Auntrattie

Hi there, I'm having problems with my 69 427 Stingray. A friend rebuilt the tranny and then we redid the engine. He ended up messing up something in the rear, and now the car sits way high in the rear, in fact once he put the sway bar on the car then the trailing arm bushings are digging into the tires. No one around here seems to know what to do. A nearby shop suggested removing 2 of the 9 leaves and putting bigger tires on the front. Does anyone know what size tires should be on the front or the rear? They are saying 215 70 15. Does that make sense? I don't understand all that and also does anyone know what removing 2 of the leaves in a 9 leaf spring would do to the car? Thank you so much for any help, I can't drive my car at all and summer is almost over ! Debi

Alan 71

Hi Debi,
Is this the same car and engine rebuild that you discuss in your 2013 post?

The original tires on your car were indeed F70-15 in size. This translates to a modern tire of 215-70-15 size.
Many folks use a 225-15-70 tire as a modern replacement since it fills the wheel-well a bit more which is a look some folks like.

The original rear spring on your car was likely 9 leafs. The top 3 leafs were flat and the bottom 6 were arched.
Removing 2 leafs is a careless way to deal with a car that sits too high. It's nothing more than a band-aid…. it doesn't deal with the cause at all.

Is there any chance you could post a couple of photos of the rear suspension?
Perhaps then someone could give you some suggestions about how to proceed.
Regards,
Alan

69monzacpe

You may just need to get longer bolts between the trailing arm(s) and the ends of the leaf spring. It's possible that he tightened the nuts to far up on the bolts which will raise the height of the body in relation to the wheels if he kept the original bolts. Without some pictures, it's hard to know exactly what happened. Here is a picture of the nut/bolt assembly between the trailing arm and leaf spring:

Easy Mike

FWIW: has the rear of the car been off the ground during the work you're doing? If so, the rear suspension might need to settle. A short hop around the block should do it.

JBrooke825

Big block 7 leaf, mine does. New from Eaton.

Alan 71

Hi JB,
I'm unsure what you're saying?
Regards,
Alan

Auntrattie

I'm not very good at using this thread so I hope you can read the reply. Thank you very much for answering about the tires and also about the leaf spring. I see someone posted a picture of how it should look and I don't think mine is assembled correctly. Tomorrow I'm going to take a picture and post it on here. And yes this is the same car that I started rebuilding the engine and the transmission on a number of years ago. That is all done now.

Auntrattie

thank you very much for the picture. That does not look like how mine is assembled unless I'm mistaken. I'm going to go over to the shop tomorrow and take a picture of it so we can compare. Thank you!

Auntrattie

I suppose that could possibly be it but it's already been driven maybe 15 or 20 miles. The mechanic at the place where it is did say that he thought it would settle down more over time

JBrooke825

Hello Alan nice to hear from you. My car has a 7 leaf spring.
Just got it from Eaton,last winter anyway. Will you be in Carlisle?
It would be nice to thank you in person . I meat John there a number of years ago nice man ,he helped me with the 67 . Let me know I will be there on Fri,or Sat if work gets in the way.