jaunty75

Drove the '73 Custom Cruiser over a short stretch of washboard surface today, and I kept it slow, but afterwards I have this "sproing" sound coming from the right front whenever I go over any kind of reasonable bump or dip in the road. It's a single "sproing" sound. I cannot make the sound, however, by pushing up and down on the right front of the car when it's sitting in the driveway. Everything is quiet when I do that.

I took a quick peek under there this evening while there was still a little light left, and I didn't see anything amiss, but a spring that has separated into two pieces but still being held in place would not likely be obvious or even easily visible, I presume.

Thanks for any thoughts on this. I'll likely take it to my favorite mechanic for a look.

nsnarsk65cutlass

What does a broken spring sound like?well thats a matter of interpretation, if its broken ie 2 pcs it should be visible with suspension unloaded.I drove my 75 cutlass with a broken lf spring and it sat lower but never really made any unusual noises,i guess it depends on where the break is if it makes noise or not.

stan 65 cutlass

a swaybar endlink may have come loose too

jaunty75

To add a little mystery to the situation, I took the car for a quick drive this morning to see if the sound would still occur before I called the shop to make an appointment, and it did not, even though I went over some of the same bumps that easily produced it yesterday. One thing I thought of is that it might have been nothing more than a stone caught up in the spring and fell out. Seems unlikely, but I have no explanation at the moment.

I did check the endlinks, too, and everything looks tight. Thanks for that idea.

I'll update this if anything changes. For now, I'll just drive the car as usual and see if anything further develops.


P.S. I did wash it this morning, too. Maybe that fixed it?

(Yes, we can wash our cars outdoors in this part of the country at this time of year! It was about 45 degrees going to a high of 60 today. I'm playing golf this afternoon.)

76olds

Maybe the last time you were under the hood working ,you forgot an empty beer bottle/can/miki. I never do that but jus sayin...... could be the noise is gone now so you may have only lost 10 cents.

oldcutlass

Usually with a broken spring you'd notice a height difference. I'd check the control arm bushings, the two mounting nuts for the upper A arm (where the shims are), and shock mount rubbers.

jaunty75

Thanks. Good advice all. I had thought of the height difference issue, and I have not noticed any sag on that corner of the car at all.

MDchanic

For whatever it's worth, my '73 Delta had both front springs broken, with minimal (not at all obvious) height difference from side to side, and only very occasional clunking.
The springs were both broken at the very bottom, in multiple places (one was in four pieces), and the breaks were invisible until the lower control arms were removed (the bottoms of the springs are essentially inside of the frame member).

Just keep listening, and you'll narrow down the source of the sound.

- Eric

jaunty75

I had a '79 Buick Electra Limited back in the late '80s, and it once made similar groaning sound from the front end, and it did turn out to be a broken spring. You're right that the spring is held in place even if it is split into more than one piece, so seeing the break is difficult if there is one, and no ride-height difference was ever noted.

I've got an appointment later in the week to take it to my favorite shop here in town, and I'll post what they say when I know more.

Octania

"What does a broken front spring sound like?"

Usually sort of a "clunk"

:-)

It's almost Spring Break time, isn't it?

jaunty75

Had the car into my favorite shop today. When I took it in, the symptoms had been reduced to one thing, an occasional screechy-scrapy (stop me if I get too technical here) sound lasting for about a second and coming from the right front when stepping on the brakes relatively hard and coming to a stop. No brake issues have ever been noted, though. No pulsing, no pulling, pedal is firm, car stops straight and true.

They could not find any problems in the front end. But they didn't want to return the car without having their sister shop, which is down the road and around the corner and which specializes in suspensions, alignments, and brake service, take a look. That shop can't look at it until tomorrow.

In the end, this might all turn out to be nothing more than dust getting up into the works and causing parts that normally rub together without making a sound to start making as a sound when they rub together. I could see this as a plausible explanation for a while, but we're 40 or 50 city miles of additional driving on the car since driving it on the dirt road, and how long does it take for the dust to rub away?

RetroRanger

I once developed a screech sound on my way to work in my truck...at work I backed into a space and as soon as I backed up there was a kachink sound (bear w me here) after I drove away there was no more screech sound we concluded a rock got into a spot between the caliper and rotot and was dislodged when I backed up... so I guess its possible

Yellowstatue

This sounds like a case for Gerald McBoingboing!

jaunty75

Story ends: the second shop could find nothing wrong, either. I'm guessing the various squeaks and grunts were dust getting into places it doesn't normally get and causing parts that rub together to make noise they don't normally make. No noises heard now. The dust has probably finally worn away. No more driving this thing on dirt roads, though!

oldcutlass

Glad to hear it wasn't anything other than the normal grunts and ...

jaunty75

Thanks. The car's gettin' old, just like me!