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Using Non-Pathfinder-Specific Coils to Obtain Lift - An Experiment.


Iceman2989
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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 by Iceman2989
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  • 1 month later...

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.

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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.

 

DSCF9527.jpg

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.

 

 

DSCF9528.jpgThis is the top perch, where the top of the coil spring sits.

DSCF9535.jpg

 

It is just under 4" in diameter.

 

 

DSCF9529.jpgThis 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.

 

DSCF9531.jpg

This is a close-up of that rubber spacer.

 

 

DSCF9536.jpgWithout 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.DSCF9532.jpg

Much taller, with a slightly higher spring rate. These are off a 93 Jeep Cherokee.

 

 

DSCF9534.jpgThe new coil springs have a diameter of just over 4" and will fit perfectly over the upper perch.

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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?

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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.

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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!

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  • 3 weeks later...

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.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

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!

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  • 2 months later...
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