack with the 2.25 turn instead of 2.5 turn lock to lock it wouldn't rub at all. Presently the inside edge if the tires just barely touches.

Surprising considering the 1993 Cobra R ran these wheels an SN95 spindles. I know they had the wider K member - did they also run the 94 and long control arms?? I know even stock there were a few reports of tires rubbing on these cars straight from the factory. Drop the ride height at all and then it's a real problem.

Even if you are aggressive like I was with wheel wells, I think you are still going to rub with that spring and tire combo. They yield a 1.5" drop vs stock on their own in the long run once you have a few miles on them. Plates and X2's total up another full inch drop.

the problem is you can't get enough negative camber with the struts vertical or tipped outward. If struts angle in towards the motor as suspension bump occurs then IMO your tires are likely to rub with very little steering applied one way or the other.

A good friend of mine runs 17" X 9 rims on his with SN95 spindles B up front with even more rubber than I have but the wheels were extremely careful measured and the offset is nothing factory and he's using rack limiters -- and his ride height is the same as mine. Any lower and the camber requirements for good turnin bring struts too far in for this to clear near lock. Like Trey he is running rack limiters too.

IMO you're likely going to need either 94 up long control arms or a wider K member in order to pull things off with your rim/tire setup as then you can play with strut position, spindle mounting rotation at the strut, etc. Even then you may need spacers or custom rims, rolled fenders, etc.

Just what I see after knowing the amount of fighting I had to do with mine to make it all fit and work

To level set 17" SN95 rims on a fox-the same rims with ranger rotors on 86 spindles required spindles preloaded to max out positive camber then struts turned max negative to get the rims to clear the struts. Even then wheel weights hit - it was very tight. Spacers would have helped. Then the problem was turning - it rubbed pretty bad the last 1/3 turn each way. When you think about it that's .6666 turns on a 2.5 turn rack. Lots of loss.

I hope this was helpful for all reading my reply.

[85foxbody]

I have no tire rub at all, i would gladly take a pic of the car to show the height, but i have winter projects going on its sitting on jack stands and no motor in it

you should have tire rub now with 245s on it. Are you saying you have no rub when turning the wheels or hitting bumps? I have never heard of that. Post a picture of how high the car sits now.

[85foxbody]

personally have never used the Steeda X2's, so I don't know exactly what affect they have on ride height, clearance, etc. Bottom line is there's almost no way to tell for sure as each Fox is different and unless someone has your exact setup, with springs, struts, spindles, control arms, wheels, tires, etc. there are no guarantees that what works for me works for you.

steeda x2 ball joints say it lowers the car 1/2'' unless you put the supplied spacers in ,which i did

[85foxbody]

erratic50 thanks for the detailed suspension set up....Seeing the responses from you guys, I think ill keep the ride height as is. I was looking to get lower for better handling its not bad considering its more or less a weekend car. Thanks for the good info

[mecamind]

Hi there i thought i would chime in on the sportline springs, I have the same car and i dropped it with those springs and matching eibach struts shocks, i highly recommend going H&R instead if you do ANY street driving the sportline seem to be a fixed rate super firm almost autocross pring, bumps are brutal and the car barly budges of any bumps dips or imperfections in the road, you can get the same drop rate from the regular eibach springs or h&r or steeds and not suffer as bad in the ride.

[conmech]

I have used Sport Line springs in my turbo 4 powered 20th Anniversary on 16" Boyd Coddington wheels. Granted, not as much of a drop in front, compared to a V8.

[85foxbody]

Hi there i thought i would chime in on the sportline springs, I have the same car and i dropped it with those springs and matching eibach struts shocks, i highly recommend going H&R instead if you do ANY street driving the sportline seem to be a fixed rate super firm almost autocross pring, bumps are brutal and the car barly budges of any bumps dips or imperfections in the road, you can get the same drop rate from the regular eibach springs or h&r or steeds and not suffer as bad in the ride.

Thats is the other concern of mine ( ride quality) i know i would lose some. I think ill keep my stock springs for now. Thanks for the good info, that would have sucked to go through all that work to get the front springs in and hate the ride.