hey guys, wanted to see if any one out there may have an idea of why my chevy is wheel hopping so bad. i have a 50 chevy sedan with air over leaf bags. i left 3 springs in the back with the bags. when i pull out on a hill the car shakes something terrible. the motor and all is shaking (str8-6) and it starts the wheel hop. now when i let the air out it pulls out fine. any help would be great.
I had a similar problem while running a temporary setup like that. The cause I found was the torque was overpowering the main spring causing it to oscillate. Are the first and second leafs held together with the clamp that was on it from the factory? It sounds like it is missing. In any event your situation is not safe. Metal fatigue will break your spring if this continues. I found a set of new aftermarket springs on ebay for $70 and I only removed the top three leaves. I made up the difference in ride height with lowering blocks. Long range for me will be to go to a 4-link setup.
Arent Air Ride systems Wonderful ? We just did an air assist system on a Studebaker truck, Truck is lowered & the guy wanted to use helper bags so he could tow with it. While we had the bed off & done installing the bags we took it for a ride, As watching out the rear window we noticed it had bad Spring Wrap, (which is what your car is doing) So i decide on the cure. Installed a set of solid traction bars from the axle housing to the frame, teflon bushed ends ... CURED all spring wrap. Now this was a good fix for this truck cus the axle movement up & down is limited cus its not BAGGED to lower & raise the truck. You may be able to do something close to eliminate spring wrap.
moonglow2 your rite the clamps are missing. do you think if i have a shop make new clamps it will cure some axle wrap.
the springs are to blame, 100%. I doubt clamps will help, the springs are too weak to start with and you removed some of that strength already. slapper bars, traction bars or a pinion snubber will help, a locating arm like 82-92 camaros use could be made to work.
evl50 -it's worth a try but if the shake is as bad as you say the spring may already be bent too bad to remedy it with a clamp.
evl50, I put air bags on '41 Ford, the springs were new, used the main spring plus two more, no spring clamps and everything workout great. If your springs are old, you might try putting one or two back in and use the clamps. Springs do wear out. Cruiser 49
100% leaf spring problem. The springs are wrapping up. add a link system and a good pair of shocks and youll never have the problem again
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