First thing to keep in mind is that when you alter ride height by shortening the springs there are three other 'things' that change
- the front camber goes more negative which may or may not be a bad thing (steering effort will increase)
- the panhard rod will push the rear axle off center which may necessitate changing the length of the panhard rod
- the angle of the rear U joint flange in the static loaded position changes and will no longer match the front flange. You may need to alter the torque rod lengths to rotate the rear axle to get them back into alignment.
With small changes in ride height these three factors may not be a material issue. Larger changes can create problems.
Second thing to keep in mind is that shorter springs typically come with higher spring rates. With a shorter spring you have lost wheel travel and need the higher spring rate to keep the suspension from hitting the bump stops all the time. On my 142 I had some short single rate Lesjofors springs (25 mm drop in ride height) and they were brutal. Any sort of traffic control strip would get the rear end air born unless you slowed to around 10 km/hr. Keep the spring rate in mind when you select springs. If you install shorter springs with a higher spring rate do not install ARBs at the same time. Test first. The higher spring rates will give you an automatic increase in roll stiffness and adding ARBs may make the car brutal on anything less than perfect pavement.
Amazon Cars UK has some road springs for the 1800 which drop the car about 20mm and are progressive so 'not as brutal'. A 20 mm drop may eliminate the need to fiddle with panhard length and drive shaft angle. The 20mm drop is minimal and your 1800 will not end up looking like it is pretending to be something it isn't. I ditched the Lesjofors on my 142 and installed the Amazon cars springs for the 140 on my car. Much more pleasant to drive.
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