ok! i just installed a new set of hotchkis 1 1/2" lowering leafs on the back of my 69. i also installed new kyb shocks and a set of cometition engeneering ss traction bars.

when i set the car back on the ground the passenger side tire tucks under about 1 inch maybe more under the fender than the drivers side and the passenger side also seems to sit about 1 to 2 inches lower than the drivers side.

whats up with this and what do i do to fix it? maybe the wheels are offset different? maybe the frame is bent? i don't know and it's driving me crazy!

i was just going to ask a similar question! i just changed my mono leafs to peformance suspensions 3 leaf springs and added c/e's ss t-bars. when I set my car on the ground the wheels were not centered in the wheel wells, they were sitting back farther into the well. also, i drove my car around the block and the rear end started vibrating badly(at about 30 mph). can anybody help?

ps, sorry for taking up space on your post vtec. i just thought since our problems are similar we could kill 2 birds with one stone.

I have a somewhat similar problem, I put in some springs that were supposed to be stock replacements and now my driver's side is about an inch lower than the passenger's side! It is kind of annoying.

hey racer x no problem we are all here to get some kind of help. i just went out and measured some stuff,not everything yet. that will have to wait untill tomarrow.

i don't get it,everything under my rearend suspension wise is brand new. from the front leaf mounts to the polyurathane bushings in the shackles. the passenger side in the rear sits a full two inches lower than the drivers side of the car.

tomarrow i am going to take the tires and wheels off and do some more measuring to see what else is off.

was it typical for gm back in the late 60's to weld up the rearend mounts in the wrong place? someone please help? i have lots of plans for this car and this is very discouraging to run into a problem this bad so soon in my project!

vtec, i hear you man. i think what im going to do is take everything apart and put it back together again. i know it's a bit*~, but maybe i made a mistake somewhere. my friend saw my car today and said he thinks i may have put in the springs the wrong way, i dont see how i could have done that though. oh well. someone will come to our rescue, right? good luck and stay positive!

i am going to stay positive and hope someone can help us. i know that the springs are not backwards because they say front on them and came with the bushings already in from hotchkis.

i have been thinking about it and looking stuff over and i cant figure out what the problem is. maybe it has something to do with the traction bars but i can't think of what?

I had a similar problem when I re-installed my rear suspension. You guys may have already done this, but when you re-assembled, did you tighten everything with the car still in the air? If so, loosen the shackles and set the car down and torque the shackle bolts. That worked for me.
Good luck.
Kevin

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68 Camaro SS - In Resto

thanx for all the help!

this mourning i went out and started looking everything over. it turns out the drivers side front spring mount is from 70 to 75 camaro, there was at least a 1 1/2"gap between the mount and the floor boards. luckily i have a restoration shop near by that had a new one.

now the cars sits how i expected it to sit.
this problem solved!

hey racer x

sounds like maybe you didn't get things lined up correctly.measure things to see if maybe something didn't slide around on you when you where botling it all back together.

i know that several times i had to loosen and retighten because things were begining to shift on me. good luck!

I just read your problemsand one of the things that I had to do when I installed C.E.'s J bolt traction bars is to just snug the back j bolt to traction bar nut and the fron traction bar bolt/nuts leaving the front J bolt nut loose. Jack the traction bar up (in the center of the rear end housing) to simulate the car sitting on the ground with shocks installed and the torque all 4 traction bar bolts in a criss/cross pattern, go slowly/about on turn each bolt at a time. Then tighten the front J bolt nuts until they just come into contact with the traction bar, give it one/half turn more and then tighten the back side nuts. The J bolt should have the same number of threads exposed on each side of the forward mount (do not use these to tighten the front of the bars up).

Also make sure that the centering pin is still in place and aligned in the traction bar and the rear end housing.

I would also make sure that the springs you installed do not have a drivers side and a passenger side (some companies will make them to compensate for drivers weight/ air conditioning etc).

This has prevented twisting the bars/mounts and has kept everything aligned for me.

Good Luck

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TONY
67 CAMARO R/S CLONE, 355/turbo 350, 200hp NOS,12 bolt,etc...

thanks guys,
this bugged me all night. i do think its a combination of leaf spring parts shifting and the traction bars. im sure your suggestions will help alot and fix my problem. thanks again.

I had a similar problem, I don't have it back together yet, But I think I got it. There was 1 original and one aftermarket set of shackles in my ride, they were slightly different sizes, a previous owner of the car I think noticed this and ain an attemt to fix it, used one half of each on each side of the car, instead of evenening this out, it canted the whole mess toward the pass side... I ordered a pair of shackeles and i think I have it worked out..

John

Hey dudes. http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif One thing I noticed on my car, on the front spring perches, that bolt to the body, they can slide back and forth about 3/8's or 1/2". See what I mean here. If one was, say, slid all the way forward, and the other slid back, this may change the way the car would ultimately sit. See what I'm getting at here. It's one thing I'm going to pay close attention too later this week when my new springs get here. Not saying this is the problem, just something to look at. Idoxler8, had some good suggestions too.

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Steve
67 SS 396,4-sp
67 RS 327,4-sp
72 RS 350/350
69 4X4 suburban 350,4-sp
73 3/4 ton 454/400
Stevo Camaro's Toy (http://www.geocities.com/stevocamaro)
Our Muscle Cars (http://community.webshots.com/user/steve_lynell)

i understand leaving the shackle bolts loose until i get my car on the ground, but does that go for the front bracket screws too?

hey racer,

thats a very good question. it is making me second guess everything on the rearend. like i said my car is now sitting straight but i haven't driven it yet to see if anything else is wrong. if those bolts in the front have enough slop i suppose they could make the rearend out of alignment if you tighten them down at the wrong time. jeez! this is becoming a pain in the butt! anyone have anymore suggestions on perhaps an exact proceedure we should follow?

To eliminate the effects of "bushing wind-up", the front spring bracket-to-body bolts, rear shackle bolts, and lower shock-to-spring plate bolts should ALL be loose-installed first and then final-torqued with the car on wheels; this will ensure that the car sits properly, and will avoid premature deterioration of the bushings and ride harshness, as the bushings won't be stressed ("wound-up") at normal ride height. There are indexing tabs on the front spring brackets that fit into square holes in the underbody bracket that will hold them in the proper fore-aft position until you tighten the three bolts. Also, when you tighten the big bolt that holds the front spring bushing in the spring bracket, before you attach the bracket to the underbody, there should be about a 4-degree angle between the top of the spring leaf and the flat attaching surface on the bracket (this simulates final design position, again, to avoid bushing "wind-up"). This procedure is outlined in the Chassis Service Manual, and is shown in more detail in the A.I.M.. When the car was built, the spring bracket was set to the spring using a fixture that established the 4-degree angle, and all the rest of the spring and lower shock attachments were torqued with the axle compressed to design ride height. If you don't do it this way, the car will sit too high in the rear, ride hard, and eat up the bushings.

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JohnZ
'69 Z28 Fathom Green

thank you.