Shimmed Composit Spring - 82
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Racer
Joined: Aug 2005
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From: Mason MI 82-93-04CE
Help. Shimmed Composit Spring - 82 (Plywood???)
Wow. I removed the spare to have better access to my rear end and half-shafts and noticed something odd. The composit spring is shimmed down from the batwing bottom with (1) one 1/4 inch piece of plywood (2) two round edged plastic like shims of about 1/4 inch each, and (3) is finally sandwiched between two 1/4 inch rubber pads, then the normal plate holding it together. The top of the spring is about one and a quarter inches down from the bottom of the mount platform on the batwing. It appears solid and doesn't show any movement. Car rides and handles great, but someone must have wanted to raise the body a bit. Is that kosher? Wonder if that is contibuting to my rear end noise (see other threads). What is supposed to be between the spring top and the batwing, and between the spring bottom and the plate for 1982? I'm sure plywood ain't in the original formula. Bubba musta visted way back when 
Last edited by CraigandJanet; Jan 8, 2006 at 07:19 PM.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 255
Likes: 0
From: Mason MI 82-93-04CE
Originally Posted by Twin_Turbo
That subway sandwich type deal is stock but without the plywood 
The reason I say that is the plate to differential Spacer (vertical piece with tabs) fits like it looks like it should, and to remove the ply would buckle this spacer when things were tightened back up. It may well be whoever did this was replacing a rotted piece of rubber or whatever with a solid piece of wolmanized plywood. It's so soaked with grease and oil it should outlast the car. I thought maybe it was a cheat to lift things a bit, but I think the dimensions are probably OK, since the plate bolts show through the differential flanges about half or three quarters of an inch. They used to make wheels, bodies and frames out of wood, so this should hold in compression - wouldn'tyathink?cchrista: Yup. 82 comes with a composit. I like the idea of an aluminum spacer. Might have the kids in machine shop work up a project.
Now on to getting other things apart.
