What springs to buy?

sleeper

Former LOD President
I put on my spare pair of front bags yesterday and it seems that they may be leaking. Have to diagnose tonight (might be o-ring, might be my roommate messing with the switches when I wasn't looking) but if they're bad i'm going springs. I don't use the auto-level feature any more anyway, and I will keep the rear bags functional via switches in the console for load leveling purposes, but new bags are out of the question (cost), arnott bags are out of the question (quality), and i've been down the used bag road twice so far.

So - what junkyard struts to buy? Do I look for thunderbird / cougar struts out of a V6 car, a supercharged car, or a V8 car?

The MN12's run an iron block so I'm thinking v8 struts will have me sitting too high. Not sure if SCs ran different springs, or how much softer v6 springs would be. I can always cut if I need to but I want the car to sit high enough to get a jack under the front end without screwing around driving up on 2x4's or anything. And I'd rather just plug and play without cutting, so...

Also - am I going to need a spring compressor to get these in place, or can I wiggle them in?

And anyone local (ahem, Jeremi, Bill) have any springs laying around they want to offload cheap?

Thanks
 
I have the Eibach lowering springs on all 4 corners on mine. I think they are too soft for the rear. I have to have my Koni's turned all the way firm to avoid bottoming out on big dips in the road.
 
I ended up going with whatever the junkyard had. One is from a '92 Cougar and the other's from a '93 Thunderbird. I wanted the pair from the Cougar but when they brought them out, one was bent. Putting them on today.

Had (used) arnott bags on there but one would act as a rebound bump stop and there was a bulge in the bag. Leaked down over 3-4 days. Then I put in the used gen 2 bags I got from Jeremi. They stayed up a week on the car he parted out, but they won't stay up overnight for me. I was thinking it was an o-ring leak, so I replaced the o-rings and solenoids. Still goes down. Time for springs.

I love the air ride but this is a $1000 car and I don't want to have to explain how the suspension works before I loan it out. With springs it'll need less "special care and feeding"
 
"loan it out" wow you people are so trusting with your cars, i dont even let my wife drive mine unless she absolutly HAS to
i have springs in the rear of mine out of a 98 Stang GT, and the front struts are from airamerica and are set to the "highway heighth" that the air ride system would do at higher speeds, its a bit too low for me so ill be replacing all of the springs to get it higher, once your struts have the springs on them you can just wiggle them in, but you will need a set of spring compressors for the rear springs.
once i get my new springs on ( next week or so) i can ship mine to you if you just pay the freight, theres a pic of my car in the New User Intro so you can see how it sits,
so ill send you my springs for free, you just need the rear shocks and the front struts minus springs, strut springs are changable
 
I picked up a couple struts from a junkyard, so i'm good. I'm sticking with air in the rear - I've never had a rear bag leak (on my 4th Mark 8 now, plus the Navigator) and I think I still have a spare set anyway. I have the air ride set up with switches in the console to control it so I don't have to worry about controlling the rear bags. And I can adjust the height in the rear to level the load still, which is one of the nicest features of the air ride IMO.

The install was a bit of a PITA. The upper control arm had to be disconnected to get them in, and the bolts at the knuckle were a bit tough to deal with. Then I had a problem on the right side - apparently both of my replacements were from the left side, so I had to get a spring compressor, disassemble the strut, and rotate the plate at the top about 10 degrees to get it to line up properly with the hole pattern. Still, slightly less of a pain in the ass than the intake gaskets on the 3800 GM V6 that I did immediately after the struts in the mark 8.

I don't mind loaning my cars out to select friends / family. The navigator is bone stock, well insured, and safe - and the bumpers have already seen their share of abuse. I just let anybody that borrows it know that if they wreck it, they owe me the deductible. With the mark 8, it's a beater - worth $2000 if i'm lucky. I loan it with the same instructions - you break it, you buy it. Last week I let a friend drive it because his Grand Prix was having problems. Now i have it back because I replaced the gaskets on his intake manifold yesterday.
 
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