king springs, MA61

[deaf_rattle]

OK, i am just about to buy some king springs for the rear of my MA61
just low (dont think they do superlows anyway).

is there any issues with the king springs not being captive?

Any info would be great

cheers

[Pube]

you can fit shorter stroke shocks to keep the springs captive. I fitted commodore KYB shocks to my IRS rt142 corona. They are a fair bit shorter and bolt up perfect. Im pretty sure they kept the springs captive.

[mrshin]

Buy something other than King...

[RONA]

King lows are soft and appalling for an MA61 anyway, the rear give you way too much negative camber as well as being soft.

Just go to a decent shop and order some custom made springs, my rear springs are 260mm in height still gives a fair amount of negative camber out back but easily half what it used to be.

As far as I'm aware they don't even make superlows for them anyway, my rear king lows came close to popping out when we jacked the car up fully to remove them

[Norbie]

Kings lows are great if you want your car low, but not so great if you want improved handling. As mentioned they're a very soft rate, in fact they're only slightly firmer than the factory springs. And no they won't be captive with normal shocks, although the chances of the springs coming loose are very slim.

[deaf_rattle]

Thanks for the comments so far. I have some koni adjustables i am going to install soon. I believe that they are a shorter stroke than the stock ones. But i am still having trouble understanding how the rear works. As if you pull the shock out to its full extent, its quite long... much longer than the spring. Is that ok? or is the shock supposed to be only as long as the spring when the shock is at the end of its travel?

cheers

[RONA]

Thanks for the comments so far. I have some koni adjustables i am going to install soon. I believe that they are a shorter stroke than the stock ones. But i am still having trouble understanding how the rear works. As if you pull the shock out to its full extent, its quite long... much longer than the spring. Is that ok? or is the shock supposed to be only as long as the spring when the shock is at the end of its travel?

cheers

You'll understand when you pull the suspension out

[Norbie]

With standard shocks and Kings low springs, the rear springs will never pop out. I distinctly recall trying to yank my springs out with the shocks still in place and it was near impossible, I ended up unbolting the shocks and even then it took a bit of effort! It's because of the bump stops, they keep the springs in place even when they're technically not held captive by the spring seats.

Fronts are a different story but obviously they can't pop out, worst case scenario they'll just come off the seats and sit crooked.

[deaf_rattle]

sweet thanks guys.
Kings may not be the best thing out there, but i was happy with my kyb gas struts and king lowering springs in the front
(much better than stock)

ill be replacing the bushes with super pro bushes as well, so i think it should handle ok in the end.

Its never going to be a full on track car as ive spent too much time and money on it (id be too worried of crashing it on the track, or someone crashing into it)

it will see the drag strip a few times, but at the end of the day its just going to be a cruiser.
(500hp, may be abit overkill i know) haha

[Brett]

I think you'll find it's mainly the rear swaybar that keeps the swingarm from swinging too far down and letting the spring fall out, sure the bump stop helps a bit, but it could still slip off its perch without a swaybar connected

I have king lows on the rear and stock size shocks. To give you an idea of how tight they're in there, the last time I took the springs out I used spring clamps because it was so much effort to try and push the swingarm down against the force of the swaybar.

I'm thinking about chopping a coil or two off them soon, even then I doubt I'll have any trouble.