Rear Suspension
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 307
Likes: 4
From: Thousand Oaks Calif.
Rear Suspension
On my 1981 the rear of the car seems to be very soft and musshy.
I’m sure that nothing has been replaced back there. All the rubber looks good and I’m going to replace the shocks but trying to see how I can tell if the leaf spring is worn.
Any way to confirm?
I’m sure that nothing has been replaced back there. All the rubber looks good and I’m going to replace the shocks but trying to see how I can tell if the leaf spring is worn.
Any way to confirm?
Melting Slicks
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 3,050
Likes: 124
From: Wichita KS
Is the spring flat/bend upward/bend downward?
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 23,831
Likes: 10
From: Springfield MO
St. Jude Donor '07
Unless someone has had it stuck in a stasis field for the past 30 years, there is no way that those rubber parts are still behaving the same as when your car rolled off the line in 1981. Hell, my 77's rubber bushings were starting to crack and crumble in 1991, and it had less than 65k on the clock at the time.
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Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2004
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From: Springfield MO
St. Jude Donor '07
Last edited by I'm Batman; May 7, 2012 at 04:18 AM.
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 18,341
Likes: 101
Today?
I wonder if any other car has has many "bolt in" easy ways to go as the C3.
Why anyone with anything LESS than a rare, you really shouldn't change anything from stock C3, is still using the steel multi leaf spring I can't understand.
There are more exotic ways to go but nothing is as easy as a fiberglass mono spring and it comes in so many different spring rates that you can go for anything from "pillow soft" to "empty dump truck rough" and a whole bunch of more sensible choices in-between.
I went with a fiberglass spring for both the back and front of the car.
The springs I choose for my own car really have been that unattainable utopia.......that world where the car handles both better and rides a little softer.
Shouldn't really be much of a surprise though.......steel leaf springs in a stack find their origins about 100 years ago. Not really too big a surprise that a new material and idea many years later might work this much better over all.
I wonder if any other car has has many "bolt in" easy ways to go as the C3.
Why anyone with anything LESS than a rare, you really shouldn't change anything from stock C3, is still using the steel multi leaf spring I can't understand.
There are more exotic ways to go but nothing is as easy as a fiberglass mono spring and it comes in so many different spring rates that you can go for anything from "pillow soft" to "empty dump truck rough" and a whole bunch of more sensible choices in-between.
I went with a fiberglass spring for both the back and front of the car.
The springs I choose for my own car really have been that unattainable utopia.......that world where the car handles both better and rides a little softer.
Shouldn't really be much of a surprise though.......steel leaf springs in a stack find their origins about 100 years ago. Not really too big a surprise that a new material and idea many years later might work this much better over all.
