Iceman2989 Posted April 20, 2013 Author Share Posted April 20, 2013 (edited) Just a research update. I've narrowed it down to which coil I feel will be the best fit. I nominate Moog 8078 (on rockauto.com as RC8078 for part numbers). Spring #8078 Inside Dia 4.63 Bar Dia 0.69 Install Height 11.5 Load rate (lbs) 1880 Spring Rate (Lbs/in.) 275 Free Height 18.34 Ends Type ST It has the ends that I want (one square end for the top, and one tang end to be trimmed) It has a pretty high free height at 18.34", but I chose this coil because if I cut off an active coil (there are 7.7 active coils to begin with), the spring rate goes from 275 to 315. If I take off that extra .7 of a coil it goes to 353lbs. The AC Springs have a rate of 380lbs, and 353 should be close enough to this to offer some substantial height gain, yet marginally reduce the harshness of the ride. Granted, its only 30lbs difference, but it will still count. At cutting off 1.7 coils from the 18.34" free height should drop it down to where I could feasibly fit the coil in the strut assembly. Rockauto has these coils: Part#RC8078 for $74.99 Who would have thought that a 1962-1965 ford fairlane coil would work??? I dont have any in the junkyards around me here to try em out for even cheaper than the $75 from rockauto, but I'll take $75 over the $180 AC coils anyday. If anyone has ideas of where to find these cheaper, let me know! So I'll take this coil, wrap the bottom rotation of coil in vinyl or rubber tubing layers until it has grown to fill the bottom perch on the strut assembly, and then mount em! For the rear I still plan on using the WJ coils. I will weld a small piece of pipe to the coil spring perch so that the pig tail can stay on, and the coil wont bounce around. Edited April 20, 2013 by Iceman2989 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceman2989 Posted May 21, 2013 Author Share Posted May 21, 2013 Okay, so I did a quick double take of the prices of everything, and I wanted to save more. Instead of the 8078 coils, I am going to go with 77 f150 front coils. Theyve got a free height that I think will work, in addition to a higher spring rate than the pathfinder, plus they are much more available. I couldnt find any fairlanes at my nearby junkyards, so after asking around and finding the f150 coils at several different places, it seems like they may be a better option. Plus, after shipping, the fairlane coils are close to $100, and more than I wanted to spend on the coils. At $30 a piece for both the f150 coils and the WJ coils at my local junkyard, I'm just going to go ahead and use those. For reference, Part #CC814 and CC816 are what I'm talking about. Free height of 17.5 and 18.25, spring rates of 271lbs, and an outer diameter that matches up with the stock pathy coils at the top. For the bottom, I'm going to sleeve them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blevinger Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Eager to get the report. I need a budget suspension upgrade in a bad way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZ_Pathfinder Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 Very interesting thread, awaiting the finished product! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceman2989 Posted May 27, 2013 Author Share Posted May 27, 2013 Picked up some coils off craigslist for the rear for $25, and started playing with it to see what all I'll need. Here are some pics of the rear setup I plan on using. This is the lower perch where the bottom of the coil spring will sit. I plan on welding a small piece of pipe to the center of this, and having my coil spring fit snugly around it. This is the top perch, where the top of the coil spring sits. It is just under 4" in diameter. This is the stock coil spring, with a rubber seat that fills the gap between the coil spring and the upper perch. The rubber is there to help eliminate noise, and make sure the coil is seated properly. This is a close-up of that rubber spacer. Without the rubber spacer there, the coil diameter is a hair over 5" in diameter. Here are the coil springs that I got in comparison with the stock coils. Much taller, with a slightly higher spring rate. These are off a 93 Jeep Cherokee. The new coil springs have a diameter of just over 4" and will fit perfectly over the upper perch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borninabarn Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 These much taller, with a slightly higher spring rate. are off a 93 Jeep Cherokee? Are you just testing these Cherokee springs for the rear? or are they the same as the WJ Springs from the 99-04 Grand Cherokee that everybody seems to use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoesandsocks Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 zj springs are different than wj springs i have tried to flip flop them around but they dont work on each other them might work on an r50 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceman2989 Posted May 27, 2013 Author Share Posted May 27, 2013 These much taller, with a slightly higher spring rate. are off a 93 Jeep Cherokee? Are you just testing these Cherokee springs for