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In short I’m trying to figure out some of the asshat crap that was done to this car. The latest thing I’m come across is the rear trailing arms and suspension. In short somebody put 5 washers under the mounting pad of the leaf spring on this thing supposedly to maybe raise it? Well, that’s great. The problem is the factory sway bar endlinks look like the attached pictures. Both endlinks bound up and bent due to bottoming out. Yes, there are rear bump stops on the car. Trailing arms are getting rebuilt and all that fun stuff but I’m also questioning what I’m the hell was going on to bend up the endlinks like that.
Is there any way to “test” the leaf spring? If there is a published rating for it can you point me in that direction. It appears to be the OE 9 pack leaf. All the rubber seems OK in the leaf pack. If it’s bad I’ll replace it but I don’t way to spend $200 on replacing something without knowing it’s bad. Want to get this sorted out knowing what is and isn’t vs just throwing parts at it hoping to get it.
Looks like your well into pulling it apart already. So getting a ride height measurement wouldbe fairly difficult.
as close as that spring is to that trailing arm however. If the spring is still good I would think it looked like a jacked up 4WD.
best way of truely measuring the spring at home would be to measure ride height with everything set up stock. If this thing didn't look like a 4WD with a lift kit before you started to take it apart. I believe it's pretty safe to say your spring is toast! Also the bent sway bar links. Get things set up properly and you shouldn't bend those again.
Id be looking at a 330Lb mono spring and Bilsten B8 shocks.
What little of the spring shown in the photo seems to have a nice arch to it. So that should be ok. Hard to tell on jackstands though
Sometimes previous owners buy a longer bolt, 10" or so. Then they don't like the new ride height stance. Instead of buying 8" bolts they add bubba spacers (washers) to make up the difference. Depending on dry rot of the rubber biscuits, you may just want to swap them out with a new correct kit.
If you have original springs (ends are curled upwards), it’s possible to have he springs refurbished. The Corvette Service Sop I use sends their old springs to a local shop that also does truck springs and drive shafts. I purchased the rubber strips (I between each leaf) from CA, and the Corvette Shop took them to the spring guys. It cost me $ 125, and the rubber strips were around $ 30, a lot less than a new spring that has the cost of shipping.
Without the weight of the car being on the spring it can be tricky.
The main leaf on my spring-pack looked great with the car on jackstands, but the ends of the main leaf "arched upward" when the car sat on the driveway without jack stands.
Come on Guys. No ones spring sits that close to the trailing arm! There's only one reason for all those spacers. To raise it up! That car is riding unbelievably high, or that spring is JUNK! Yes you can get springs re-arced. But they will never be as good as a mono.
Come on Guys. No ones spring sits that close to the trailing arm! There's only one reason for all those spacers. To raise it up! That car is riding unbelievably high, or that spring is JUNK! Yes you can get springs re-arced. But they will never be as good as a mono.
Go buy a low-arch Van Steel spring, and never look back.
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[QUOTE=kossuth;1602395622]In short I’m trying to figure out some of the asshat crap that was done to this car. The latest thing I’m come across is the rear trailing arms and suspension. In short somebody put 5 washers under the mounting pad of the leaf spring on this thing supposedly to maybe raise it? Well, that’s great. The problem is the factory sway bar endlinks look like the attached pictures. Both endlinks bound up and bent due to bottoming out. Yes, there are rear bump stops on the car. Trailing arms are getting rebuilt and all that fun stuff but I’m also questioning what I’m the hell was going on to bend up the endlinks like that.
Could it be that the PO wanted the car to sit higher but ran out of threads on the bolt so he used washers?
Is there any way to “test” the leaf spring?If there is a published rating for it can you point me in that direction. It appears to be the OE 9 pack leaf. All the rubber seems OK in the leaf pack. If it’s bad I’ll replace it but I don’t way to spend $200 on replacing something without knowing it’s bad. Want to get this sorted out knowing what is and isn’t vs just throwing parts at it hoping to get it.
In short I’m trying to figure out some of the asshat crap that was done to this car. The latest thing I’m come across is the rear trailing arms and suspension. In short somebody put 5 washers under the mounting pad of the leaf spring on this thing supposedly to maybe raise it? Well, that’s great. The problem is the factory sway bar endlinks look like the attached pictures. Both endlinks bound up and bent due to bottoming out. Yes, there are rear bump stops on the car. Trailing arms are getting rebuilt and all that fun stuff but I’m also questioning what I’m the hell was going on to bend up the endlinks like that.
Could it be that the PO wanted the car to sit higher but ran out of threads on the bolt so he used washers?
Is there any way to “test” the leaf spring?If there is a published rating for it can you point me in that direction. It appears to be the OE 9 pack leaf. All the rubber seems OK in the leaf pack. If it’s bad I’ll replace it but I don’t way to spend $200 on replacing something without knowing it’s bad. Want to get this sorted out knowing what is and isn’t vs just throwing parts at it hoping to get it.
Thanks this is the kinda info I needed. So the deflection rate is 1 inch via 140 lbs of weight at the design weight which is 1360, which I take that to be 685 per side with 70 lbs per side. I gotta read those links more to make sure I understand whether it’s a combined measurement or single side. Thanks a million, that’s exactly what I was looking for.
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Rear leaf, how do you know it’s good or bad.
