would like to drop my 81 about 3 inchs.... back is easy ...remove blocks under springs.... wondering about front???? cut springs????

keep on roddin'

You never want to cut a coil spring. It looses spring rate or tension if you will. That means your truck will ride softer and bottom out on every bump. Try to find shorter aftermarket srings w the same rate as the stock ones.

,Cliff

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'72 4 dr Dart
'63 4 dr Dart

Cutting a coil spring increases the spring rate..........

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Actually, cutting a spring raises the spring rate.

I've seen some very low D150s, but they had a lot more done than just shorter coils. I wish I could direct you to the forum where I saw them. I'm pretty sure they were using Dakota lowering spindles.

Here's a start! Yep, Dakota drop spindles with the tie rod hole reamed to fit the earlier tie rod ends. I had to ream the tie rod end hole on some early Belltech spindles to fit the larger tie rod ends of my '96 Dak. I also had a pretty significant bump steer problem with those spindles.

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Joshua

Search around over on the Moparts.com forum. I noticed a couple such threads there a few days ago.

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I stand corrected, I knew it did one or the other. Either way not a good option in my opinion.

,Cliff

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'72 4 dr Dart
'63 4 dr Dart

I just advised a friend, with a 50's era Ford, not to cut the springs on his car in order to lower it.

He did it anyway, and his car looks great and is right where he wants it to sit.....but....the ride isn't as good as it was and it's bottoming out in situations where it wasn't before.

Back 25 years ago, I bought a 66 Chevy 4 door wagon, just to get the aluminum powerglide transmission out of it. The car was in fairly good shape (I wish I had it now!) and my brother and I were messing with it before we pulled the drivetrain and sent it to the crusher. Anyway, we got the torch out and heated the springs until it sat right where it looked cool. We then took it out for another ride and I was amazed at how the overall ride had deteriorated just from messing with the springs.

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1954 Ford, Tudor Mainline
1976 Plymouth Valiant, 4 door


www.automotive-ninja.com

back in the early 70s ..was in south cal...lowriders would torch rear springs to get look...but i would like to have some kind of stock handling/ride

Chevy S-10 coils will fit the D150, so there is that option. Bear in mind the Chevy stock coil is taller than the Dodge, so you'd need a lowering coil and it wouldn't lower as much as it would on the S-10. Also, 3/4 ton van lower control arms by themselves will lower a D150 with the stock coils. Just my $0.02 on the matter.

I found this out because I plan on going the other direction with mine.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

found out my d150 doesnot have blocks on rear springs.... any thoughts on reversing front spring mounts...as in removing rivets and turning over mounts and bolting/welding back onto frame????

A guy on moparts did it by "flipping" the front spring mount where it is riveted to the frame, then using a 2" chevy shackle on the rear. Search at moparts, it's a good write up.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

From my experience cutting the springs is not too bad. BUT you must do it 1/2 a coil at a time then re-install and test drive. Any more and you risk it being to low or throwing off suspension geometry and most likely bottoming out. The spring rate does increase when you cut them but again, you are changing the suspension geometry so it will move in a different way that could make it bottom out... Also if you get carried away and chop a full coil or more right away you can't really glue it back on. 1 full coil cut out = 2-2 1/2 inches of drop.
This is time consuming which is why some doods think that torching the springs is faster... and it is... but this REALLY F's up the spring rate. It might seem OK for a couple weeks but the torching screw's up the "spring" of the spring and makes it squishy... thus... bottoming out and giving you a horrible ride.
Another way is to rent a spring compressor and get some coil spring clamps. Compress the spring and clamp the middle of the spring one coil to another and test it out. This way you can add a couple to drop it, keep the spring rate of the stock spring (for the most part) and if you change you mind... you can simply take off the clamps.

my .02

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1965 D100 225 slant 6, NP435 Utiline.

because everyone around here adds lift/big tires..as have I in past....I have 295/50 back and 275/60 front on 12inch rims.....just would like to lower it a bit ...might make getting in a bit easier as I get older than I ever thought I would be....he11 I tought I be dead over 30 years ago LMAO


keep on roddin'

just to be different