Thread: The timesaver coupe

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Originally Posted by BIG-JIM

While out at the car show the other day Amber noticed the tire on the driver side rear was wobbling a bit. Hmmm sure enough she was right. So is it the wheel or the axle? Jacked her up today and swapped wheels side to side and sure enough same side still wobbles. Must be the axle. Now I'm no expert but I wouldn't think that my 2300 pound hot rod could bend a 31 spline ford 9" axle without doing some serious damage to the rim. Used rear? Was it always like that? I'm not getting any vibration out of it so I'm gonna let it be for now. Maybe replace the axle over the winter. On a side note I couldn't take it any more. While the wife wasn't looking I backed it out of the garage and up the driveway I went only to meet her at the top of the driveway (arms folded) "Get out of my car!" Yeah okay! Looked both ways and hit the vertical pedal on the right and I was off like a prom dress!! I took it around the block and was back in front of my house and came to a dead stop. She wanted me to pull it in the yard but instead I just stomped on it. She squatted and the front end got a little light and I was off like a shot again. Woooo that was fun!! I handed her the keys and said "It needs more caster" and just walked away whistling.

I had a similar problem with the axles on my car, that came from John's 9 inch Factory. The axles and rear housing were supplied by the Oze Rod Shop, where I bought my roller. The rear axles faces both had at least .015 inch of runout and of course the runout on the brake disc was much larger. I could tell from looking at the end of the axles that they had been rusty old axles from a salvage yard, sand blasted, shortened and resplined. No offer from Oze to replace the axles.

I junked those axles and bought some Currie cut to fit axles from Speedway. The came with newer SET20 bearings that eliminate the inner seal and use the gear lube for lubricant, rather than being a sealed bearing.

From your pictures, you have rear springs that are of the old variety, with small spacing between the coils. Newer models, like those sold by Ride Tech are not wound so tight and have less chance of binding up. On a car like yours, the spring rate should be quite low in the rear, perhaps as low as 150 lbs/inch. Ride tech has a spring rate calculator.

http://www.ridetech.com/tech/spring-rate-calculator/