steering and suspension Will ST springs work with standard diameter wheels?

[Vicleonardo1]

Yes, the Stance thread is awesome, but too large. Would be nice if it was set as a database. 

So.....

I have a set of 195/55r15 wheels and tires. (Wheels are 15X7 with 25mm offset, 4.98 inch backspace).  They should be the same diameter as the stock wheels and tires with 13" rims.

The 195/55r15 total diameter is 23.7 inches. Most people are using 195/50r15 which is about an inch smaller (22.68 inches) and having no issues (for the most part) with springs that drop at least 1".  

Just wondering if the half inch drop from a set of ST springs be problematic with a 23.7 inch diameter wheel/tire. Trying to keep the additional 5% height on the tire, to give a little more cushion to the ride. With the spring change, I am planning on some Bilsteins HD's for shocks/struts. 

 

If this is not possible, I will just run out my current tires and when it is time to change, I will probably switch to 195/50's with a new suspension set up at that time. But trying to see if I can do my spring/shock change now. I am not too sure yet if I want to go lower than the ST springs just yet but my mind can change....

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you. 

[AceAndrew]

That setup requires rolling the rear fenders and possibly a bit of pulling (varies from car to car).

 

When you say a "half inch drop" ... are you referring to a drop from where it currently sits, or from stock "specs".  If from stock specs, understand that it bears little relation to where your car stands today.

[Vicleonardo1]

Hey Andrew! Glad to see you still visit this board. Hope the new(ish) job is working out well. 

 

Yes it is rated as 1/2 drop from "specs".  I am not sure if/when the PO ever changed his suspension.  I would think, because it was his daily driver until a few years ago, that he would have changed out any struts/shocks that failed. But he is a bit conservative, so I doubt if he thought about lowering it. I would be surprised if he changed the springs. 

 I know that its current "Stance" is over 40 years away  from original.  The car currently had a set of 13" steelies and standard tires that are no longer safe and have to go. No issues with the standard tire/wheels when I was driving it.  

It is getting a lot of work done on it at the moment, and with a lot of my car getting pulled apart for a bunch of work, I was thinking of letting my mission creep continue and while he was doing a lot of trans/brake/diff/clutch/cooling/rust/AC work (quite a bit of IE hardware upgrades by the way), that I may take advantage of his time. 

 

But..from what I am guessing where you are going because all these cars age differently,  I should just mount them and see what I get, and try and decide what to do next? 

 

Thank you Andrew.

Cheers!