Another Holden in the Family :) - Part 2

[whitels1ss]

Emailed Kings direct, will see what they come back with. Pedders were really helpful until they told me $1200 labour to do front and rear springs lol.

Wow!

Did you forget to tell us that includes new front struts, rear shocks & some suspension bushes?

[BLACK 346]

Wow!

Did you forget to tell us that includes new front struts, rear shocks & some suspension bushes?

It did not even include the springs lol

[whitels1ss]

It did not even include the springs lol

That is absolutely crazy!

[BLACK 346]

Got a prompt reply from Kings stating that from their experience with customer feedback that KHFL-47SSL will give 320mm HTG on the front and KHRL-46SSL will give same on rear. I am thinking that 320 might be a tad low for the front so have asked which spring will give 330 on front, I am thinking it will be KHFL-47SL but will see what they come back with

[BLACK 346]

Have settled on KHFL-47SL Front and KHRL-46SSL Rear on advice from Kings. Will order them this arvo using my trade card at Supercheap. Car already has KYB dampers, unsure of age but will see how they go to start with and if shite will look at some other options.

[SASLS1]

Got a prompt reply from Kings stating that from their experience with customer feedback that KHFL-47SSL will give 320mm HTG on the front and KHRL-46SSL will give same on rear. I am thinking that 320 might be a tad low for the front so have asked which spring will give 330 on front, I am thinking it will be KHFL-47SL but will see what they come back with

320mm HTG will look Awesome, I ran this ride height for a few years, but you basically have no suspension travel left and it will bottom out on the bump stops over every minor bump in the road and you'll hate the ride in no time.

At 320mm HTG ride height I only had 65mm clearance between the lowest point of my VZ ute at the DiFilippo header flange to the road surface. So well below the 100mm limit.

So any speed hump you'll have to crawl over and was a pain in the ass and the header flange would scrape. Most square speed bumps are 100mm high...

I was running KHFL-47SL in the front and KHRL-46SLHD in the rear ( which is a harder spring rate in the rear see below), so I could still put some stuff in the back without it sitting on the bump stops, or while towing my 4.5 foot wide x 7 foot box trailer occasionally.


I have now switched to KHFS-22 in the front, and KHRL-45HD ( HD = harder spring rate ) in the rear, and the HTG has settled to around 340mm front and rear perfect for me.

Never bottoms out any more and the ride quality is heaps better, and still looks nicely lowered and not crazy high.

You'll have to change the rear trailing arm bushes ( 4 each to adjustable ones ) otherwise the rear negative camber will be way too negative, and it'll wear the inside edges of the tyres out in no time.

The more you lower the rear, the more negative camber the rear suspension dials in from OEM to counter act body roll in turns to keep the tyre square to the ground.

Centerline Suspension in Melbourne told me they only install the ( Pedders 5401 eccentric bush which replaces the original control arm pivot bushes in IRS Commodores and enables camber and toe adjustment ) as it is a single thru bolt design and will never loosen off compared to all the other 2 bolt design eccentric bushes which are complete rubbish... ( their words ) as they always loosen off in a short period of time and the rear alignment falls out of adjustment.

I installed all the King Springs and Koni shock inserts in the front struts / rear koni shocks & king springs myself at home, then drove my ute to Centerline Suspension and they installed the 4 each rear 5401 eccentric bushes then did a complete 4 wheel alignment. Rear tyre wear has been totally even across the tyres ever since.


I found this King Spring table below, online a few years ago while researching King Spings, Spring rates and Heights, it has been very useful to me.

There was no description of what the heights referred too below, but I'm 99% sure, it's the spring height of the spring whilst the weight of the car is on the spring, its definitely not the spring free height length 100%.

The heavy duty HD rate spring ( 440-520 lbs/in ) I fitted to the rear is a stiffer ride for sure, than the ( 360-440 lbs/in ) spring rate, it wouldn't be every bodies cup of tea, but works well for me still being able to put some stuff in the rear occasionally without it siting on its ass.

Note... The ( KHFS-22 180-230/195 ) is the front OEM factory FE2 spring rate and height, I worked out from my research.

I'm running the OEM size tyres ( 235 / 40 /18 ) and wheels on my VZ Thunder 6.0L ute.

What you decide to do, is totally up to you...



"FRONTS- PART NUMBER RATE(lbs/in)/Height (mm)

KHFL-22SSL 200-250/135
KHPR-22SL 200-250/145
KHFL-47SSL 220-300/145
KHFL-47SLRP 180-230/145
KHPR-22 200-250/155
KHFL-47SL 180-230/155
KHPR-19 200-250/165
KHFL-22HHD 300-500/165
KHFL-22 180-230/165
KHFL-19 180-230/175
KHFL-47HHD 350-500/175
KHFL-47HD 200-250/175
KHFL-47 180-230/175
KHFL-48HD 200-250/185
KHFL-48 180-230/185
KHFS-22 180-230/195
KHFS-19 140-210/205
KHFS-48 120-240/215
KHFR-19 240 linear/235
KHFR-19H 240 linear/ 250
KHFR-64 200 linear/300


