What do I need to do to a multi leaf 10 bolt from a 70 nova to fit into my mono leaf 68 Camaro? Are 70 Nova rear springs and 68 Camaro rear springs the same. The rear has a new set of multi leafs that come with it.

Thanks,

Matt

Same, same......a direct swap.

chicane67,

So the Nova and Camaro leaf spring are the same? What about bolting a Multi leaf rear into a mono leaf car. No problems there?

Thanks,

Matt

yes i confirm.

i just change my rear srpings, the hardest was insering the new bushings in the frame of the car.

The spring perches on the multi leaf rear are deeper, so you might have to use some sort of spacer, but it can be made to work.

If you take the housing and springs out of the Nova, it will be a direct swap. There will be no need for spacers as you have not changed anything in reference to the spring pack height and the housing perches. There are no differences in the chassis from mono to multi, only the housing spring perches.

Now if you were to take the multi housing and use you mono springs......then you will need a spacer to take up the the difference in the spring pack thickness.

Why would you want to convert to multileaf... What are you doing with the car? If its just a daily driver or cruiser, monoleaf is better... reacts quicker

Mono leaf is the prime suspect to wheel hop....

Unless you throw some traction bars at the mono's it is going to beat up some parts. Yes they are better for launching a drag car, but I dont see how they are better than a multi leaf for a daily driver.......except for maybe Grand'ma pussyfootin around or a limited budget.

Thanks for all the good information. The car is just a street car. This one will see almost no track time. I just did not know the difference between the mono and multi leaf spring perches.

Matt

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/David_Pozzi/rear_suspension.htm#spring perch differences

Here ya go.... can't get any simpler than this. Look half way down the page.

obviously you knew then that leaf springs dont help your wheels stay on the ground... they just restore ride height.... shocks are the ones that stop the wheel from comming off the ground!!! i suggest you invest in some good fiberglass mono leafs... about $250-$300, or you can buy the mono to multi conversion kit for $350.... oh ya, dont forget the polygraphite bushings


Originally posted by chicane67:
Mono leaf is the prime suspect to wheel hop....

Unless you throw some traction bars at the mono's it is going to beat up some parts. Yes they are better for launching a drag car, but I dont see how they are better than a multi leaf for a daily driver.......except for maybe Grand'ma pussyfootin around or a limited budget.

67RS427, you're right about shocks to a point. But then why are people adding a leaf to the front half of their springs or using traction bars to keep the tires planted?
Seems like a better shock would be a whole lot easier.

when i first got the 355 in my Nova, i had an automatic tranny. one day, i stopped to get a Pepsi out of a machine, and when i got in the car i just happened to look at the reflection of the car in the store front window. i kinda watched as i put it into "D", and the front of the spring twisted up into a perfect "S" shape instantly. just picture the spring doing that under power and releasing all that energy and straightening out, then the tire grabbing and twisting it again and losing traction and getting straight... over and over again. that's what causes wheel hop, and traction bars stop it by preventing the front of the spring from wrapping up like that. i don't care how good your shocks are, they are not gonna stop that. a good multileaf will have the spring pack biased towards the front to effectively make the front of the spring solid under those conditions, and allow the rear to do most of the "springy" stuff. about the only "positive" that i can think of for mono's is that they are lighter.

Originally posted by 67RS427:
Obviously you knew then that leaf springs dont help your wheels stay on the ground... they just restore ride height.... shocks are the ones that stop the wheel from comming off the ground!!! i suggest you invest in some good fiberglass mono leafs... about $250-$300, or you can buy the mono to multi conversion kit for $350.... oh ya, dont forget the polygraphite bushings Actually, quite the contrary, the design of the leaf spring has everything to do with keeping the tire on the ground. The shock really has nothing to do with the associated wheel hop, it's only function in wheel hop is to control the energy of the spring when it is in compression/expansion. It only dampens.....it does nothing to eliviate.

The mechanical means of the leaf spring "wrap up" is best described in this pictorial/explaination:

http://www.competitionengineering.com/articles/chassis2.asp

Note that this article is using a 'mono' type spring for its example. Depending on the design of the multi-leaf spring, it has the ability to eliminate wheel-hop, effectivly limiting the forward portion of the main leaf itself from bending into an "S" shape as described by NovaDerrik and in the pictorial/article from Competition Engineering.

To possibly expand on Joe's statement of adding to the forward half of the leaf spring itself, I will include a drawing of what he is talking about to possibly give you a better 'visual' idea of what is meant be adding to the forward half of the main leaf. It is on the last page......

http://www.geocities.com/tholt67/dzprojectII.html

And as for the Fiberglass mono's, you only have one choise of bushing. You have to use their ploy bushing, as nothing else will fit. This then becomes a limiting factor in using said fiberglass mono springs. Not to mention all the other factors that have been discussed over many threads here on Team C concerning fiberglass monos.......

graemlins/beers.gif

[ 04-23-2003, 11:51 AM: Message edited by: chicane67 ]

Originally posted by HwyStarJoe:
67RS427, you're right about shocks to a point. But then why are people adding a leaf to the front half of their springs or using traction bars to keep the tires planted?
Seems like a better shock would be a whole lot easier. AHHH Physics! Springs, if they didn't have any sort of dampening (internal friction, permanent deformation, or shocks bounded to them) would oscillate forever, at 1 frequency. Wheel hop is caused when the act of losing traction causes the right frequency for the spring to want to resonate. The more you lost traction, the more this is amplified. The objective to eliminating wheel hop is to design a spring that doesnt have a frequency similar to the conditions caused by losing traction. You can do this by either raising or lowering the spring tension sufficiently, to take it out of resonance. During launch, shocks do the job of dampening the harmonic effect(if there is any) of the loss of traction. I think I explained it wrong, but I work better with numbers than words.

So in essence, you guys are probably both right, but the mono spring will of course cause the car to squat more in the rear. Some people say its better for traction, but I have my doubts...I think you should actually want your car to raise up in the rear upon launch.

In theroy a softer spring allows more weight transfer (to a point, then it becomes too much), allowing the chassis to 'plant' the rear tires better from the increased load at the tire. If the rear of the chassis were to raise, there would be less weight transfer, thus, the lesser ability for weight loaded traction.

Mono leafs in the first Gen platform always worked better in a 'launch' (best used in drag racing) as compared to the multi's (best used in road racing). The mono's only problem's were of wheel hop and light spring rate. But here's the kicker....the mono's had a slightly higher spring rate than that of the multi-leafs......

Exactly... and lemme say i have a 67 camaro rs with mono leafs, and with the torque of my BB 427, i have never experienced wheel hop.


Originally posted by chicane67:
In theroy a softer spring allows more weight transfer (to a point, then it becomes too much), allowing the chassis to 'plant' the rear tires better from the increased load at the tire. If the rear of the chassis were to raise, there would be less weight transfer, thus, the lesser ability for weight loaded traction.

Mono leafs in the first Gen platform always worked better in a 'launch' (best used in drag racing) as compared to the multi's (best used in road racing). The mono's only problem's were of wheel hop and light spring rate. But here's the kicker....the mono's had a slightly higher spring rate than that of the multi-leafs......

I have mono's on mine and they work very well on the launch.

My suggestion is to use antiseize on the threads of the bolts to allow EASIER removal later in life. It will definiately be a stress reliever later.