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68 rear spring problems.......

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Old Aug 1, 2012 | 10:32 PM
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Default 68 rear spring problems.......

Can someone here who knows 68's tell me what these springs are. They aren't stock i don't thing. The bands are in a strange place, and there are no curls at the end of the leaves. The car is too high, and rides like a buckboard. .....


The guys at the C1+2 forum aren't real familiar with the 3's, thanks.

Last edited by Kerrmudgeon; Aug 1, 2012 at 10:34 PM.
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Old Aug 1, 2012 | 10:50 PM
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our sponsor VBP sells a 7 leaf and says its 292 lb. Perhaps the same specs. The 7 leaf was usually the performance spring opposed to the 9 leaf.

To lower it, you need longer bolts and you let out on the nut and the car will lower.
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Old Aug 1, 2012 | 10:52 PM
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Originally Posted by johnt365
our sponsor VBP sells a 7 leaf and says its 292 lb. Perhaps the same specs. The 7 leaf was usually the performance spring opposed to the 9 leaf.

To lower it, you need longer bolts and you let out on the nut and the car will lower.
Ya can't see in the pic, but there are nine leaves.
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Old Aug 2, 2012 | 09:38 AM
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How long have you had the car? New to you? Contact the seller and ask whether/when the rear spring may have been swapped. Can't really see much from the pix for identifying the spring. Could be afermarket; could be an over the counter service replacement spring from Chevrolet.

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Old Aug 2, 2012 | 10:15 AM
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My first reaction is that you should remove those bands around the leaves. I believe they were supposed to be only for warehousing and shipping. Seems to me that they would bind up the leaves together and not allow them to really move past each other. The center mounting should hold the leaves in place. There is a bolt that goes through the middle of the spring to hold all the leaves together left and right. The four mounting bolts should keep the leaves from fanning out.
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Old Aug 2, 2012 | 10:18 AM
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That's a typical aftermarket spring with the shipping bands still in place. They used to be available from all sorts of mom and pop vendors, no telling what the rating is.
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Old Aug 2, 2012 | 12:13 PM
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Originally Posted by Easy Mike
How long have you had the car? New to you? Contact the seller and ask whether/when the rear spring may have been swapped. Can't really see much from the pix for identifying the spring. Could be afermarket; could be an over the counter service replacement spring from Chevrolet.

It's a car I'm working on and the owner doesn't have a clue. And he's not on speaking terms with the PO from other problems. Car was a put together when he bought it, so who the heck knows!
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Old Aug 2, 2012 | 02:42 PM
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I have a '69 vett that I replaced the 9 leaf spring with an after market unit. I had the same ride height problem. First you need to remove those shipping bands. What I did to correct the ride height was swap the top three curved short leafs with the top three flat leafs from my factory spring. I reinstalled the spring with the factory 6" bolts. My vett
returned to the correct ride height.
when you tighten the mount bolts make sure they dont go through the bottom of the diff. case. good luck.
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