Jake: Jake here for americanmuscle.com. And today,
I'm taking a look at these SR Performance Lowering Springs for 2005 to 2014 Mustang GT
and V6 Coupes. These are some of the most popular lowering springs out there for the S197 Mustang,
and it really isn't hard to see why. They combine good performance, a nice drop in stance, solid
construction, all at an affordable price. So if you're looking for an inexpensive and worthwhile
upgrade to the look and handling of your Mustang, these are gonna be an excellent choice for you.
Now, lowering springs have been the topic of many a debate amongst car enthusiasts over the years.
However, they are still a worthwhile upgrade for many, and they can make a dramatic difference
in the handling of your S197 by lowering the center of gravity and lessening the amount of
compression and body roll the car exhibits. Now, it is worth noting that springs are relatively
consistent across the board. The biggest difference aside from the price, of course,
between different sets, is gonna be things like your spring rates, which corresponds to
the amount of pressure needed to compress the spring itself, and the construction.
However, let's be honest here, springs are really just wound metal. So as long
as they're finished nicely, the difference in construction is gonna be mostly negligible. Now,
as with most springs in this category, these are gonna give you a drop of about 1.5 inches,
both front and rear. That's a pretty standard measurement and it's gonna
keep a bit of rake to the stance. So you'll maintain that classic muscle car
nose-down look where you have the rear end sitting a little bit higher as it does from the factory.
If you're looking for a more even stance, you might wanna consider a different option.
But if you're a fan of that slightly rake look like I am, then you're gonna like how this sit.
The other thing to note here is that these are progressive rate springs. Now what that means
is that you essentially get a little bit of the best of both worlds. You can see the difference
in how tightly these coils are wound here versus how wide they're spaced apart up top. So that
means that when they compress, it's gonna help keep the wheels planted on the road, and it's
still gonna maintain a good ride quality for smaller imperfections and bumps in the road. The
specific initial rates here are 230 pounds for the front and 200 pounds for the rear, which again is
pretty standard for the category. Again, it's also not gonna make the ride punishing by any means.
Now, a lot of the questions we get when it comes to lowering springs have to do with supporting
modifications though while you're in their sort of stuff. And I wanna say that while it is possible
to just put lowering springs on your car and not have it be problematic, I would definitely
encourage you to take a look at the health of your suspension before you do so. If your shocks
are older or they're getting a bit worn out, or especially if they are the original to the car,
just throwing on a set of lowering springs can yield a less than stellar result. Now, the car
might look great, but remember that your stock shocks are designed to work with stock springs,
and lowering springs, in addition to having that different spring rate, are also going to
be physically shorter. So your shock isn't gonna compress like it would with the factory springs.
All that said, this is an excellent time to consider a set of upgraded shocks as well
since they're better able to handle the change in rate and geometry that lowering springs provide.
Now, speaking of geometry, it's also worth noting that when you lower a car, you are gonna change
the geometry of the suspension overall. And since the S197 Mustang has that solid rear axle,
lowering the rear of the car is gonna shift the axle a bit off-center. So I would highly recommend
getting yourself an adjustable Panhard bar as well to help you keep everything
aligned correctly. We do have several great options for both the adjustable Panhard bar
and shock absorbers on our website, of course. So be sure to check those out while you're at it.
But back to the springs, we need to talk about the price. Coming in around $200,
these SR Performance springs are some of the least expensive ones out there, but you're still gonna
get those progressive spring rates, nice, solid construction in this really nice blue powder
coat of finish, which I am a big fan of. These are some of our most popular springs for a reason,
and you can check out the reviews to see what our customers had to say as well.
Now, moving on to the install, these are gonna come in at a three out of three on our difficulty
scale. And that's mostly because of the need for specialized tools like a spring compressor.
While this is not necessarily the hardest thing you can undertake,
it's certainly accomplishable at home. Know that it is gonna take you some time,
about four hours or so. And it's also gonna take some patience to get it completed. Make sure that
you have a good spring compressor and that you're familiar with how to use it, especially if you are
reusing the shocks that are on your car right now. But enough of me talking about it, let's
show you how to get this done. And for that, we're gonna head on over to our install bay right now.
Man: Tools used for this installation, 3/8 electric impact gun, 1/4-inch drive ratchet,
clip removal tool, ratcheting wrench, 18-millimeter wrench,
13/16 socket, 1/4-inch drive 10-millimeter, 8, 10, 13, 15, and 21-millimeter sockets,
and 1/2-inch drive impact gun. Hey, guys, I'm gonna walk you through the installation of
our SR Performance lowering spring kit for our '14 Mustang GT. So let's get started.
First thing we're gonna do in our uninstall is we're gonna start by removing the four
nuts up top. We're gonna leave two tight. We're gonna come back down and remove
two bolts here that hold the strut in. A 10-millimeter we have here for the brake hose,
a push clip. And then we'll be able to remove the strut, take it over,
put it on our spring compressor, and then install our new spring and then come back and install. So
we're gonna jump into it by starting by loosening the bottom bolts, the 10-millimeter and 4 up top.
So first thing we're gonna do is I'm gonna take my 18-millimeter, put it on my sway bar nut. And then
my 8-millimeter on my 3/8 gun, and I'm gonna remove this nut and remove our sway bar link
from our strut. Now we have that out, we're gonna remove our 10-millimeter down
here that holds our brake line in place. Next, we're gonna remove our push clip
right here. And I'm gonna take my clip removal tool, get behind here, pop this out like that.
Then we're gonna take our 10-millimeter on our gun, remove this bolt here for our brake hose.
That'll get our brake hose out of the way. Next, we'll go and remove our
two bolts here that hold our strut to our spindle. Next, we're gonna take our 21-millimeter,
remove this nut here and this nut here. This holds our strut onto our spindle assembly. I'm
gonna take my 21-millimeter on my 1/2-inch impact gun and break these 2 nuts loose.