the rear? or are they the same as the WJ Springs from the 99-04 Grand Cherokee that everybody seems to use? They are different than the WJ coil, and I hope to make them work for the rear. Still waiting on UPS and Fedex to bring me my new struts and mounts before I tackle the front. I'm going to weld a piece of pipe to the perch that has the same diameter as the inside of the pig tail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timmons Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 Wow, you might as well go for the sub frame drop now. You could get 6.5 inches of height on the SFD. Check out Krypton Fabrications. http://www.krfabs.com/product_detail.php?productID=2 This is where most of us are getting our lift kits from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceman2989 Posted May 30, 2013 Author Share Posted May 30, 2013 Wow, you might as well go for the sub frame drop now. You could get 6.5 inches of height on the SFD. Check out Krypton Fabrications. http://www.krfabs.com/product_detail.php?productID=2 This is where most of us are getting our lift kits from. I'd love to do a SFD, but its both out of my price range, and not quite the point of this experiment. This route I'm trying to do is to get a suspension lift, without breaking the bank, by retrofitting or modifying other vehicle's coil springs to work with my pathfinder. Update! Got my struts in the mail today! Things are getting closer! Once I get all the parts, the real fun begins! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoesandsocks Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 nice man glad to see your still going with it dude good luck ill keep u posted on the coilovers as well as the strut spacers i had fabbed up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borninabarn Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Getting any closer with your project? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoesandsocks Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 wellllllll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceman2989 Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 Wellll I got the old struts and springs off, ran out of time before getting to grab my new springs since the junkyard lied to me (said they had em and on my way down I got a call saying "oops... sorry, we dont have those springs..") So I put the old springs on the new struts for now and its back at stock height. But MAN does having new struts make a difference!! I dont bottom out over every little bump! I have a 3 day weekend starting tomorrow, so we'll see if anything big happens. I'll have pics if it does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borninabarn Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Are you still going to go with the 1977 F150 front coils for your R50 front coils? Or was it the rear F150 Coils for your front R50 COILS? Is the plan then to use a KFAB 1" STRUT lift adaptor? Just checking in on you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borninabarn Posted July 27, 2013 Share Posted July 27, 2013 How goes the Lift Experiment these days?? Let us Know! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceman2989 Posted September 2, 2013 Author Share Posted September 2, 2013 Yeah I was going to go with the '77 f150 front coils for my front. Buuuuuuuuut.... we ended up selling her. Its unfortunate but I was given an offer I couldnt refuse, and with our baby girl here at 2 months old on tuesday, it was a choice we had to make. Its going to a good home, and my pathy will be well taken care of, so I cant ask for much more than that~ I have confidence that my plans would work for anyone else that'd like to try it out. If you dont want to use the sleeving technique, go ahead and weld a piece of pipe to the strut perch to hold the coil in place at the bottom, similar to how you'd do it on the rear. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoesandsocks Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 lol this is becoming a growing trend around here congrats on the baby though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceman2989 Posted September 6, 2013 Author Share Posted September 6, 2013 Haha yeah, frustrating isnt it? Right when someone seems to be making progress in a new direction.... BOOM. Sold. Oh well~ And thanks! She's been great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karmann Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 (edited) What was the final consensus- just rear spring solutions, front, anything? Edited September 12, 2013 by Karmann Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karmann Posted November 27, 2013 Share Posted November 27, 2013 (edited) Digging up a topic from the grave here, anyone know how the Jeep rear springs went? Edited November 27, 2013 by Karmann Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bctriple3 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 LOL! I read through this thread and come to SOLD! Guys cheapest way is to get new stock coils and struts/shocks and buy spacer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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