hello
i have an pumper issue with my olds the front bumper is hanging down about 3 cm

the shock absorber seem to be fine, does anybody hve an idea how to fix that ?

I attached a picure to see it

alex

 

Hello, Alex.

Are the nuts and bolts that hold the bumper to the "shock absorber" mounts all tight, and are the nuts and bolts that hold the "shock absorber" mounts to the frame holding them in the right position?

I agree that that's low, since the flexible plastic filler panels should all be tucked under the edge of the bumper.

Nice color, by the way - looks sharp!

- Eric

 

hey Eric
i checkts them they are aall tight. I thought about putting the numper off and try to bend the shock absorber a bit up ...

hehe thanks your pink match my light blue :-)

alex

 

All of the fasteners have some "play" ("speil") in them when they are loose - have you tried to loosen all of them at the same time, to see whether you can get enough movement to get the bumper closer to where it needs to be?

- Eric

 

Comment #1. Let's clarify a bit here. There are TWO shock absorbers, one on each side. Given that the bumper is apparently hanging low by an equal amount on both sides, it seems unlikely that there is a problem with the shock absorbers as both would have to have the same problem to the same degree at the same time.


Comment #2. From that photo (and it would be nice if you could take a few more photos from closer to the car and from different angles), it doesn't look like the bumper is hanging down so much is it is too far forward by the 3 cm you mention.



Below are two figures from the '73 Olds Chassis Service Manual showing the bumper and how it's mounted to the car. Basically, it's the two vertical bolts, one of which is shown to the left of the word "SPACER" in the upper figure, that hold the bumper on the car. All of the other attaching hardware is either the attachment of the unlabeled mounting plate to the bumper as shown in the upper figure or the attachment of the shock absorbers to the frame.



The point here is that there is no forward-backward adjustment in the mounting of the bumper unless there is some play in the mounting of the "energy absorber bracket" as shown in the upper figure. If you look closely at the "frame" in that part of the figure, it looks like there are some elongated mounting holes in it that might allow for some adjustment.

Given that it's 3 cm (a little over an inch) too far forward, which isn't that much, really, maybe that bracket could be adjusted and moved backward on each side.

If the mounting bracket can't be adjusted or is already as far back as it will go, I suppose it's also possible that the shock absorbers are not correct for a '73 and maybe the ones on your car are from a different year.

One question: how long has bumper been this way? Since you acquired the car and you're now just turning your attention to the problem? Or did the bumper just get this way recently?

 

Yes, Jaunty, but he does have a significant amount of potential vertical adjustment in both of the indicated places, and horizontal adjustment at the frame mount, as indicated.



- Eric