Hello,

So my recently purchased 69 is great, but it either hits the pipes or the tires in the rear when I go over a sharp hill followed by a dip. I replaced the shocks with stock replacements, but that didn't fix it. I know very little about suspension in general, so don't be afraid to tell me like a 3rd grader. I think it is mostly a stock suspension running 255/50ZR17's. It seems to sit a little lower in the back than the front too, although the half-shafts look good and the engine was swapped from a big block to a small block. So the height problem may be in the front rather than the rear. Any clue what might help with the bottoming out?

Thanks,
Simon

 

Zealot.

1. Adjust the spring hangers up. 2. The springs look pretty relaxed....almost flat, so that is where the problem lies. 3. shocks have no effect on ride height. They are dampers pure and simple. 4. the exhaust tubes are overly large, so there's about a 1/2 inch you don't have and can't affect. 5. The front looks fine/normal.

Crank up the rear end.

Unkahal

 

Beautiful car BTW!

Rear looks to be stock spring at stock ride height. Half shafts are perfectly flat and so is the spring with the original short 6.5" spring bolts.
255-50-17 is stock 27.1 " tire height, But it has very square shoulders and you may have a different wheel offset so that may be why the tires rub some. I suspect the wheel offset is not the stock 0.5" neg, your rims are not close to the spring end, the rotors look near the wheel lip, and there is a lot of sunlight on your tire sidewall. Unless you are using wheel spacers ( and could remove them) the easiest option is to raise it a 1/2-1" in the rear with Grade 8 6.5" bolts that do not bottom out on a shoulder like the stock ones do. I suspect the wheels have to much offset to the outside. The tires are a great size.

The front looks raised over stock, too much air gap, probably as a crutch to the same issue as the front usually has more tire clearance problems at the fender. Or stock BB springs without the bigblock.

Do you have spacers behind the wheels? Do you know the size or could you measure them? Unfortunately the best solution may be a new set of wheels with more negative offset.

On the other noise, the exhaust, it looks like your exhaust is at least 2-3 inches below the spring under the diff. Factory exhaust almost touches, and even uses squashed pipes there. So you are giving up a lot with that. It could be re-bent.

So I would recommend:

• Raise exhaust to almost touch spring
• New spring bolts to raise rear
• Remove wheel spacers if present
• Measure wheels for width & backspace

 

Thanks both. I have a lot to check out this weekend. I don't have a lot of answers as the car is new to me. The previous owner removed the original 350 small block and installed a '71 454, so I'm sure that he did something to the front suspension to get it where it is now. I know that he put a performance exhaust on it; I have an install sheet for "Pypes Performance Exhaust" in the paperwork.

I didn't see any spacers in the wheels when the new shocks went on. I'll try and find a model number this weekend and that may have some answers. Its in desperate need of new rubber bushings for the spring too.

Right now I'll probably do the cheap fixes (bolts and bushings and such) but next spring I'll see if maybe I can talk the wife into a new suspension front and back. (Shhh, don't tell her. )

Thanks again for all the help!

 

Hey Zealot, what a beautiful car! With the engine swap and all (I couldn't tell - did it go from a sb to a bb, or the other way around?) you could be fighting the wrong springs in front and/or rear. That said, if you decide to replace a tired rear spring it's not that hard or that expensive. America's Finest Corvettes has F-41 rear springs on sale right now for $299 (reg $379), and I'll be the 9 leaf spring you have might even be less expensive (or not). If I had to guess, that one move could solve a lot of your issue. Good luck, and let us know. Paul