[Shotimes] Front springs installed - noise?
Jack Dalzotto
dalzotto@mosaiccomputers.com
Sun, 27 Nov 2005 12:26:57 -0500
Hello all,
I finally replaced my front springs and struts last Friday. I went with
Moog cargo coils and monroe sensatracs, based on what I read at
shoforum.com. The old coils were in bad shape, the passenger side was
broken, the first coil on the bottom was separated completely. The
broken end was within 1/16" of the tire! I ended up cutting 1-1/2 coils
off the top of the moogs, to get the ride height correct. Without
cutting there was at least 4 inches of space from the tire to the fender
lip! Now after cutting it looks correct, from center of rim to fender
lip is measuring 15.5"
Question is, now that these are installed, it drives fine on smooth
roads. It seems nice and tight. But, when I go down snow covered
roads, which are very rough, I get some noise from the front end. It
sounds like a clattering noise, hard to explain, but it only does it
when I get up to speed where I'd think the wheels were hitting small
bumps making the spring/strut work pretty fast to dampen everything.
My brother who is a mechanic mentioned it might be the swaybar
endlinks. They were very hard to come off, mine are originals with
110k. Would worn links make noise like this? Everything else seemes
tight. The only parts I disconnected were the swaybar links, strut
pinch bolt, and I disconnected the control arm from the subframe.
Everything was torqued to spec when I put it back together.
I hope it isn't the cut moogs and sensatracs making the noise, I didn't
read anything bad about them in that respect. But, my luck, it wouldn't
surprise me.
Any ideas where to look first?
Thanks!
Jack
95 ATX
Front end: Getting better
Back end: Saggy