So..I got her lowerd.. cut 1.25 coils off front..and new shocks.... Jamco Rear lowering Coils..3 inch drop.. As you can see its not that low... But I keep getting a Bottoming out and thud.. from what seem like the drive shaft hitting the tunnel... I can jump up and down on the back with 2 people.. and Not a Peep.. but...Drive down the road with my kids in the back... and Thud,Thud... I cut off the tips of the bump stops... Could it possibly be the Lever shock aren't pulling their weight... I did the exact same to my 54 buick..same ride height... No probs.... Any Ideas....Also 1 hubcap wont stay on... flew off...and every bump I can hear it screech...then loosens... I believe I can bend the teeth back out...but wanna wait to see if y'all have ideas first.... FYI.. the car is all stock.. and the Lever shock look great.. from the outside.. almost look new or Remand. They do however seem to be sitting at the bottom of their travel... Do they make shorter hanger for them....
good point...I noticed that the front fender was replaced at some point.. (wrecked I assume) ... maybe the rim was involved.. and not replaced.. the spare is New and the rim is good.. I'll switch it and see... FYI the current rim looks good... To the naked eye anyway...Also I have a Steering wheel shimmy at 60mph... Huh..?? Two Birds One Stone..
I have a similar clunking issue with my 55 Super. I think it's the shocks. I don't think they like to be lowered... I'll be switching them out when I do my airbags this winter. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I've written Applehydraulics about bottoming shocks as a result of lowering the car.. The shock link needs to be vertical and the lever horizontal with the car in a static position. You want the lever to be in the middle of it's travel. On the Olds this means shortening the shock links.
It means the same thing on the Buicks, too. I blew out the shocks on my '54 after lowering it. '54 and '55 Buicks have lever shocks, in '56 they switched to a tube shock. I'm going to make that conversion when I get the car back on the road. -Brad
That's what I thought... and how do I do this..cut and shorten then.. weld them back together..??? or.. Can I buy shorter ones... Thanks for confirming my suspicions..
Cut and weld them back together. Should be pretty easy. I plan to weld a sleeve over the splice area. Going to measure tomorrow. I have no idea on shorter ones.
Ok.. well, please let me know how it goes.. Im gonna wait before I do mine.. see how yers turn out... feel free to text me as well... or a pic too... thanks a lot for the help... 702-622-2733
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