Quote:

Place the spring on a level suface, arch up.
Measure the distance from surface. Lets call it Free Height.
Weigh yourself. This will be Weight.
Holding on to something, carefully load the spring with your full weight.
Remeasure from the surface to the same place on the spring pad as before. Call this Loaded Height.
Carefully get off the spring while holding on to something (or you may get tossed).





So I won't get in hot water by saying the above is useful, but nearly shade tree?

The 3 biggest concerns, IMO to getting accuracy are, your relatively limited body weight ( Ok that's a guess), the difficulty in getting an accurate (take 3 and avg results) height measurement ( and the floor? must be very rigid), and the friction the inverted steel spring eyes encounter with the ground surface ( wood, dirt, rough concrete, etc) as leaf tries to flatten, additionally I am uncertain as to how much spring rate changes (softens?) as spring approaches a flat arch. Using a heavier weight (GF?) would improve accuracy.

Regardless, the above test is likely more accurate then simply guessing for comparisons sake.

And IMO, the the love affair here with rear sway bars, is best answered by the reply that states using a rear sway bar for is best for tuning, not as a fix for other issues. To give, IMO, some credence that a sway bar is not ALWAYS required, I believe the 90's GTP Sport cars Nissans, highly successful class champions, for Multi years, raced with zero sway bars. http://www.johnstarkeycars.com/pages/books/Nissan.html