Is there a little diagonal loading on the shock body? Sure. But the shock is strong enough to handle it without problems in most street & track driving situations.
For those not familiar with how coil springs load ... they do not load parallel to the shock. The load is from tip of spring at top to tip of spring at bottom ... which is diagonally. The shorter the spring, the more angle the loading is. The longer the spring, the less angle there is.
I have seen some struts with very short springs create enough angled load that the pistons & seals inside the shock body of the strut wore out prematurely.
You may experience that. But I don't see a safety issue unless years down the road you allow the shock to wear out & keep driving it.
I was really concerned about this since there aren't allot of threads left, I thought I had been given the wrong spring rate.
Joe
I think of it a little different. Say you have Xxx# springs & you like the handling ... you could buy the same Xxx# spring rate ... but with spring length longer than your current springs. You'd have the same handling, but the spring seat would sit farther down on the shock body.
If you find you don't like the handling, from the spring rate, and you wanted to go a lot stiffer ... I'd probably stay with the same spring length as you have ... because it will settle less. On the other hand if you found you wanted a lot softer spring rate, I'd for sure want to go 2" longer on the spring length.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
Coil over issue
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