[shore-power]

I have a 67 Camaro tha I have owned for 22 years. I I used to race it a bit back in the day when I was poor and did OK ran some low 13 sec times with the sbc thats in it. And now Im 40 and can afford to so Im looking to get it back road ready again. It runs well and has a ballanced 327 30 over with forged flat 4 valve relief pistons, steel, crank, alloy rods, 2nd generation bowtie angle plug heads w/2.05 valves & 10to 1 comp. I have tha 280H comp. cam in the car. 12 bolt 4:10 rear. All good stuff if a bit dated.
My problem is the mono leaf springs and the non staggered shocks. I seem to break these mono leafs right at the rear bushing and the car wheel hops a bit. I was thinking of up grading to the multi leaf springs like the later cars had but wanted some opinions on how to set this up so it will hook and not hop & break. HELP

 

[pdq67]

Install 3-leaf mono replacements and a set of good old TUNED "slapper-bars" and you will be good to go, imho...

Otherwise a dedicated spring may be what you want, but they are pricey!!

If so, hunt up Chicane here and over on MadMikes NastyZ28 site, Second Generation Camaro Owners Group and ask him for a quote for the springs he's in to!!

pdq67

 

[hereitis67]

you can put in multi springs. with your old bottom perches just got to wobble holes out to fit. or use the multi perches than you need to put a right side shock tower in the trunk. to except the staggered shocks.my car isnt on the road yet so cant telll you how it does on road.i took mono out and put multi in so far kept shocks the same for my 67.others may chime in and we will both get what works on the car.:beers:

 

[shore-power]

Ok, more questions. Bill can you elaborate a bit more? obble the bolt holes?? Looking at the multi upgrade it looks like large u-bolts replace the existing t-bolts & nuts?? Is that correct or am I looking at something wrong?? Does the mono pads on the rear end have to be replaces with the deeper multi leaf ones or doen the large u-bolt compensate for that?? Just trying to get a good picture in my head on whats required.
ALSO; PDQ67: why a 3 leaf set?? I have seen 3, 5, leaf kits. ?? I have even looked at some coil over conversions but not sure about them. I want something good that works and money is not a major concern.
here is a kit I was looking at;

http://www.drclassic.com/catalog/Camaro/Suspension/K00035-STD.html

Thanks for your input guys..

 

[hereitis67]

yes thats what i bought. but the bottom plates(aka)spring perches are different than the monos to multis.by a little bit. wobble out holes a little bit than fine. but i forgot 1 important thing. on the rear the mounting plates on the rear are different. sorry mine where taking off and replaced before i bought car.car was half azzed put together before.boy is it getting deaper like mine sorry. i would take car to a spring specialist like im going to do after car is together. my front is to high on mine car.

 

[shore-power]

DO you know if the mono spring pads on the rear will work with the multi kit??

 

[hereitis67]

thats what i think i did used mono pads with the kit. not 100 percent sure tho i did it a year ago.i got a set of pads at work in box i can look tommorow to see what they are(if i can find them i got many boxes of parts)

 

[67CamaroRS/SS]

I have a 67 and the guy I bought the car from had custom springs made. They are almost an inch thick and made from graphite. I haven't had any problems or any wheel hop at all. Granted, I have traction bars, but the car still launches straight as an arrow.

 

[68Lemans blue]

Larry call Drew Oliver at Hotchkis and he will set you up as he did me, Mono car here and there R & D car was Mono his own personnel car Good Luck and Happy Motoring car...http://www.hotchkis.net/gallery.php?osCsid=be59b90dc5cbc11e4794fe4c21ba8d59

 

[whytry]

you also could look at upgrading the leafs like others have mentioned and then add some Clatrax bars to help eliminate the wheel hop and maybe not have to worry about making your own staggered shock setup....

 

[Mister G]

Here is what I have....

 

[pdq67]

The 3-leaf mono replacements do just that, replace mono springs!

And if you can't find "U"-bolts that fit your holes, then you need to drill them out, (i.e., "wobble them out"), so 1/2" "U"-bolts fit is all.

If you use multi-leaf springs, you will need to do one of two things!

Drill holes that hold the springs bolt-heads in your rearend's mounts; or

Remove the bolts and use longer rethreaded carriage bolts that have the squares removed under the heads and tighten them up good and whack the heads hard to seat them almost flat in the main leafs!!

This is b/c mono's are only locate by bottom spring "tits" and not by both top and bottom, bolt-heads and nuts is all.

Hope this helps and if you want poly, order for mono springs! But you will have to trim the lips off the pads b/c they are too narrow, but this is FINE, I did it..

pdq67

PS., mono's are 2.75" wide and thin on both ends and 2.25" wide and thick in the middle for a double-taper design vs 3-leaf and multi's being all 2.5" wide and of varied thickness!!

 

[JimM]

Did you get all that?

if not...

