Front coil spring retainer?

[silvertj]

After drooping the front suspension in the garage I realized that I only have 4" of drop before the coil unseats. As if that isn't bad enough, by the time its at full droop the coil is about 3" from popping out. Has anyone come up with a reatainer for the upper mount? Anything like the mount that Currie has made for the rear? Something that I can make in the garage, cheap, is always best.

Thanks

[Timzjatl]

It depends on what you mean by retainer... You wouldn't want to permanently attach the top of the coil to where it mounts, because you'd lose some droop and you would also fatigue your springs. Coil springs are really designed for compression loading only, and will fail on short order if cycled in tension. Are you losing your springs? If not, I wouldn't worry about it
Tim

[TJRON]

One solution is a longer softer spring and an Anti-Rock.
The cheapest and most common is a limiting strap.

[silvertj]

So if its a bad idea to attach the upper part of my springs to the coil buckets, should I take off the Currie bumpstops that I have in the rear? They clamp the top of the spring to the coil bucket. And from what I can tell, they haven't limited flex.

Ron-I have an Antirock up front with RE 5.5. I know the coils are a bit stiff right now since they are new. But I was thinking that if i was to make a retainer for the front I wouldn't be in danger of loosing a coil. With my shocks set at 6 1\2" of up travel they still droop out at 13". So I don't think the Antirock is really limiting my droop.

Maybe I will just have to go for limiting straps.

Thanks again.

[Jeff Weston]

I wouldn't pull the Currie bumpstops. The spring is in tension for a much shorter distance and length than it is in compression, so I couldn't see how that would be a problem. Perhaps Timzjatl could expand on the spring tension problems.

[Timzjatl]

Its not just Jeep springs, but all coil compression springs. A coil compression spring is designed to live a basically infinite fatigue life, if subjected to a cycled compressive loading only. However, when loaded in reversing manner, the spring will fail substantially more quickly. Does this mean that your springs will break on the first wheeling trip? Likely not, but it could shorten the spring life consciderably. Plus, what benefit would one gain from attaching the top of the spring in a front end design such as the TJ/XJ/ZJ? I can't think of any off the top of my head, unless the springs were actually falling off of their mounts. Hope that helps.
Tim