REAR- PART NUMBER RATE (lbs/in)/Height (mm)


KHRL-46SSSL 360-440/110
KHRL-46SSL 360-440/120
KHRL-46SL 360-440/130
KHRL-46SLHD 440-520/130
KHRL-127SSL 360-440/140
KHRL-46 360-440/140
KHRL-46HHD 600-1000/140
KHRL-46HD 440-520/145
KCOMU-03 550-600/145
KHRL-127SL 360-440/150
KHRL-45 360-440/150
KHRL-45HHD 600-1000/150
KHRL-45HD 440-520/155
KHRL-125 360-440/160
KHRL-127 360-440/160
KHRL-125HD 440-520/165
KHRL-69 340-450/170
KHRS-46 340-450/170
KHRL-69HD 440-520/175
KHRS-125 340-450/180
KHRS-45 340-450/180
KHRR-125 340-450/190
KHRS-69 380-450/200
KHRR-69 380-450/210
KHRR-65 390-470/240"

[SASLS1]

Here's how it looks now at approx 340mm HTG ride height with current setup...





From ground level looking up...

[BLACK 346]

Here's how it looks now at approx 340mm HTG ride height with current setup...





From ground level looking up...

That looks great. I am surprised it sits so flat though with the same measurements front and back. Mine sits flat and is 370 front and 350 rear on what I think are extremely old and sagged FE2 springs (they are black). It is on factory 17's. Good advice on the trailing arms also, I remember going through all that on the VT2 years ago.

[SASLS1]

I searched thru my laptop hard drive and found the pic when I had it at the Sensationally Looking 320mm HTG ride height perfectly level.



But the only 65mm ground clearance to the exhaust sucked ass... Hahaha....

[BLACK 346]

I searched thru my laptop hard drive and found the pic when I had it at the Sensationally Looking 320mm HTG ride height perfectly level.



But the only 65mm ground clearance to the exhaust sucked ass... Hahaha....

Now that is the look I am after lol, just don't want the arse pain you allude too I had my VT2 dumped on it's arse (lower than 320mm) and yeah not much fun with Pacey 4-1's and twin 3 inch exhaust. I do have Advance headers on the ute which tuck up quite high, so may not be as bad as yours was. Nah, I think I am just trying to convince myself.

[BLACK 346]

How my ute sits at the moment on FE2.

[BLACK 346]

I got a quote from Pedders for the 5403 kit today. The kit is $180.79. If I want it fitted and 4 wheel alignment it is $738.29. How much work is actually involved in fitting these?

[whitels1ss]

It is not a big job Rod, done it all at home on a few cars.

[SASLS1]

I got a quote from Pedders for the 5403 kit today. The kit is $180.79. If I want it fitted and 4 wheel alignment it is $738.29. How much work is actually involved in fitting these?

From memory Centreline Suspension charged me around $600 to install the four 5401 adjustable bushes ( "Single thru bolt design" ) 4 each + 4 wheel alignment , the whole rear sub frame has to be dropped down to install the "single thru bolts" at the out board locations.

The 4503 adjustable bushes are the 2 bolt design ( the one's Centreline Suspension said always loosen's off over time and the alignment will go out of wack ) these are easier to fit as the rear subframe doesn't required to be lowered down to install the 2 bolts either side of each bush, which don't pass all the way thru the bush.

My ute had 1 pair of 5403 adjustable bushes ( 2 bolt design ) in it when I bought, Centreline Suspension instructed me to "piss them off", and get them to install 4 each 5401 (single thru bolt) design bushes, as having 1 bolt thru the entire bush, they can tighten it Far Superiorly... for heaps better clamping the whole bush together super tight.

I found this video just now.... showing the 5403 (2 bolt design bush), and the guy talks about them having to be super tight, otherwise they come undone.

This is the exactly reason... Centreline Suspension refused to use them from their experience in the past, and told me to remove them, and only install the 5401 ( single thru bolt ) bushes.

Centreline Suspension also told me, when installing 4 adjustable 5401 bushes, the person doing the wheel alignment has to know "Exactly......" what their doing, because if you set it up wrong the driveshafts will have no free play and can totally stuff the diff.

This will be why in the video below, the guy from the US says you can only install 2 adjustable bushes and not 4 adjustable bushes.





I found a pic of the 5401 bush in this link below, there are no threads in the hole, the 5403 has threads in both side and the the 2 bolts don't clamp the whole bush together like the 5401 does, with it's single bolt thru the entire bush.

https://d22enj1fxubdc2.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/tn1315795101.pdf


This is why I got Centerline Suspension to install the four 5401 bushes and do the 4 wheel alignment, as I didn't want to drive my ute to their shop without the 4 bushes being correctly aligned and stuffing my diff.

Here is their page web, from all my research they are the best Suspension Shop In Melbourne.

http://www.centrelinesuspension.com.au/


It's been about 8 years since Centerline Suspension installed the 5401 bushes, and I haven't required any rear wheel alignments the entire time, so they were 100% spot on in say the 5401 ​is the best option for not loosing off and failing out of adjustment.

[amckiwi]

I have had good work done by Centerline in the past as well
Would not hesitate to use them again.