Gotta Love it when a plan comes together. Sweet-simple-cheap repair, completed before the back-end choose to dive in a different lane than the front-end. Well done guys, Great video!
Back in 1983 or so I had N50-15 tires (Remember those?) on my multi leaf spring 12 bolt 1968 Camaro. I remember checking that and there was a difference. I'll watch for that when I get new tires/wheels. Thanks for the reminder there!! And the video!!!
great video guys!...from what I've heard from uncles and his friends on assembly lines in the past...it was more a mass production thing because you had to crank out so many..... and you didn't have a driveline Mort ....the dude with the lathe and the micrometer he slept with to make sure thousands of driveshafts were dead on... and another thing that did it was the abuse of those cars...bad roads, curbs, axle wind, Schlitz malt liquor, some greasy head punk in a charger 500 or that leisure suit neighbor with that weird green AMX who you have to put in his place at the stop light.....ya know normal road conditions!😁....well I'm glad y'all got him straight... love and Starliners
Thanks for the great video. It’s nice to see coverage of a factory issue on GM stuff. I guess they aren’t perfect, like some GM guys want us to believe 😉
you prolly dont care but does anyone know of a method to get back into an Instagram account? I was stupid lost my login password. I appreciate any help you can offer me
@Felix Victor I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff atm. Looks like it's gonna take a while so I will reply here later with my results.
Now the axle is located by a rubber pin ,yea that’s going to stay put. Get rid of the aluminum spacers that didn’t come on the car and you won’t need the rubber spacer.
That was a mono leaf car. The bottom shock mount plates were different for mono leaf and multi leaf cars. Someone put those metal spacers are in there to make up the difference.
I sometimes use a string and plum bob and plot all the reference points on the floor all the way to the front subframe to make sure the subframe and differential lines up properly.
Thanks for a great episode, Please show Camaro panel alignment, I have been waiting for you to get back to working on a Camaro. This would help me a lot.
I saw this two years ago on Road Kill Garage and the Crusher Camaro. At the time I thought it was just the fact they put a a aftermarket 9” in it. I didn’t know GM did that and I use to own a 67! Weird and in my opinion stupid! Good info Jeff!
Some serious issues with this one Jeff, my first thumbs down. Correct me if I am wrong. I don't know who came up with those janky ass spacers, but the pad will never be compressed. The u-bolts are torqued to the spacers and there is an obvious gap. Also, the fact that the shock bushings are completely trashed due to being pulled an extra inch down to reach is a major red flag to me. I was thinking maybe this is all due to going with a stacked versus mono leaf, but that would be exactly opposite because the mono would be thinner than the stacked. There should be no reason for a spacer with the stacked leaves. He will never get that tight enough to hold the axle and as he drives it will start to push back and forth, chewing the isolator to pieces. Also, the should be pads on top of the spring, between the spring and axle mount. I don't know if the guy thought the new bolts were too long and made the spacers to compensate, but if that was the case they should be under the spring perch.
One more thing. Those spacers are made of aluminum and there is already a ton of corrosion going on from the different metals in contact. Not a good combo for the spring bolts.
Agree with all of this. I have a similar setup on my 67 Camaro. Leave the spacers and pads out. that bottom locator bolt should come through the hole in the plate, with the pad there it will not go down far enough.
Thanks for the thumbs! This is a kit from Detroit Speed--I have never known them to build half ass anything. There is a thick plate that we didn't remove that is on top of the springs. Cam talked about this plate and jiggled it in the episode. The one thing that was missing was the lower pad which the owner didn't install when the suspension went back together when he installed the kit. I didn't go over the difference between the mono-leaf spring perch and the multi leaf spring perch; I should have because the kit from Detorit mimics that original offset of a multi-leaf. We reinstalled the pad and the suspension tightened back up. The shock mount was totally my bad. I have little experience with the Camaro and was not aware that there was a problem there, you should know by now Robert, I try and cover things I know are problems. Cam didn't catch it either.
@@AutoRestoMod Some additional info for you: The original mono leafs had a locating pin on the TOP of the spring. This pin went thru a hole on the perch. The problem is that the pin was not in the middle of the spring or perch ( like on the multileafs) it was offset. The mono perch does not have a center locating hole. You cannot drill a center hole because it is too close to the axle tube. This is where that top spacer comes into play. It has a hole in the center to accept the locating bolt on the new multileaf spring. Leave that where it is. I would take out the pad AND aluminum spacers. Let there be a gap between the perch and the plate. This will allow the centering bolt to extend through the plate and clamp down on the spring pack. One issue you may run into is that you are using mono plates as well. They are relatively flimsy and may crack under stress. I suggest getting DSE plates (this is what I am running). They are much thicker and heavy duty.
