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Replaced the rear coil springs and shocks in my 72 vert yesterday night. When I pulled out the springs I noticed 2 of these were attached on the passenger side spring (pic below) and 1 on the drivers side. Are these sort sort of after-market "stiffeners" or used to adjust ride height?
In any case I think I found the source of some weird rattling noise I would hear occasionally
Last edited by dalilama; March 25th, 2016 at 08:02 AM.
Reason: spelling
Well the new ride is much nicer. No more rattles and a good solid ride. The stance is better but seems a little higher than I expected. I don't think I'm used to the "proper" stance. I'll assume the new springs will also settle in a bit so I'll give it time.
Apparently those little buggers were indeed better noisemakers than anything else...
Interesting. In all my years I have never seen any of those. I guess you could adjust your ride height with those. I believe contraption would be the correct terminology for these Eric.
Interesting. In all my years I have never seen any of those.
What? Have you never thumbed through a JC Whitney catalog?
These were the poor-man's coil spring spacers, popular to jack the rear of the car in the 1960s to clear oversize tires. Alternately, you could reverse them and clamp a coil together to lower the car. Most often, we used these to patch up sagging rear springs.
Both type of metal Spring spreaders were notorious for making noises ( squeaks. Or rattling). The rubber ones work very well for sagging front springs (settling under weight of those older model Rocket engines) ,but they required a special spreader tool to install them.
Larry
When I got out of the Navy in 84 I worked at a Sears auto center for a few years. They pushed us to sell springs all the time. We did sell lots of cargo coils and I still like them. We also had these plastic snap in spring spreaders. I can't seem to find any pictures right now.
Springs are still rather in expensive and very easy on the rears to change but sure make a big difference.
Back then on our 442's we used to get a set of used station wagon (not vista Cruisers they were too strong) springs and put them in. Would give the car the perfect stance to put larger tires on. Cause we never ever went with painted wheels and dog dish hub caps. We always had some kind of mag or chrome wheels.
I hate to admit it but I used those screw-in type spacers to jack up the front end of a 55 Ford WAYY back in the day. Going for the gasser look, wound up with no spring action at all! I think it lasted until I hit the first pothole when half of them fell out...
It has been several decades since I thumbed through a J.C. Whitney catalog. I do remember the rubber ones and the twist in kind that you twisted with a 1/2 ratchet. I also remember the horseshoe ones you could put under the front coil springs.
March 25th, 2016, 08:02 AM
