Factory Coil Spring Height???

[pachi7tre]

Hello all,

I've been getting a lot of great info on this site and applying it to my newly acquired 1983 GMC Sierra short bed 1/2ton. I'm down to the suspension and have a few questions. For the rear i will be doing a 5" flip kit from DJM that I pick up cheap on CL and I also picked up some Mcgauhy's 2.5 drop spindles. My question is, the truck "might" have been modified before because I noticed the rear has a c-notch already installed but sitting factory height. The rear is going to be straight forward with the flip kit installed but the front end looks slightly lower like if the front coils were cut. I will be needing to cut out another 1/2 inch to get the right stance but I'm afraid they have already been cut. My question is, how tall is a factory 1/2 ton spring or how many coils does it have? I don't want to cut if it's already been cut, all I need is that extra 1/2 inch.

Also I've read to cut a 1/4 inch of the bottom of the factory stock height coil to reach the 3" front hight I'm looking for. Is this true?

Lastly I'll be running factory rally's 15x8 with 255/70/15 all the way around. Will I have a problem running the factory rallies up front with this drop?

Thanks in advance

[Captkaos]

Typical 1/2 tons have 8 coils.  You should be able to tell if they have been cut when you remove them though.  on all trucks the rear was always taller than the front.  You might have issues with the spindles you have and the Rally wheels.  the control arms may need to be clearanced.

[pachi7tre]

Thank you Capt.

The coils hadn't been cut so I threw in the spindles, cut one half coil and it looks perfect. I had to remove the clip on wheel wait balancer and go to the stick on ones. The control arm runs real close to to the rims but clears it by a 1/4 inch. Also while I was in there decided to replace everything, both upper and lower control arm bushings, ballpoints and shocks. And since I was already tearing that up I replaced all of my steering components minus the steering box and the brakes and bearings. Now jumping onto the back.

Thanks again for the info.

[Captkaos]

No problem.