Have a look at the 1996 Impala LT1, it had the same rear wheel problem from the factory for some reason. They were all this way. Wonder why. 18:43 why aren’t you using a torque wrench? Also I would have checked the other rear leafs to make sure it’s not buggered.
Lordy... The other leaf was fine. I struggle with just how much to include as far is detail on these videos. If I jot and tiddle the shoot it would have been 40 minutes. Any more, no one will take that kind of time. We should have been clearer on the torque, we tighten it as Cam showed, then on final, torque to spec.
The address is coming. The blocks are needed IF it is a mono-leaf rear axle. This one is not. I went off of what the books say (convertible 327=single leaf) and not what my eyes should have seen. When you miss something it is just you, and if you are unlucky, your buddies, when we miss something thousands see it.
I struggle a lot with how much to show on the show and not have an hour long video that 85% of the folks will say "ugh, it's an hour long" and bypass it. We checked the other side off camera, I assumed that everyone would assume that we would do "due diligence" and check it all out and check the torque. And no we didn't put the cable back in the holder...mainly because the front cable is missing and the owner is gathering parts to get it back in there.
Wish my 67 Camaro alignment issues were this easy. I am open to suggestions. Pretty sure its body/ frame damage. Has always sat about 5/8" higher on passenger side since I got in '98. Over 10 years ago switched to multi leafs in the rear end and they are still in the pocket and didn't change the lean. Stopped driving it for the last 7 years and has been in storage and started working on it the last few months. The front end suspension and control arm bushings were completely shot so replacing that now, and have already replaced the body mounts. Pretty sure its body damage; it does seem at least the front end driver side frame was straightened. And there is some buckling in the driver side floor pans......hey but at least there is really no rust on the car.
Do the body check we showed. It may point out the possible problems. Also, leaf springs can have variances too. Now if the car was like that before the multi leafs and after...I would look to the chassis.
@@AutoRestoMod Thanks for the reply. Yeah it’s always has sat that way. Nothing really stuck out but noticed the rear left shackle on leaf is defiantly angled farther back. Working on front end suspension now and definitely the body alignment hole on body is farther back on left vs right. Not sure that will fix the lean it but need to get the body and subframe aligned.
How to fix the problem. Take the Chevy and replace it with a Ford. Problem fixed. :) Just joking. These old Camaros are good looking cars. Another great video.
Haha I realized that they didn't center the diffs AFTER I bought new wheels n tires. Good times. Do you see anything wrong with not running isolators between the spring and shock plate or diff perch and spring? I have a bunch of friends who swear it's fine and don't run any or just one 🍻
I don't know what kind of car you're working on, but I have experience with early Cougars, which came with rubber isolators in the leaf spring to rear axle mounts. They're great for ride quality and noise control, but for racing and high performance use, they're typically removed in order to more positively locate the axle and and eliminate the small amount of deflection that the isolators allow. On a Cougar its a simple process of switching to Mustang axle mounting hardware, since axles and spring widths were the same, but Mustangs (except for Grandes) didn't come with the isolator bushings. There's no easy way to get things to fit right using the Cougar U-bolts and lower plate without isolators. So yes, its perfectly fine to run a rear axle that bolts directly to the springs without isolator bushings, but depending on the vehicle it may be necessary to change or modify some of the other mounting hardware to get everything to work correctly.
@@DragPakMerc 👍👍👍 I'm working on Novas and Chevelle's mostly. I guess I was mostly worried about the metal to metal contact on a street car. The amount of squish that comes from the isolators when I torque the u bolts makes me think it's not the best or most useful thing to run 🍻
All that deadener is probably hiding rust. And using that hole is dangerous, use the front spring eye as a measure point. That shock bolt is NOT a proper GM one. Those GM insulators cause grief, IF you can do without it is better, but more road noise. And one presumes the other side was checked as well.
Not going to go into it as the specs are different on different cars. The method Cam used is honestly pretty good. I Do recommend finding your spec and doing the final torque to it after the break in miles. www.autoandtrucksprings.com/recommended-u-bolt-torque
