Choosing Coil Springs

[mt65riv]

I finally got the coils. It took about a week once everything was straightened out (no pun intended ).

The order got lost at the manufacturer, so they said. They told me that it normally takes about 2 weeks to fill orders. I won't install them for a while yet. But I will post shots when I do.

They may have raised springs, but raised Rivi's? They just look so sleek lowered... JMHO.

[RivNut]

Plus the lowered height makes for a lower center of gravity which in turns makes the car easier to handle around curves, during braking, and it reduces the wheel travel over bumps, all of which makes for a much more enjoyable and safer ride. Couple this with wider wheels and lower profile tires and it's almost like you're in the 21st century.

My $.02

I have some alignment specs that were published by Russ Martin, Buick guru from Grass Valley, CA, that tell how to set caster, camber, and toe in for 1st generation cars riding on radial tires. The original specs are for bias ply tires. I'll post them sometime when I can access them. They're on a word document on my old computer and I can't get them to download to my new computer. Office XP vs. Office 7.

Ed

[Guest carlbraun]

I have just installed my Eaton Detroit springs (+2" over stock) at the rear of the car and am pleased with the look. The +2 springs make the rear of the body sit 2 1/2" higher than the springs that were on there originally. The point? Not much sag out of the original (45 yr old) springs!

With the tall tires I have on the car the original springs set the car at 26" from the floor to the center of the lower lip of the wheel well opening. After the spings were installed, the height was brought to slightly higher than 28".

For pictures, I raised the front end of the car with a floor jack 2 1/2" to simulate the new springs that are going on the front end next. I also put about #140lbs in the trunk to simulate fuel and a spare but with those items I am still about 100# light in the rear of real world weight of full tank, spare, jack and misc trim in trunk.

The pics on the driveway are a bit misleading as the driveway has a "V" dip in the middle that makes the car look slightly taller than it is.

Edited September 17, 2011 by carlbraun (see edit history)

[Guest carlbraun]

After thinking over the spring situation I decided to purchase new springs that would keep the car closer to its stock height. With that in mind I purchased a new set of springs from Coil Spring Specialties after working with them closely on keeping the original GS spring rate while raising the car +3/4" over stock.

I set up three FRONT coil springs next to eachother. The one on the left is the original GM Riviera GS spring, the one in the middle is the new CSS Spring and the one on the right is the +2 spring from Eaton Detroit. The original GM spring wire is approx 11/16ths as is the Eaton Detroit spring. The CSS spring wire is just a shade under 3/4" and has one more coil turn than the original though its just slightly taller than the original.

Also, the CSS front springs were manufactured as tapered flat at the top like the originals...the Eaton springs were not.