Help me pick a new rear suspension setup

[SlowLane]

I would caution against using coilovers or helper springs or whatever you want to call those things that encase a shock inside a spring.

Look at it like this: the spring seats/perches were designed to carry the weight of the vehicle. The shock mounts were not: they were designed to handle only the loads transmitted through the shock as it does its movement-damping thing. Adding a spring to the shock places an additional full-time load to the shock mounts. I once had a VW bus whose previous owner had failed to grok this distinction and mounted coilovers to compensate for a saggy rear instead of re-indexing the torsion bars. The top shock mount on the right side tore loose from the frame.

I have a pair of the IPD overload springs that I'd be willing to sell you at, say, half of IPD's price plus shipping. I had mounted them on my daughter's car for when she went to live up in the mountains, but she wasn't loading the car up enough to use the extra capacity, so the car rode too high and bouncy. I've put the stock springs in since I got the car back from her and the overload springs are just taking up space now. PM me if you're interested.

[volvolugnut]

Adding a spring to the shock places an additional full-time load to the shock mounts.

This is a good judgement on the risk of adding helper shocks. In the case of the '75 245 I drove, the added springs had a fairly low load rating.

volvolugnut