Hello,

I replaced the springs on my 67 convertible with NPD single leaf springs and the car is still lower on the drivers side (lhs), by around an inch and a half. Any suggestions as to why this could be ? and how to fix the problem ?
I have new springs on the front.

Thanks, Dominic.

im not sure but if you find out mine does the same thing!! mine is about 1 inch lower on the drivers side

Make sure the passenger front spring is fully seated.

i checked and double checked no luck

I replaced the rear springs on my '69 using stock multi leafs and the drivers side is about 3/4" lower. Is this just a Camaro thing :confused:.

I read a post a while back that said the rear shackles should be tigthened with the springs loaded to avoid this.

When I got my 69, I assumed the droop seen from the back was the rear springs. The upper leaf bushing was almost gone so when I replaced everything I thought for sure she would be even. It still had the droop. My upper a arm bushings on the low side were shot. I thought maybe that was contributing to the sag but after replacement it still sat uneven. I wondered about the springs and put some spring extenders on the low side and up came the back. Somehow it was less noticeable from the front so i figured it was the rear first. I got new springs and now it Sits perfectly even. Dont know what makes your car droop on one side but that's my story

Check the search menu on this subject...it has been covered a bunch of times and I think everyone whos a member of TC has posted a comment and/or reported the same or a variation of this problem...including me!

I have replaced and or repaired virtually every part of my '67. I bought the car as a roller, minus the entire front clip. I cut the driver side quarter out and was about to start welding the new metal in place when I noticed some light shining through an opening along the rocker. Inspection of the area revealed no spots welds along the rocker from about midpoint back. I also noted that the floor pan was slightly higher toward the rear of the door jamb.

I took the car to a guy in Houston who builds race cars. He took some measurements and told me that the driver side was off by almost 2" from front to rear. He said that it looked like the welds on the rocker were never completed on the assembly line or, the car had been wrecked. After the work was completed, he said that he found nothing that indicated a wreck.

I have pictures of the repair, if any of you would like to see them. He told me that the car would've had a bad offset stance in the rear had the repair not been done.

I'm not saying that your problems are this serious but.......just a thought.

capt68 need pics im curious also. i replaced my quarters and whole backend of car it was off before about 1 inch cant figure out why. i seen cars from racing they twist the other way.left front up on racing body tweeks. regular cars didnt do that but.never know. if you dont know how to send pics. send it to hereitis9@aol.com and i will post them here for you.

Sit down eye level with the header panel in front of the car.
Notice the parallelism between the front header and windshield.
As mentioned, does the front left corner seem higher than the w/s?

It could be the subframe bushings needing replacement.
It could also be the subframe pulling away fromt he floorboard.

With a flat hand, check the distance between the floor-to-subframe right under the seats. Can your hand fit between the frame and drvr seat? If so, then frame has pulled the floor.

Visually inspect the car. Last resort, jack up the rear axle at the pumpkin, look at the front of the car, is it level across? The low side is the weak spring.

Thanks for the reply - the spring extenders, what are they exactly ? Did you keep them on with the new springs ?
Dominic.

Check your body mount bushings..... one side could be rotted out.

Yep i fear this could be a similar situation with mine , but from accident damage, when i bought the car, someone had fitted the whole front end including subframe from a 71 camaro, so for sure it has had a big front end smash. I then fitted the subframe from a 600 dollar rusty 68 hard top. I figure my easy way "out" is to highten the shackle on the lower side. The car runs good so its just the look and i guess the balance as well. Thanks for the interest.

capt68 need pics im curious also. i replaced my quarters and whole backend of car it was off before about 1 inch cant figure out why. i seen cars from racing they twist the other way.left front up on racing body tweeks. regular cars didnt do that but.never know. if you dont know how to send pics. send it to hereitis9@aol.com and i will post them here for you.
ill get some pics and send them over, gracias..

Sit down eye level with the header panel in front of the car.
Notice the parallelism between the front header and windshield.
As mentioned, does the front left corner seem higher than the w/s?

It could be the subframe bushings needing replacement.
It could also be the subframe pulling away fromt he floorboard.

With a flat hand, check the distance between the floor-to-subframe right under the seats. Can your hand fit between the frame and drvr seat? If so, then frame has pulled the floor.

Visually inspect the car. Last resort, jack up the rear axle at the pumpkin, look at the front of the car, is it level across? The low side is the weak spring.
The subframe bushings are new,but Ill check the floor against the subframe. Thanks..

capt68 need pics im curious also. i replaced my quarters and whole backend of car it was off before about 1 inch cant figure out why. i seen cars from racing they twist the other way.left front up on racing body tweeks. regular cars didnt do that but.never know. if you dont know how to send pics. send it to hereitis9@aol.com and i will post them here for you.



I'll send some pics of this later this evening or in the morning.

