Okay, I finally took some pics yesterday. These pics show the LS with Tein CS with the JP SS kit. The rear is fully cranked down, while the fronts are 12mm up from the fully down position.

I am once again on my friends HRE's which I have decided to pick up from him. The wheel and tire combo is kind of small as it came off a 2nd gen GS (front: 245/35 19, rear: 275/30 19), LS's would require a size bigger.

I cannot ride like this (although I tried), I end up rubbing on the front pretty bad. I now daily the LS with it 25mm up from the fully down position on the front and 15mm up in the rear. I do this with no real problems.

Anyway here are the new pics (and old for comparison):

old (without ss kit):


new (with ss kit):



front:


rear:

 

That's a real clean drop

Any issues rubbing when turning?

 

ya, ive got the UL.

 

When it was dropped like that then yeah I had problems rubbing on the front when turning. But currently, I have both the front and rear coiled up about 1/2" front what you see in the second pic. Right now, NO rubbing issues.

 

teamplayer,

Thanks for the write up.

I got a question, is it possible to machined down the SS kit's blocks for a lesser drop? I am going to run some lowering springs, but want an additional 0.5" drop. The SS kit give a 30mm drop, is a bit too much on top of the lowering springs. I am wondering if I can machine the block thinner for a lesser drop.

 

The rears cannot be shaved down.

For the fronts you might be able to. The kit comes with longger bolts for the front brackets. If you shaved down the height of the front bracket, you'd have to cut some of the new front bracket bolts.

Any reason why you want .5" as opposed to the 1" (30mm)? If it's a clearance/drivability issue, I can understand. But as for looks, I don't think theres much of a difference between .5" and an 1".

Post some pics when your done man. Good luck.

 

I have some very specific needs and preferences as far as lowering my LS430 goes, the LS is my real daily driver that I plan to drive for as long as humanly possible, 200k, 300k and hopefully 400k miles. Which means I want the longest lasting, cheapest and with the least hassle suspension possible. That would be running some stock struts with lowering springs. There is only 2 lowering springs, Tanabe and Eibach. I want my drop to be aggressive OEM, but not show car slam, I think I want about 1.5"~1.75" drop. From looking at all the pics, seems like Tanabe lower the car about 1.2", the Eibach about 1.0", and the SS kit gives 30mm = 1.18". You do the math, there is no combo that would give me 1.5"~1.75". So shaving down the blocks on the lowering springs might be my solution, that explain why I only want about 0.5" of drop from the blocks. I also will be just running the stock 18s with some spacers, so sitting too low would make it look ghetto, ricy, sitting not low enough would not be cool enough.

There is some small clearance/drivability concern too, I don't want to be scapping everywhere and my wife drives the LS too, so.......

In my case, 0.5" is a big difference, 0.5" too high is not cool enough, 0.5" too low might look rice.

 

Sorry, forgot to thank you for your answer.

Can you explain to me where the rear blocks goes? Knowing where it goes would really help me in my set up.

I definitely post pics when I am done with my car. I am gonna lower it and space out the stock wheels with spacers. I want the car as stock as possible, I am doing all these just for a little kicks, and it should look a lot better then stock.

 

Yeah, unforuntately all the drop springs for the LS430's won't go lower then 1.2". Anything more than that and you'll have to go coilovers or air (which is not the cheapest route). There are other companies which offer drop springs however, Tanabe's probably offers the biggest drop.

The rear bracket mounts on the rear knuckle/hub assembly where the bottom of the strut mounts to. I repositions the bottom part of the strut to a lower mounting point.

The fronts are 2 drop blocks on each side which mount between the lower ball joint and the knuckle assembly.

 

The company sprint makes springs for the LS430 that drops the car 1.7" front & rear....i don't know about the quality but they make them

 

just wondering don't by putting spacers can cause more inner tire wear to your front and rear tires???? but it would make your wheels look more full

 

Spacers pushes the wheels out, doesn't change the alignment at all, have zero effect on tire wear.

 

Thanks a lot for pointing that out, I am going to consider that.

 

So on this pic you posted, the 2 big blocks is for the rear to reposition the lower strut mounting point?

And the 4 round cylinders are the spacers that goes on the front between the lower ball joint and the knuckle assembly?

I wish you took more pics of the installation. I totally understand why you didn't though, it is a huge hassle to stop and take pics when you just want to get it done.

Thanks for your help

 

here are some ****ty pics..

ss front


ss rear