Re: REAR ride height (remove spring spacers!) on '84 Spider Veloce?

["Paul Misencik" <paul@domain.elided>]

> How does cutting a spring make it stiffer ??.  Unless you lop the 'soft'
end
> off a variable rate spring the rate of the spring should remain constant
...

Nope.  All else equal, a shorter spring definitely gets stiffer.  In fact,
it gets stiffer at approximately the same rate you shortened it.  That is,
let's say you have a spring with, say, 5 coils from bottom to top.  If you
cut off one of the coils, the spring will be somewhere around 20% stiffer.
(Please excuse my hack math here.  Someone else can probably spell it out in
much more accurate and intelligently-worded terms.)

Cutting springs can really screw up the travel in the suspension, however,
and the only time I've ever done it myself is when I owned a car for which
there were no aftermarket sport springs available.  Personally, I'm not a
big fan of cutting springs.

Paul Misencik
Huntersville, NC  28078
email: paul@domain.elided
www.paoloroman.com
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