Thanks

coil spring helpers or extenders as I may have mis named them are little chunks of metal you buy in any auto store for 5 bucks. They fit between the front coil springs and you twist them in with a ratchet. They raise the drooping spring up a bit and its a cheap way to tell if your car sits wrong due to a bad/old spring on one side. I went through a lot of bushings and things before it hit me that the car sitting uneven was one of the front springs. It was such an obvious thing now that I know lol. I left the coil helpers in for a few months then did lower control arms and springs. not such a big deal after doing the uppers for the first time. That was really fun as I had a hard time getting the ball joints to release from the arms. Giant hammer really came in handy. I now have new leaf pads, leafs, leaf bushings, body mounts, complete upper lower arms and springs so its like a new car. The coil springs were the last thing I thought of mainly because I always looked at the back of the car and figured it was the leafs making it sag. I had horrible body bushing problems and the leaf bushings in the rear frame hole were almost completely gone on one side. Surprisingly, the new bushings didnt make the car sit any more level . It was the front spring the whole time. Also, I think you can leave the twist in spring helpers in for as long as you want. My ride didnt feel bad at all with them in one side. They do look kind of lame though and stock springs arent too expensive. I think mine were YC for a 69 sb with a/c. The tag fell off the coil spring and could still be read

most people like me and others went with new springs up front and new rear ones also.checked pockets up front to make sure seated right.new bushings on my frame also. i did a total restore it was a 1 1/2 inch down on left side before restore. when done it is the same.

Bill,
I emailed some pictures of my '67 to you this afternoon. I hope they will be helpful to someone. If nothing else, the pictures should give everyone an idea of things to look for when buying a First Gen.

When my car was stripped to the frame in the front and I had it on jacks, only the driver side contacted the jack. You could pull out the one from the passenger side no problem. When I jack it up the passenger side always comes up first as well. Not sure if this info helps anyone.

heres capt pictures very interesting.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa157/hereitis67/Camaro041-A.jpg
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa157/hereitis67/Camaro045-A.jpg
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa157/hereitis67/Camaro046.jpg
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa157/hereitis67/Camaro181-A.jpg
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa157/hereitis67/Camaro045-B-1.jpg
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa157/hereitis67/Camaro042-A-1.jpg

Interesting. Since the car was born this way, I'm surprised the original owner didn't complain hard enough for GM to buy it back, unless the dealer added some additional tooling to the springs.

i had the same problem , plus the one of the rubber pads slipped under stress , So i odered a new set from a spring shop ,took out the rubber pads out and put it back like stock style . Both sets of springs had new bushings to . It's fine now : )

Same problem on my 69 . The spring shop said they couldn't level the car. Frame shop found that the right front subframe had been pushed up at some time. probably from a curb or big pothole. fixed for $140 and car sits fairly level. The front was making the rear squat on one side.

Replacing all of the body bushings fixed my sag. I also replaced the rear springs, perches, and shackles though. I also installed my CalTrac bars at the same time. I don't think that would have much to do with it.

I have the same sag in the left rear, and am glad to hear these ideas. I'll look into the front springs

Same problem with my 68. This was after I replaced all the springs, all the A-arm bushings, all the body bushings, all the ball joints all the pads as well as all the hardware. My buddies kept telling me this year that it look like a 400 lb. man was sitting on the drivers side as I went down the road. I was worried that the body had somehow twisted? I am glad that I am not the only one.

Same problem with my 68. This was after I replaced all the springs, all the A-arm bushings, all the body bushings, all the ball joints all the pads as well as all the hardware. My buddies kept telling me this year that it look like a 400 lb. man was sitting on the drivers side as I went down the road. I was worried that the body had somehow twisted? I am glad that I am not the only one.


Actually, there was a problem with twisting with these cars. Look carefully at some of the cars that have never been restored and you will, most likely, find stress cracks in the metal at the very back of the rear side windows. My dad told me that the big block cars were especially prone to this problem. He said that the advent of subframe connectors help, to some degree.

Capt68
I actually have a strees crack on the back corner on the pass. side. Its about an inch long. I guess the only thing left is to add fram connectors. That was somthing that I didnt want to get into right now.

My 69 was lower on the drivers side by 1 1/2",installed new multi-leafs from Rick's,car still was lower...............new subframe rubber and radiator core support rubber were new........went out and burned rubber a few times and I guess things settled down,it sits level today,did you set car on ground before tightening ???

Capt68
I actually have a strees crack on the back corner on the pass. side. Its about an inch long. I guess the only thing left is to add fram connectors. That was somthing that I didnt want to get into right now.

You can buy a set of subframe connectors that bolt on fairly cheap. That would probably do the trick unless you're putting some insane amount of torque. Someone on this site may have a pair or, check eBay. You can have them on you car in less than an hour.

Capt68
I actually have a strees crack on the back corner on the pass. side. Its about an inch long. I guess the only thing left is to add fram connectors. That was somthing that I didnt want to get into right now.

Cambird68

I just checked eBay and found these. I didn't spend any time searching any further. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/67-68-69-CAMARO-FIREBIRD-SUBFRAME-CONNECTORS_W0QQitemZ120202514873QQihZ002QQcategory Z42609QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Cambird68

I just checked eBay and found these. I didn't spend any time searching any further. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/67-68-69-CAMARO-FIREBIRD-SUBFRAME-CONNECTORS_W0QQitemZ120202514873QQihZ002QQcategory Z42609QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Those won't fit a 'vert without major hacking for the floor.

The Hotchkis sfc's are the only ones I know of that fit the convertible floorpan:
http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10001_10002_372630_-1

Those won't fit a 'vert without major hacking for the floor.

The Hotchkis sfc's are the only ones I know of that fit the convertible floorpan:
http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10001_10002_372630_-1



My bad. I didn't know he had a convertible.