Rear Spring
 

My '76 rides like a truck, and the rear end is up about 2". The distance from the ground to the wheel well lip is 30". I have a 9 leaf, 2 1/2" wide spring, with factory shocks. I believe that this is a heavy duty spring from 79-82. If I install 8" spring mounting bolts to lower the rear end, and good gas shocks, will the ride be a little softer? I know everyone will tell me to put in a fiberglass spring, but I don't want to do that right now.

I have 72 coupe, and I do believe the heavy duty spring has seven leaves, and the normal spring has nine. This may be different for later years. I have a heavy duty spring, and I put longer bolts in to lower the rear, as it was sitting way too high. The longer bolts didn't affect the harshness of the ride one way or the other. I can't make a suggestion about shocks, mine had gas shocks when I bought it.

Temvette72

Definately get the longer bolts to lower the ride height.Try that out first and see what the car feels like.It is a cheap investment and will at the very least cure your ride height problem.

Nine leafs should be a standard spring, seven are heavy duty. I would use the longer bolts and some KYB-GR2 gas shocks if you are on a budget. IMHO, great shock for the money.

I had the same problem when I got my '69. The spring had 9 leafs so I thought it was the standard one, but it rode terrible. I took the spring out and noticed that it was really the heavy duty spring and the previous owner had added 2 extra leafs. I removed them and it's much better.

That's what I thought. The standard spring for a '76 is a 9 leaf, 2 1/4" wide. In 1979, they switched to a 2 1/2" wide spring, which is listed in the catalogs as a HD spring. Someone apparently switched my car to the newer spring. At any rate, I'm going to try the 8" bolts. Thanks for the input.

As I replied in th eother ride height post, what is the deal here? My springs are stock (original F41 code tags on the front) and 7 leaf on the rear, and I'm 30" tall at the rear wheel openings. Disconnecting the gas shocks was not the answer. All seems correct. ???? While I can "fix" the issue at the rear, the front would still be high.
Rand