helper/ keeper springs

[kumarr]

hey im just after some keeper springs for my mitsubishi galant. anyone got a spare one sitting somewhere?

[Davezj]

you will have to give more detail than that.
Helper springs are not a factory item, so the suspension manufacturer is a good start, before anyone can help you really.
I know Tein HA require helper springs, and these are still available from tein direct.
or are talking about the rubber spiral jobs used for towing in the rear springs.

[kumarr]

yeah i have tein ha but the keeper springs seem to be taking too much space even when its compressed. the springs are to thick

[Adam.Findlay]

keeper springs are just there to "keep" the main coil captive when the shock is at full extension.
you only need them if your main coils are un-captive at any point of the shocks travel.

[Davezj]

i agree with adam,

my tein HA's have the helper spring completely compressed when the car is sitting on all four wheels as you would expect, but when you jack it up, the helper spring starts to uncompress which means if they were not there the main spring would be loose.
i would only ever be in the position of a loose spring if i got the wheels off the ground when driving, which is unlikely but possible if was going too fast over a bridge or something like that, and i would not want my main springs to be flopping around in that situation.

so if you have the car lower by a say 50mm the helper spring takes up the slack in the main spring when you jack the car up be uncompressing/expanding. the main spring would fall off its mount to one side if the car is lowered enough with out the helpers.
this i believe is why tein changed the design of there spring to make the much longer and remover the helper spring possibly for cheapness