Thanks to all who responded to my question about weird handling problems with
Bugsy my '68 Sprite last week. It appears I've got a problem with DS rear leaf
spring. Problem is when cornering hard, body roll takes a certain "set" and
then rear end gives a little bit more and car feels as if rear end is about to
go around. In a high speed lane change I'd describe Bugsy as waddling. Front
end goes the proper direction and rear end of car follows but not immediately
and then car wants to overcorrect. Those who responded suggested a broken /
bent spring problem. Or something else not right back there. I also noticed a
tendency for car to immediately go to the left with hands off of the wheel i.e.
something misaligned in the rear end.
I jacked up Bugsy last night and took off wheels. Passenger side appears fine
and I can't find anything wrong. When I got to the DS I noticed spring leaves
did not appear to be properly lined up. Not off by much but on the second leaf,
end of spring sits perhaps 1/8" or a little bit more off to the side of the
bottom leaf. Almost as if alignment pins are either broken or bent on the clips
that hold spring leaves together. Several of the other leafs aren't quite right
on that side either. I conclude from that if spring leafs aren't properly
aligned, rear end will got go up and down in a constant arc in response to
suspension input. Rear axle would have a tendency to wobble and move in
directions the engineers didn't intend for it to do to handle properly.
Now all of this didn't bring a major worry until I looked up into the wheel
well on the DS and noticed signs of tire scuffing on the inside of the wheel
well. That's a definite clue that things aren't right back there and would
explain the tendency for the car to oversteer and want to come around if the
axle was shifting under load.
My conclusion -time for new rear springs and assorted bushings, bolts, nuts,
alignment plates etc.Since I recall conversations about wrong / incorrect
springs coming from the major suppliers I'm looking for advice on best supplier
for correct springs not whatever is in the M*** or V* inventory that they think
is the correct spring. After going through 3 sets of front springs with one of
these suppliers to get a correct set, the ones labelled for a Bugeye were the
correct spings. I don't want to do it again with the rears. Now this brings up
other questions.
1) Best source to order correct springs and pieces
2) Lower 1" or not, car will be used on the street not the track. No plans at
this point for AutoX etc. Bugsy is now shod with 155x80x13 tires on a SWA body.
3) Future plans would be Minilite Type Rims with wider tires. Potential
problems with rubbing?
4) Best method / safest method to support rear end of car when you unbolt the
springs and unbolt springs from rear end. I'm thinking a timber through the
wheel well from side to side. What have people used to support the timber and
get it off of the ground. I'm thinking a 4 x 4 supported on each side with an X
type arrangement with the timber resting in the top of the X. Do a proper
support job with bottom of X connected to other bottom of X with a 2 x 4 so rig
can 't topple sideways.
5) Bolts holding front of spring mounting bracket appear challenging to remove.
One of bolts has some type of whitish powder that appears to be coming out of
it. Possibly lock tite or some equivalent. That one it looks as if I could
flood area and get access to top of bolt for application of liquid wrench in
advance. Other bolt, DS, outside spring plate appears to be OEM / Original bolt
that has been in there for 35 years. Since there is no access to get at this
bolt other than from the underside I'm concerned about snapping this one off.
I'll use liquid wrench and heat in advance of trying to remove this bolt but
just looking at this one I'm concerned. PS doesn't have all original bolts so
I'm guessing at some time bolts were changed out.
6) There is an alignment pin that comes from center of spring pad and goes up
into rear axle. IS this pressed into rear axle? Bolt type fitting? It has a nut
on it. Does this come as part of the spring assembly?
Thanks in advance for all of your help. Bugsy is an incredible amount of fun to
drive and only recently have noticed the handling idiosyncracies. IT may have
been that way since I owned the car. It will be a joy to finally get this one
straightened out.
Jim Gruber
Bugsy '68 Sprite (future Bugeye in disguise)
Dayton, OH
---------------------------------
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/spridgets
|