Happy New Year: Out with the Old, and In with the New

I finished installing an Energy Suspension 4.2135G Shackle Set on the '66. I had noticed that the rear of the car would sway a bit and get loose under acceleration. Also, the driver's side of the rear was about 1/2" lower than the passenger side when the car was just sitting.

I knew that the car had a set of mid-eye 5-leaf springs with rubber eye bushings and stock shackles with Milodyne bushings from around 2002. I didn't want to spend the $250 and up for a set of new springs, and then $80 for shackles, until I knew I had to. So I bought the Energy Suspension shackle kit to update the old leafs.

Energy Suspension 4.2135G Leaf Spring Kit
includes 9/16" shackles and bushings for 1/2" front eye bolts.

The front eye bushing was in need of replacement.

[Photo Above] I removed the inner sleeve from the eye bushings by drilling them (the drill bit walks around the sleeve) and hammering them with a small socket extension. Then I used a 38mm socket and hammered the bushings and outer sleeves out together (lubed with PB Blaster), then hammered the socket back through. I originally bought the 38mm socket to fit the front of the Global West adjustable strut rods and it works here too. (Serendipity, baby!) Loud, lousy job, but it works...

The front eye bushings installed.

And on the car (before final torque).

Here are the new 9/16" shackles vs. the old 1/2" shackles.
Big difference.

[Photo above] Here's the driver's side (before final torque).. Notice the swapped bolts: This is the only way they'd fit. (Regarding tailpipe clearance on the driver's side, make sure you let the car rest fully on the springs to observe—the shackles pivot a great deal when the car sits on the ground vs. being jacked up in the air. I put a small dent in my large Magnaflow tailpipe to accommodate, but this probably wasn't even needed.) The top bolt requires pushing the sleeve in just a bit from the inside and inserting the bolt through the outside. I was puzzled for awhile on this one...

The passenger side installed (before final torque),
much more room thankfully.

The kit seems just great, and a great value as usual on Amazon. I'd recommend swapping the leaf bushings out one leaf at a time, and installing the shackles first, then the front eyes, then the axle u-bolts. I swapped leafs side-to-side, so I removed both leafs at once and tried to keep the rear axle on jack stands under the car, by myself. The axle did tip to one side and bruised the black axle paint a bit (and my ego), so be very careful if you work alone. Remember to use the supplied grease on the bushings and sleeves, and even on the bolts where they fit into the sleeves. Apply final torque to all the bolts while the car is resting on the ground, not jacked up.


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The Low Down On Lowering

When I assembled the car, I had noticed that the front was a little too high. The distance from floor to the top of wheelwell in the rear was 25.5" and 26" in the front. So I set about removing the springs to cut them down a bit.

The springs are 620 one-inch drop springs from Mustangs Plus. They are about 12" tall and IIRC are rated at 560lbs, which is actually pretty high. I had a local shop cut them down with a cutting wheel. There was no way I could hacksaw or jigsaw through these things. I had only 1/3 of a coil removed.

While the coil was out, I replaced the old rubber spring perch bushings with a set of polyurethane bushings. I greased the pivot shaft and the perch rocks back and forth smoothly now. The roller bearing spring perches are popular, but since my perches were in nice shape and just needed new bushings I went this way. I can feel a big difference driving the car now, as the perch allows the upper control arm to move freely.

Here's the coil and perch installed. I had to use an internal coil spring compressor with approximately six inches of steel spacers on top of the threaded rod to fit these short springs. I borrowed the compressor from Advanced Auto, but ended up buying it since it worked well enough for me. The previous owner had installed a set of Edelbrock Performer IAS shocks (Edelbrock 33237 Classic IAS Front Shock Absorber) a couple years ago, so I left them in. This is a good shot of the Baer Racing 12" brakes too.

Amazingly the front now sits at a perfect 25.25" after driving a couple miles to get the springs settled.

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New Shoes!

I bought a set of new tires the other day. Previously I was using 225/50/ZR16 (front) and 245/45/ZR16 (rear) Dunlop Sport 8000s on the Vintage Wheel Works V45 wheels. These tires were old and frankly with tire performance technology at an all-time high today, I figured I should splurge for some new tires.

I ended up with a set of Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec tires in 225/50/R16. They ride way better and grip way better, which I expected since they are highly rated on Tire Rack. I am using 36/36 for air pressure, and will adjust over the next couple hundred miles as they wear in. Since they are the same size and not staggered, I can rotate them around the car too.

One item to note is that these Vintage Wheel Works wheels are lug-centric (the lug nuts are tapered and center the wheel on the axle through tapered holes in the wheel), which is uncommon enough today that four local shops I visited to get the tires mounted and balanced had no idea what lug-centric even was. Most shops expect hub-centric wheels (the wheels are machined to center the wheel on the axle through the hole in the middle of the wheel -- no tapered lug nuts or lug holes) and attach the wheel/tire to be balanced with a hub attachment through the middle of the wheel.

These wheels couldn't be balanced properly that way (although each shop said they could until I explained the difference) and required the attachment that connected the wheel to the balancer through the five lug holes. The fifth shop had the attachment in the back room and literally figured out how to use it on my wheels. They balanced one wheel with the hub attachment and then the lug attachment for practice, and sure enough got two different balances. But they are all perfectly balanced now. Woo hoo!

Brace Yourself

I recently purchased and installed an export brace and a curved Monte Carlo bar (fits tall MSD distributor) to stiffen up the front suspension. Previously I had a chrome Shelby-style one-piece that was period correct, but a little flimsy (and too flashy). These new black tubular pieces are from Global West, and since I have many of their other suspension pieces on the car already, these new ones look good. I should say that since the six stock shock tower nuts and external tooth washers were too tall with this set up I bought some 5/16-24 cone lock-nuts to replace them and they fit great. I also bought 4 rubber washers to go between the fresh paint on the cowl and the back mounting area of the bar.

Bumpsteer Meets Baer Tracker

Cars have a tendency to change steering geometry and hence direction during suspension travel (called "bumpsteer"). Lowered cars are even more likely to bumpsteer. I bought a Baer Tracker bumpsteer kit which replaces the rusty, wimpy, stock tie rods and thin adjustment sleeves with these cool tubular units with hardened chrome-moly pins and Teflon-lined chrome-moly spherical bearings. Dallas Mustang has this kit for $110.