While running on the freeway, the rear suspension on my '39 coupe collapsed. Found out the shock shaft on the right rear coilover had unscrewed from the upper mounting eye resulting in the loss of the upper spring keeper and coil spring. How the steel shaft managed to unscrew itself is troubling at best. Next time you are up on a lift or jack, check out YOUR shock before it happens to you. Bilstein shock, by the way. Paul
My buddy had that happen to both his rear coil overs on an OT Chevelle. Very scary situation he ended up having to replace shocks and springs from the damage. Luckily that's all the damage that occurred. Joe
I had a buddy loose one in Podunk, Oklahoma. He got himself towed to the local wrecking yard/garage. I got an all expense paid trip to Podunk. The yard owner laughed, he had several early Ford springs. Yes it is a good idea to keep an eye on your coil overs or any suspension component for that matter. Seems like suspension gets neglected more than any other part of our cars.
AH What duh you know. At the risk of sounding *assholiness there is a reason that "Street Rods" became fair grounds cruisers. *assholliness formally known as the Holiness Church of the Donkey.
] This car started out as a pure drag car and has an Art Morrison rear clip to allow for huge drag slicks. No way to install leaf springs at this point.
It would be a good idea to change the ladder bar to rear end bracket bolts while you are under there. The nyloc could do with a longer bolt to put more threads in the locking portion so that it works as intended. The general standard for race car tech is at least two full threads showing. I also see that this is another "plummeting" rate deal with the rear shocks canted over that much. The further that the suspension is compressed the less resistance there is--both shock and spring wise. Roo
Good advice. This year my OT El Camino got the QA1 setup, I'm going over it before the next ride. Winter seems like a good time to ''tighten the bolts'' on everything.
I used to full "pre-drive" check on my T Bucket once a week. How do you not regularly check a home built ride?
Good advice, but can this be improved? If it's threaded, castle nut or safety wire would prevent it from unscrewing, for example.
And I'm just say'in..... just because it's new and shiney, does not need to be looked at, or called= preventative maintenance..........
Coilovers are a PITA on the street IMO, rod ends don't hold up well to water and road grit, and they also have a tendency to seize when they sit for a while. I have a pair of drag-race afco's on the front of my O/T, Its been sitting for a couple months, I noticed they were stuck when I walked by the other day and tried to bounce the fender. I have had them seize up on back of an O/T Chevy II sedan when it sat for a bit too, so not the first time. So one more thing I gotta deal with when I do the make-over on the engine.
I have my Roadster up on stands once a week. I go from one end to the other touching, moving and checking every thing I can see or feel. This is not to put the OP in any bad light. It is just something I do. I also make a 4500 mile trip each year in my Roadster and I hate surprises.
I have found the loops ripped off the tops of coil-overs on drag cars that get trailered and tied down by the wheels. Apparently they fly around quite a bit when secured that way.
In addition the bouncing on the trailer wears out the seals in the shocks. Any serious racer ties the car down by the frame and the really smart one have "towing" shocks to replace their high dollar custom valved/tuned pieces while going down the road. "Coilovers are a PITA on the street IMO, rod ends don't hold up well to water and road grit, and they also have a tendency to seize when they sit for a while. I have a pair of drag-race afco's on the front of my O/T, Its been sitting for a couple months, I noticed they were stuck when I walked by the other day and tried to bounce the fender." George, they are probably stuck because they are frozen from the cold up there. Seriously, there is nothing wrong with coil overs on the street if they are done right. As you note the ones with metal to metal heim style ends are not a good idea but a quality urethane bushed shock should be fine provided that it is installed correctly. The OP's car appears to have relatively limited suspension travel judging by the photos (and the fact that it was originally intended for strip use) but as I mentioned in my earlier post, with the shocks laid down as they are the spring and shock rate are falling off increasingly quickly as the suspension travels in compression. That is why it appears to have a relatively high spring rate judging by the coil wire diameter. Any less and the shocks would bottom out on large bumps. As has been mentioned in numerous threads here, laying the shocks over at more than small angles is a no-no. I hear people say that "It stops sway" but actually it decreases roll resistance as the outboard shock lays down even more as the car rolls on its longitudinal axis. Roo
Make sure your bump stops bottom out before the coilover does. Take the spring off and lower the car down on the frame bump stops and leave a little space before the shock bottoms out. I put tie wraps on the shaft to check travel. Pete
Actually you could install quarter elips in there if you wanted to. Well I could so I am sure that you could. That would not change your original intent though, even if I don't agree with your suspension choice, you gave us all some damned good advice. No on can fault you for that, good on ya.
To answer some of the above: no, it didn't have a jam nut but it might now if there is enough thread. Drilling and pinning might be another option. This coupe has traveled over 12K road miles in the last 5 years, rides and handles great. It is very difficult to see the top of the shock (as you can see from the shot directly below) and a cursory inspection wouldn't detect the problem. Need to find a way to get a mirror up there if possible. Picture it for yourself; the upper spring keeper hides the very area you want to look at (the threaded portion of the steel shaft) and other than disconnecting the shock upper mount altogether, your weekly inspections would never see it. Checking things on fenderless roadsters is one thing, full bodied coupes are another. Moral? Before installing coilover shocks, be sure there is no way they can come apart like mine did. And that's the name of THAT tune............! PS Thanks for all the well thought out advice, much appreciated.
Probably not. But everyone that drives has the ability to at least take a look at their ride before setting out for a cruise. It's kinda funny. We'll take the time to figure out a place a place to eat, but we won't take the same amount of time to check out our ride?
The Jalopy Journal