You can use multileaf springs in mono perches.
You can use mono shock plates even with multi springs.
You need to use the mono pads, but they won't fit the multi spring, it is wider thru the perch than a mono, so you have to trim the pads a bit.
Use 2 u-bolts per side.
Unlarge the holes as required in the perches and the shock plate so the u-bolts fit.

The long slapper bars work good. The snubber needs to be right on the front spring bushing or it will bend or braek the spring.

If it's in your budget, caltracs or slide-a-links may work better than slappers, they are also much easier to adjust.

 

[chicane67]

Need help with rear susp. set up in a 67 Camaro

Well... what is your budget ?? Let's start there...

 

[shore-power]

Thanks for all the info. guys. pdq67: Im sorry I didnt realize the 3 leafs we a direct replacement. Thats good and may be the easy way to go. I really like that option!

Chicane: As far as the budget goes I guess I can afford whatever is needed. I have seen plenty of leaf sprung slapper bar F-bodies that launch hard without all the wheel hop. Thats all Im after. I also want to include sub frame connectors in this upgrade. Looking at the caltracs I would think using them in conjuction with the 3 -leafs mentioned above would get me in the ball park of where I want to be. I like the principle behind the caltracs and the preload adjustability.

MrG: Looks good! Are those the 3 leafs PDQ67 has? What type of slapper bars? brand part number. Were the slappers for mon or multi leafs??

 

[chicane67]

NOw before I say anything specific... I take it that this is more of a 1320 application ??

 

[shore-power]

Yes its a street car that I wouldnt mind taking to the track once or twice a year..

 

[chicane67]

Well... on the cheap and easy, the Hotchkis springs do a better job on controlling wheel hop over that of a stock spring pack... mono or multi leaf.

Next on price line would be a custom set of leafs. Their configuration is pretty much open to design. Not to many people specialize in this and about 99% dont know or are unaware of the 'new age' spring thought. There are even those who claim that they must have been constructed with pixie dust. These range from around $400 to $850 a set depending on your real needs of a specific design. You can read one walk down this path in the "Problems with Bett's Spring's" thread that I recently brought back to life.

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=29278&highlight=betts+spring

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=30786&highlight=betts+spring

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=29152&highlight=betts+spring

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=30078&highlight=betts+spring

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=28570&highlight=betts+spring

There's all kinds of little tweaks that you can do to a custom spring to control specific aspects of the spring itself.

Another 'new age' direction is the use of a modified composite mono leaf. In fact our own CarlC has pretty much been the front runner in this area. His efforts are noted on his web page: http://www.geocities.com/casanoc/

Ill let you ask the questions from here...

 

[mkpatrick]

I have a BBC in a 67 and have been going through this very thing. I too thought about multi leafs and all.

I stayed with monoleafs.
The way I went was CE-2101 traction bars. They work good but the customer service from CE is terrible. They are arrogant f#cks.
The CE-2101 bar places the snubber right at the spring eye. The bar itself takes the place of the bottom spring plate. The bar also has provisions to mount the shock how you want. When you get them in place, you just cut off the shock mounts you don't want to use.
You will have to drill out the perch holes in the rear to 1/2". This I did with a right angle, cordless drill and one of those uni-bits. The uni-bit I have, stages up to 1/2" so I just went all the way through with it. The uni-bit with a cordless drill and a little bit of oil made that hole in about 4 seconds.
The J-bolt that comes with the bars are crap. They hardly fit. I used some made by a local place around here called Right Way Spring.
Right Way's J-bolts dropped right in.
So for the 18 dollars for the J-bolts and the 150 for the bars, I'm done.
I have ZERO wheel hop with a 468 that has a decently wild cam and did 12.20's with a 2.6 60' foot time.
No need for multi leafs.
Try the cheaper easier way first, before going to something harder and more expensive.

Once I get a good tire on it and now that I have these bars, I should be able to get that 60' time down to around 1.7 maybe.

 

[tgifford5]

The 3 leaf mono replacements that pdq is talking about comes from JCW part #ZX942669X - $69.99 ea. I did this rebuild on my 69 with mono leafs. I used mono poly pads and trimmed the lip off with my bench grinder. U bolts that will fit your existing perch plates you can get from Rick's 1st Gen. I suggest also at this time to replace the old j-nuts with new (CIP) clipnuts if it has not been done while you have it apart. Also another suggestion would be to do the rear spring rebuild with the gas tank out. It can be done with it in, as I did. But it would be easier to work with the rear shackle and frame bushings with it out. Install one side at a time to help keep things aligned. Also by my experience with the rebuild your decision on use for rubber or poly spring eye bushings will determine what shackles will work. If you use rubber the cheaper shackle kits should work. If you go with poly reuse your old plates and bolts or get new from Rick's. I found the shackle kit that I purchased from JCW with rubber bushings, the shackle bolts were to long when used with poly bushings. You can use a 5-6 " piece of all thread to press the frame bushings into the frame. Clean out the holes from the old rubber build up and use plenty of lube.