I'm gonna pull one of them out, leave one in for now. And then we'll go up top and remove our
four bolts holding the strut into the shock tower.
So next step is we're gonna remove our four 13-millimeters up the top.
I'm gonna take my 13-millimeter on my 3/8 electric impact gun, remove these 4,
and then we'll be able to get back down and pull the strut out and remove the last bolt.
So I'm gonna leave that in just for now until I remove the bolt down there. And then the strut is
just about ready to come out. So next step, I came in here. I'm gonna grab that bolt that I left in.
Pull that out, pull the spindle down from the strut.
I'm just gonna lift it up. Take off the 13-millimeter that I left on up top
and remove the strut from the car.
So now we have our stock spring removed, I have our new coil spring in place.
I have my bearing cap in place. I have it notched. There's a notch in it where it's gonna sit in the
spring pocket here. I'm going to give the spring some...and compress it a little bit.
Now, if you're doing this at home and you're doing it with some clamshell spring compressor, just be
careful. It's under a lot of tension. We're gonna take our strut, keep our bumper stop in place.
I'm gonna start my nut. I'm gonna spin the strut so that
it'll end up eventually sitting in place into the notch down here.
I'm gonna take my 10-millimeter and my 13/16, tighten our strut back up.
Once we have that tight, I'm gonna line our mark up here, release the tension on our spring.
Make sure it pops into place like that.
And now we're ready to reinstall our spring assembly.
So now that we have our new lowering spring in place on our strut assembly, I'm gonna install
our strut assembly back up into the car. I'm gonna take my 13-millimeter nut up top,
just get it started. Then I'll push the spindle back in place and put our two strut bolts in.
So now I have my one 13-millimeter nut up there holding the strut in place,
we're just gonna push our spindle back in place. Take our strut bolts,
install them. That'll hold everything together then we'll start reassembling.
So now that we have our 2 strut bolts in place, I'm going to install our
nuts and then take my 21-millimeter on my 1/2-inch impact gun and tighten them up.
Next, we're gonna reinstall our brake hose and our speed sensor wire. So this
is just gonna get pushed back in here. And then we're gonna take our 10-millimeter,
put this in here. I'm gonna take my 3/8 gun with my 10-millimeter and tighten it up.
Next, we're going to install our sway bar link here with our 18-millimeter nut.
I'm gonna take my 18-millimeter wrench, my 8-millimeter socket on my gun,
and we're gonna tighten this up. So I'm just gonna lift up a little bit, get it started.
I'm gonna take my 18-millimeter wrench, hold that.
My 8-millimeter on my 3/8 gun, we're gonna tighten this up.
Next, I'm gonna reinstall my 13-millimeter nuts on top of my...with
my strut brace here. And I'm gonna take my 3/8 gun with my 13-millimeter and tighten these up.
Now you're gonna wanna repeat this whole uninstall and install procedure on the other side.
Hey guys, I'm gonna walk you through the steps of uninstall and installing our rear lowering
spring. So let's get started. First thing we're gonna do if you're doing this in your driveway,
you're gonna wanna jack your car up and support and make sure you get jack stands underneath. I
have it on a lift and we have our pole jacks underneath holding the rear up.
What we're gonna do is loosen up our sway bars, take our shock bolts off,
remove and lower our shocks, and then we'll drop the rear down and pull the coil spring down.
First thing we're gonna do now that we have our
rear supported with our pole jacks is we're gonna remove our sway bar
bolt here that holds our sway bar link up into place. I'm gonna put my 18-millimeter
on the back here and my 15-millimeter on my 3/8 gun. We're gonna remove this bolt here first.
Next, we'll remove our shock bolt. So now that I removed our sway bar bolt, and I went on the other
side and you're just gonna wanna repeat that same procedure on the other side and remove that bolt,
you'll be able to drop your sway bar out of the way, which will give you access to your shock
bolt here. So I'm gonna take my 15-millimeter on my 3/8 gun and remove my shock bolts.
And now that I got that pulled out, you're gonna wanna repeat that same procedure on
the other side. So now that we have our shock bolts out, we have our sway bar off,
I'm gonna start lowering our pole jacks down so we can remove our coil spring
out from its pocket. I'm just gonna drop it down
and then I'll go on the other side and drop this one down. And
once you get it loose enough, you'll be able to pull the coil spring out.
And you're just gonna wanna repeat the same procedure on the other side.
So now that I have our stock spring out, what you're gonna wanna do is reinstall
our new lowering spring. Always put it with the smaller or the more tighter coils to the top,
the opening to the bottom. What I'm gonna do is just put this up in place.
Make sure it sits in the pocket up there. I'm gonna pull down a little bit and get the rear set
where it's gotta be and make sure it's in the pocket. And at that point, what you're
gonna just wanna do is start jacking up on the rear and you end up lining your shock bolt up.
And now we'll reinstall our shock bolt and our sway bar.
Now we're going to raise our rear up and install our shock bolt first.
Once I get that lined up, I'm gonna put our shock bolt in place. Start our nut.
And now we'll tighten that up. I got my 15-millimeter on my 3/8 gun,
we're gonna tighten up
our shock. Now we'll reinstall our sway bar. So now we're just gonna reinstall our sway bar
up into place. Install our bolt with our nut. And
take my 15-millimeter on my gun,
tighten that up. Lower our pole jack down. And now you're gonna wanna repeat
the same uninstall and install procedure on the opposite side.
Jake: So that's gonna do it for our review and install of the SR Performance Lowering Springs
for 2005 to 2014 Mustang GT and V6 Coupes. Thanks so much for watching and remember
for all things Mustang, be sure to stick with us right here at americanmuscle.com.