I just got my car on the road for the year, and noticed that the car is very squirrely. It feels like the rearend is loose / floating around. When I accelerate (just lightly, like from a stoplight) the back of the car shifts to the left. When I let off again, the rear of the car shifts back to the right. I am not beating the car, just driving it normally. I am pretty good with engines, but pretty bad with suspension. Any clues what might be going on? The car is a '69 with all stock components, plus a rear sway bar plus a right side airbag (control arms are not boxed). -Bob Cunningham bobc@gnttype.org
Sorry I can't diagnose the problem you're having, but from all I have read and heard, you really ought to get those lower control arms boxed, or you're risking damage to them. Maybe that's a possible cause of the trouble you're having? o No:
It sounds like one of the upper control arms is missing or missing a bolt. The rubber in the bushing could be gone, also. Or maybe there's a bunch of squirrels living in the trunk! :laugh:
suspension sounds to me that u have bad or worn bushings on the rear control arms . when u accelerate the right rear wheel drives forward and attempts to twist upward . if a bushing is worn out the suspension will move and the rear of the vehicle will shift to the left . does your car have upper & lower rear control arms ? gerry 72 gs 350
Good call- broken upper rear control arm. Ouch! (FWIW, the bushing appears to be in good shape, albeit not really mounted to anything anymore) Time to buy some (long overdue) good control arms. Thanks! -Bob Cunningham bobc@gnttype.org
Just a tip, if you have the money buy the boxed upper and lower controll arms. They will deffinetly improve your launch at lights!:TU: Larry
I had an 81 Cutlass years ago that had a real 'loose' feeling rearend. Turns out the front bolts in the rear lower control arms were worn half way thru! Bushings were stock and not all that bad. Glad to hear you found your trouble!
Thats nothing... I had an 84 mustang back in '99 I used as a beater in the winter up in MI..... anyway, the lower right side control arm on the rear actually broke off mount and all off of the body, just wired it up with some 8ga. wire and a coat hangar, and it was good to go till the summer.... as long as you didn't mind a little "Dog Tracking" ou: I knew it wasn't too bright but I figured that it was only a Ford...lol. NO great loss there.
Larry- Thanks for the advice, I'm going to just spring from some good stuff. HRPartsnStuff has a nice set of replacements, I'm gonna do all four with new bushings and the works. Definately hoping to launch better, and eliminate my wheel hop problem (which probably caused this in the first place). 2.0 second 60-foots are getting old... For a car that runs 11's, it's probably a good idea to upgrade this stuff, and what better chance to do it. I tried to wrap the whole thing with 8ga wire like madcat, but I only had about 12 feet of wire. Then I tried the duct tape, that didn't hold up either (J/K!!!). Thanks for the help all... -Bob Cunningham bobc@gnttype.org
NO..NO...NO I didn't wrap the whole thing with the wire, I just ran it through the bolt hole in the control arm and through some rust holes in the floor boardou: ou: Only broke on my once and luckily I was only doing 20mph... man what a ride that was. :gt: And I would never try it with anyting that has over 40 hp, so the mustang was perfect... :grin:
