KWV3 owners, did anyone remove the helper springs?
 

Was thinking about removing the helper springs just to sit a little bit lower so the wheel gap isnt as big. Has anyone done this yet?

I installed mine today and my mechanic decided not to use them because they would not fit unless preloaded the spring. Any other owners with KWs done this?

Running the shocks that low will put them outside of the ideal ride height. Not recommended.

What ride height were you trying to set the car to? "Preloading" the spring might be necessary to get that ride height but there is nothing wrong with that. These shocks are adjusted by moving the spring collar so that sounds normal.

I was just trying to set it to the recommended settings but even then it's a low drop about 1.4 inches around 1 finger gap. The helper springs fit in the back but not in the front. could it be my camber plate? Might have to go to another shop to check the measurements...

One doesn't measure recommended drop / best working range for suspension by measuring wheel gap :P.
For our already relatively low cars with relatively low suspension travel reasonable drop to not fsck up suspension geometry too much is within 1". KW may have some specific recommended settings. Have you consulted specs? Installation manual?

camber plates will add to the stack height depending on the design. the KWV3 are meant for OEM style top hats/camber plates where the top of the strut mounts past the strut tower where as some other camber plates have the strut mount flush with the strut tower adding height. which camber plates r u running?

you should sell your V3's and buy a set of racelands.

It shouldn't be too difficult to get a decent drop out of the V3s and still remain within recommended specs. Unless I did something horribly wrong (it was my first time working with coilovers), I actually had to set them to the MAXIMUM height of the recommended range to prevent the car from being too low for my tastes. I'm running Raceseng Camber plates up front which have a "minimal stack height."

Note the shadows make the car seem a bit lower than it actually is in this photo. There is a gap between the tires and the top of the fender. As there should be!

http://www.seriesblueadventures.com/...atured/Ivy.jpg

I’m still new to coilovers altogether but currently the ride is fine but might be a bit soft in front. Should I be worried about not having the helper springs in the front? It will just unsettle if I lift the car up right?

I’m running camber plates from feal coilovers so it looks like this:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...73682928dd.jpg

If you remove them to get the car lower, be sure to measure the amount of bump travel left at your desired ride height. It might be very little...

The only thing the helpers do is keep the springs seated at droop. This is because the shock has more travel than the main spring. They're not completely necessary, but a good idea, otherwise the spring has the opportunity to rattle around or get wedged in at an angle after it comes unseated.

The only reason to remove the helper springs to go lower is if you're already bottomed out on the spring perches.

Thanks guys I’ll have a shop double check the install. It wasn’t installed since there was basically no room for the helper spring and we were already at the maximum (highest) height of the recommended settings. We also didn’t want to add preload to the main spring. Would I have to preload the main spring in order to get some room to install the helpers?

The helper spring is pretty thin when fully compressed, you're not going to get that much more drop. They're there to keep the spring properly seated at full droop. Without them you could have the spring become unseated over a big bump and not settle right after.

Short answer, don't do it unless there's enough tension on the main spring at full droop to keep it from becoming unseated.

There will absolutely be pre-load on the helper at full droop, that's the point. I don't have my new upper mounts yet, but looking at mine without upper mounts it looks like at the lowest recommended setting there would still be a bit of pre-load on the helper, at the highest recommended setting there would be some pre-load on the main spring.

Don't second guess the instructions, KW knows what they're doing.

Uh, I don't get what is going on here. You have the height turned all the way up? why are you not lowering the perches then to make the car lower?

Maybe you need someone more familiar with adjustable coilovers doing this.

Yeah what exactly are you doing and what are you trying to accomplish? Do you have pictures of the coilover on the car and a side shot of your ride height?

- Andrew

The more I read the more it sounds like the shop doesn't know what they are doing.

those plates will def add stack height to the coilovers, u need to look for camber plates that mount the top of the strut shaft past the shock tower. take a look at these KW clubsport plates

https://photos.smugmug.com/MotoIQ/Pr...JEF_2497-L.jpg

right now u r

a) removing the helper spring to counter act the effect of the added stack height by ur camber plates since its not going as low as u would like
b) by removing the helper spring, the main spring is now too short to be properly preloaded thus going to the max height setting
c) by the sounds of things, u are essentially loosing a lot of suspension travel just to get the ride height u want

id suggest u get proper camber plates and correct the preload/height settings according to KW recommended settings to fully take advantage of the KW V3, or get another coilover setup that is meant to slam ur vehicle at the sacrifice of handling performance. KW V3s are not meant to be slammed.

Upper mounts came today, put them together. Here's a picture of what they look like set to 25mm drop rear and 28mm drop front (based on measurements for highest recommended setting, which is 20mm drop). There's definitely no pre-load on the rear main springs, and only a tiny bit on the fronts. With the front adjustment all the way down there was still room to compress the helpers more (I adjusted it all the way down to make it easier to get the mounts on properly).

http://i64.tinypic.com/19b6vs.jpg

That looks more like a 35mm drop based on the fronts. I have RCE T2's and have found 12 exposed threads below the collar equals 35mm lower than stock ride height. That's using the stock top hats which don't add any extra height like a lot of camber plates.

I'm basing it purely on the included instructions:

http://www.kwsuspensions.com/extras/...Q/35258004.pdf

It states the max distance between upper knuckle hole and spring perch is 95mm, and the other specs say the minimum drop is 20 mm. I went with 87mm from upper knuckle hole to spring perch.

Not sure if the T2's have the same length helper spring, but if it's thinner then you'd be lower at the same perch height.

All that said, on the higher resolution image I count 16 threads.

Those measurements are specific to the V3 springs and OEM top hats, change either and those measurements are no longer valid.

The T2 springs are much stiffer than the V3, not sure if the length is different but assuming the spring length is the same the car (w/ T2) will sit higher with the same spring perch location, same helper, and same top hat.