1G What am I doing wrong with this suspension

[Dhan]

I am installing KYB AGX shocks in the rear, along with the Ground Control coilover kit. But when I put it all together, the springs are too short and are loose inside the setup (see photo).
Am I missing a piece? Did GC send the wrong springs?

When I ordered these from GC, I told them I have Koni shocks on the front and KYB in the rear. Everything worked fine for the fronts with the Konis. So I'm wondering if they thought I had Koni all the way around and there's a difference between their springs depending on whether you have Koni or KYB shocks. Does anyone know?
I do know that the lower spring perch is different between Koni and KYB.

Advice is appreciated. Thanks!

PS this is for a 1g AWD.

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[Dhan]

Additional info that may help....

Here is an exploded view of the order in which I'm assembling the coilovers (sorry for the bad shadows- winter sun angle). The parts on the towel are what I'm putting together and the order from left to right.

Below the towel are the old parts that I'm discarding.

Are there parts missing, or pieces that I don't need or is something not in the right order?

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[turboglenn]

Not sure on a 1g but when i did a set of skunk 2 coil over sleeves on my old 2g they were the same way, but i put them on anyway, and when i let the car down of the jack stands it sat correctly.

You may want to just yeti one and see, i thought it was weird bit it worked. Only thing i could think of was maybe there was a lot of sag in the oem setup, and with the stiff aftermarket springs that's how they had to be

 

[jakk220]

The spring moving freely is okay. Once you have the weight of the car on it it wont move. It's called droop. It is actually not uncommon for people to run them this way. Some set ups have helper springs that are just there to stop the spring from moving about freely. If you measure the distance that the spring is able to move, that would be the amount of "droop" you are running. I've even heard of people drilling holes in the top hat and using metal zip ties just to hold it in place. It is not neccessary to have either though.

Pre-load is the opposite. It is how much the spring is compressed. It depends on what you are after with which direction you choose. A lot of race set ups will run 0 preload (when you can spin the spring but it doesn't move up and down) or they will run droop. Keep in mind that droop will make the car sit a bit lower.

 

[Dhan]

@turboglenn @jakk220 Thanks for the responses guys! Learn something new everyday.

I got it all together and everything seems to be working as it should.