rear end sagg

[john rumbold]

my 66cp has a rear end sag.left rear (driver side) is lower than the right. any suggestions on the adjustment or possible problem.

[Gary S.]

Re: rear end sagg

John, before I would go any further, I would suggest that you look underneith your car and see if your rear spring has gone flat. This is the usual culprit in my limited experience. Both my 66 and my 72 exhibited this symptom when I owned them. You can tell because your spring will have a negative arch. That is, is will have a slight arch downward instead of the usual curve upwards. In the case of my current 72 the ends of the rear spring are lower than the center of the spring by a full 3/4".

Gary Beaupre wrote a great series of articles in The Restorer on rear springs. The gist of it is that no spring manufacturer makes a rear spring that is identical to what you currently have. It rather limits your choices. I still don't know what I will do with mine. Gary 21316

[Patrick H.]

Re: rear end sag

Gary,

The ends of the spring are SUPPOSED to be lower than the center. Did you mean otherwise?

Patrick

[Gary S.]

Re: rear end sag

YEAH, what he said! I guess I was having a senior moment (and I don't even qualify for AARP ).

Patrick, you are right of course. The spring ends curve UP when they go flat, as both of mine have done. When they go flat, you lose ride height and ride quality.

Jet lag, you know! That is my story and I am sticking with it.

Gary

[Ed S.]

Re: rear end sagg

John,

Check the condition of the rubber bushings in the spring-to-trailing arm bolt, and also check to see that the nut on this bolt hasn't backed off. Do a visual check for broken leaves in the spring pack. However, I'm hoping your problem is something easier to rectify, like the bushings!

Ed

NCRS #13671

[john rumbold]

Re: rear end sagg

thanks for the response, i ll check the bushings,(rubber) seems that during my earlier years with this car spacers could be put between the washers to raise the height of the rear end . would a spacer 1/2 " to 1" help the left side and where would the spacer go. top of leaf or bottom ?thinking out loud here not looking at the car. thanks, john

[Duke W.]

Cushions and bolts

Yeah, before you comdemn the spring replace the four spring link cushions, and measure the bolt lengths, to be sure they are the same.

We had a thread on this a few months ago, and I think Joe L. gave us a rundown on the various bolts used an C2s and C3s, but not all are currently serviced.

Check the archives for this info. If the bolts are different length or the wrong length, you can shim to increase ride height.

Duke

[Robert P.]

Re: rear end sagg

John ~

Another suggestion, have you checked the large rubber cushions at the end of the upper crossmember where it attaches to the frame??? I pulled the left side out on my '65 (power shifting ) and it was resting on top of the cushion...

Bob ~ NCRS #21991

[William C. Brown]

Re: rear end sagg

John,

I thought my 68 coupe had a rear spring problem, too. My car had a 3/4 inch ride heigh difference between the left and right rear (dipping on the passenger side). I completely rebuilt the entire rear suspension on the car with new spring, trailing arms, bushings, cross member mounts, everything and it still sagged on the passenger side. hmmmm! Turns out the problem was a worn out coil spring in the front!

[nick poulas]

Which side was worn out? *NM*

[William C. Brown]

Re: Which side was worn out?

OOPS!

Sorry, the right front coil was weak.

--Corey