I doubt the springs have sagged in less than 20 years.  I put mine on in '94 and never noticed any difference in ride height.  If you want to have them rearched and add another leaf I say go for it.  I only have 4 leafs on mine, and at some point will either go to a spring with more leaves or take them up to Chester Spring Works and get some work done on them to help with traction and ride quality. 

Take Rich's fix and.......cut an extra main leaf in half.....put it in the spring pack under the FRONT portion of the main leaf (make a 4 & 1/2 leaf pack.) This will raise it just a little.....not hurt ride....serve as a poor-man's traction bar...benefit of an extra leaf withOUT stiffer ride!
6sal6

6sally6 wrote:

Take Rich's fix and.......cut an extra main leaf in half.....put it in the spring pack under the FRONT portion of the main leaf (make a 4 & 1/2 leaf pack.) This will raise it just a little.....not hurt ride....serve as a poor-man's traction bar...benefit of an extra leaf withOUT stiffer ride!
6sal6

The 1st Gen Lightnings have a similar setup with a snubber on the end of the 1/2 leaf.  Its was obviously super cheap for Ford to do, and it works incredibly well.  Those trucks may lay wheel, but they do not wheel hop at all.  The back end is very controllable, especially for a pickup with no weight back there. 

Common setups for these cars seem to be 4, 4.5, and 5 leaf.  Ride height is determined by spring arch, not number of leaves.  If you take them your pack and say add a leaf and you want it to be the same ride height they should be able to do that.  They'll know how much arch to remove/add to get you the height you want.  To be really accurate corner scaling the car is best so you can tell them the weight that will be imposed on the spring.  There are ways to do that without fancy and expensive corner scales.  Here's a link to how to do it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071xPmVgE0E

Question for 6Sal6...
What set up do you have on your rear suspension? I like that look of the back end sitting up a little higher than the front.

6sally6 wrote:

Corky/Tubo made me a "smoking-deal" on 'em. I think they are just OEM replacements.(5 leaf?!)
Installed about 2014 I think. Replaced much modified stock springs that were 50 year olds.(stuff just don't last!!....right?!)
I like the 'California rake' look too! Still had to roll the fenders some.
6s6

Thanks 6s6! I like the Cali raked look too.
What heights from ground to underside of front and rear wheel arches do you have? I would be interested to compare to mine. When I measure from garage floor to highest point on the wheel arches, I get 25-1/2" on the front and 26" on the rear. To get a raked look, I might need to have the springs re-set to be 1" higher?
 

Last edited by Toploader (3/30/2021 3:01 AM)

Yeah, a lot are made overseas.  Eaton is the only company I know that makes theirs in the US.  It wouldn't surprise me if the OEMs are sourcing theirs from overseas as well.  The metallurgy on the overseas stuff is probably bad.  That's not surprising, as most of the stuff made there has questionable metallurgy.  So much of the steel China uses is made from our scrap that it ends up with impurities in it.  The issue with recycling anything is that you can only use so much old material in with the new without compromising strength.  Its evident that the Chinese throw that guideline to the wind. 

That said, the American made stuff can be very expensive by comparison, like over 2X as much. The springs I just got for my F250 were $750 a pair from Eaton.  I paid $340 for the ones I bought.  I don't mind spending more to buy American, but there's a point of ridiculousness.   For the cost of the Eatons I got springs, hardware, hangers, shackles, new overload springs, and was halfway to new shocks.  From having changed the springs before I already know I'll need all that stuff.  Unfortunately it made it an easy decision. 

6sally6 wrote:

Toploader wrote:

6sally6 wrote:

Corky/Tubo made me a "smoking-deal" on 'em. I think they are just OEM replacements.(5 leaf?!)
Installed about 2014 I think. Replaced much modified stock springs that were 50 year olds.(stuff just don't last!!....right?!)
I like the 'California rake' look too! Still had to roll the fenders some.
6s6

Thanks 6s6! I like the Cali raked look too.
What heights from ground to underside of front and rear wheel arches do you have? I would be interested to compare to mine. When I measure from garage floor to highest point on the wheel arches, I get 25-1/2" on the front and 26" on the rear. To get a raked look, I might need to have the springs re-set to be 1" higher?
 

 
25 1/2"........rear
24 1/4".......front from floor to top of fender opening (215-65-15 tarz)
6s6

You need to measure from the center of the axle to the bottom of the fender.  Otherwise the tire size will affect the values.

Mine is 12" Front  &  13" Rear.  And it makes a great rake.  MS has similar numbers for his.  One gottcha on getting this low is tire rubbing on the fender.  You must roll your fender lips for clearance.  Tire size is also critical in the front.  I had to go with 215-60x16 in front and 225-60x16 in the rear.  Backspacing is critical here   I have to have 4.25 bs on 7" rims.  4.00bs rubs the fender and 4.50 will interfere with the brake caliper.  You must  really measure a lot to get yours correct.  

Front has 1" lowering GT springs and Arning drop.  Rear has 4 leaf reverse eyes.

As you can see ride height determination takes a lot of thinking and remembering all that high school math.

Good luck.  I can't show a photo because I have not yet tried to navigate the current way of doing it.   There used to be one on the ride height page, but that is in the trash bin somewhere.
 

My car is 13-1/2" front and 14" rear, measured from center cap. It looks like the back needs to come up, but by how much... I don't know.
I don't experience any rubbing that I know of, but on sharp dips in the road, it will bottom out.
When I upgraded the steering and front suspension, I fitted 1" shorter coil springs. That tells me now that the front must have sat higher than the rear for a number of years and that seems right, because it looked a bit strange.

Last edited by Toploader (4/01/2021 5:14 PM)

12" front and 13" rear is pretty low. Do you ever bottom out?
I'm wondering if I might go 13-1/2" front and 14-1/2" rear. I already have the lowered springs on the front, but no Shelby drop.

I'm pretty happy with the front height on my car. Probably one day I will do the Shelby drop, but for the foreseeable future the front height is not changing. The rear though, it needs to come up.

Last edited by Toploader (4/02/2021 7:14 PM)

With the Shelby drop, how much does this lower the front and will this cause tire rub with 15" tires?
I have no tire rub now and have 215/60 R15's on the car.