One or more of the leaves in the rear spring are almost
certainly broken. The spring can be easily disassembled
for examination, but as parts are not available (I believe),
your best bet is probably a new spring.
As a point of interest, as a short term, get you home emergency "solution",
jack the car up so the wheels are at
full droop and wedge a short piece
of 2X4 wood in between the spring and the body. Repeat on the
other side. This will shim the car up sufficiently to drive
home VERY SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY since you don't want to overstress
the body or knock the pieces of wood out.
Good luck.
Greg Rowe
>From: "Jack" <jkagy@bpsom.com>
>Reply-To: "Jack" <jkagy@bpsom.com>
>To: "spitfire maillist" <spitfires@autox.team.net>
>Subject: saggy rear
>Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2002 20:18:16 -0400
>
>A couple of days ago, on my way to work, I drove across a little bump w/ my
>'78 1500. There was a 'clunk,' the rear of the body seemed to drop a
>little
>and the car seemed to want to swerve L a couple of times. I got to the
>edge
>of the street, called AAA and had it flatbedded back home.
>As I was waiting for the truck, I noticed that the rear wheels both seemed
>to
>"lean in" at the top more than they had before. They had been tilting in
>some, which I was told was a worn out spring problem, but this was worse.
>Interesting features: There was no problem winching the car onto or off the
>flatbed, it rolled w/o noise or resistance from the running gear. I was
>able
>to drive it into the garage w/o anything happening; When I first pulled off
>the st., I tried to pull on the parking brake handle and it wouldn't move.
>It
>now moves fine.
>Tonight I crawled under it and couldn't see anything that looked obviously
>broken. (except for the R side parking brake cable, which is attached to
>the
>drum only by its spring and apparently is broken off from whatever it's
>supposed to be connected to inside the drum. An issue for another day, I
>don't see any likelihood that it is part of the current main problem.)
>I took the plate off in the cockpit and it appears that the spring is
>properly
>attached to the diff.
>I don't have the arm strength necessary to move the suspension by hand.
>The
>wheels seem to be hanging properly w/ the rear up in the air...on jackstanz
>of
>course.
>
>JAK
.
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