I am in the last leg of installing a 2407c kit on a 67 Camaro. My questions are how much should the spring pocket, shackle and U-bolts be torqued. The is no mention of this in my instructions.

Is this just a "real tight" situtation for the u-bolts and "reasonably tight" for the shackes and front pockets?

I didn't have any torque spec's when I did mine. When you tighten the U-bolts you won't be able to get a true torque reading unless you crush the poly pads enough to draw the shock plate up to the spring perch. If you have mono shock perches this can't be done anyway.

The front spring pockets are almost the same, if you tighten them too much the spring will bind and it needs to pivit a bit. If you tried to torque them the pocket would just start to collapse into the spring eye bushing. Same for the shackle...

DJD
so how tight did you tighten them? By feel?

Rick

Well I don't like that term "by feel" but sort of... The shock plates the way I installed my springs were never going to touch the perches so as I tightened down the U-bolts I watched for the shock plates to start bending and stopped there.

In trial fitting mine, I see that those metal bushingsinside the poly pads prevent complete mating to the leaf springs. The bolt head and nut doesn't fit inside the recess unless I remove those metal bushings. Are they meant to collapse under torqueing or did you remove yours, Dennis?

Rick - when I first installed the springs I put the bushing in the locater in the pad and bolted it all up. My rear end shifted about 20 feet into the test drive. (check out this thread for more on this... http://www.camaros.net/forum/ultimatebb.php/topic/7/7394.html ) When I pulled everything apart the bushing was crunched... I didn't end up using the bushings, how I ended up putting things back together is in the link...

Dennis,
Do you think there is much difference in ride quality without using the pads. I.m thinking of leaving them out when I finally get around putting mine in. I just need a set of multileaf plates. If anyone has a set let me know.

Mike

That's a tough one, my car rides great, not nice but great for the way it handles and I didn't use the pads. I also have expensive Koni shocks and they are on the soft setting. Any firmer and the rear is too stiff. I kind of see this as a total package deal, shocks, wheels and tires all play a part. Steel wheels, KYB or other low price shocks and you might find the pads really help.