Rear end looseness?

crashmy911 · 08-13-2005, 04:52 AM

My car feels loose in the rear. It is a 1978sc. Purchased new falda rear tires and don't know what pressures I should be running front to rear. This could be causing me my problems. Also when I had the car sitting for so long I had to clean up the wires to the starter and put in a new ground wire. When I did this I had to remove the rear sway bar and it was difficult to get the sway bar on at the ends. I noticed alittle bit of seperation on the right side at the sway bar mount. Could this be causing all of my problems. the car feels really awful and unstabble with the new rear tires almost like they have loose side walls in comparrision to the old worn out dunlap 8000's. Help what should I start looking for to correct the looseness in suspension. I didn't have before the new rear tires.

Oh Haha · 08-13-2005, 05:14 AM

You might start with 32 front, 36 rear pressures. I believe the factory settings are 29f, 34 r. New tires need a few miles to wear the newness off. My Fuzions did the same thing. After a few hundred miles, all was well.
As far as the swar bar, you should hook it back up with the car on the ground. Hope this helps.

crashmy911 · 08-13-2005, 05:20 AM

How can you hook it back up with the wheels on the ground I can't get my fat belly under there when its on the ground!

Oh Haha · 08-13-2005, 05:26 AM

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! Dude, that made my day.

Ok,(wiping the tears from my eyes), you could also get the car up on some 2x12's or something similar. The idea is to have the car at ride height and level. Try just putting the wood under the tires so you have enough room to get your hand under to tighten the bolts.

anthony · 08-13-2005, 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by crashmy911
I noticed alittle bit of seperation on the right side at the sway bar mount.

I'd get that weled up asap.

porschenut · 08-13-2005, 06:11 AM

sounds like you have the dreaded and ubiquitous broken sway bar mount. Get it welded and you should be fine. New tires usually feel squirmy for a few hundred miles. As for pressures, RTFM.

crashmy911 · 08-13-2005, 07:15 AM

Its not the weld it is the rubber bushing inbetween the welded part and the steel part that goes to the bottom side of the welded part. Seperation is in the rubber. Car just feels to loose. Like something is broken but it is not the welded on mounts for the sway bar. Also I will try putting the car on blocks and reattaching the rear sway bar. Last time I had this off when I reinstalled the engine it didn't effect anything so I wouldn't think that by doing it the same way I did it last time would effect the handling. So having the car sitting on the ground when mounting rear sway bar will effect a cars handling or is this just something that some people do. thanks I've never heard of this.

Bill Verburg · Bill Verburg's Garage

When the rear sway bar mounts break they increase understeer(push)

stlrj · 08:44 AM

At the same time a broken or removed rear bar will tend to stabilize the rear end, that's the reason for the increase in understeer or push from the front tires not being able to stick to the road surface compared to the increase in rear traction.

Also, new rubber always feels a bit squirrely until you get a few hundred miles on them.

Paulporsche · 08-14-2005, 09:08 AM

Check your rear spring plate bushings too.

ianc · 08-14-2005, 10:04 AM

Shot rear shocks can do this too...

ianc

rcecale · rcecale's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by crashmy911
Its not the weld it is the rubber bushing inbetween the welded part and the steel part that goes to the bottom side of the welded part. Seperation is in the rubber. Car just feels to loose. Like something is broken but it is not the welded on mounts for the sway bar. Also I will try putting the car on blocks and reattaching the rear sway bar. Last time I had this off when I reinstalled the engine it didn't effect anything so I wouldn't think that by doing it the same way I did it last time would effect the handling. So having the car sitting on the ground when mounting rear sway bar will effect a cars handling or is this just something that some people do. thanks I've never heard of this.

Crash,

Did you ever get this issue resolved?

I believe I've got a similar issue going on with my 86. I took a few pics to show what I got. Looks quite a bit like what you've described above.

Randy

450knotOffice · 450knotOffice's Garage

Hmm. Now that's interesting. I just looked at mine and the rubber bushing is tucked right up into the cradle. I'm curious myself what could cause that. Is it like that on both sides or just the left side, as shown?

If I were you, I'd PM Chuck Moreland, TRE Cup and Tyson Schmidt. These guys can definitely answer this question.

By the way, I had serious squirrelly issues after I replaced my rear tires. It felt borderline unsafe for a couple hundred miles. Then the tires settled down and all was right with the world again.

rcecale · rcecale's Garage

Interestingly enough, Scott, it's only like this on the left side. The right side is "tucked right up into the cradle" just like yours.

I've been hearing some occasional clunking which I've chased as far as new engine & tranny mounts and even new axles/CV joints. I've read on this BBS where a loose swaybar can cause clunking, and have checked it out a few times while it's been up on jackstands, but I haven't seen this before.

I'm positive this is the source of the clunking and "squirellyness" of the rear end. Now I just need to know how to fix it...

Maybe the clamp is tweaked???

Randy

rcecale · rcecale's Garage

bump

smdubovsky · 08-03-2006, 05:16 AM

Are both clamps the same (on each side). That is such a big gap that no amount of "tweaking" could have done it. It looks like one might be the wrong part?

Edit: Could it be that one of the bushings is wrong? Is there an OD difference between different model years? I don't know, just throwing out ideas.

SMD

450knotOffice · 450knotOffice's Garage

Randy, did you PM Chuck M, Tre Cup and Tyson S.? I'm sure yours would not be the first one they've seen or heard of.

cbeers · 01:53 PM

Those sway bar bushings shown are FINE

I thought mine were cracked too when I did my spring plate bushings. Ordered new ones, and guess what? NEW ones are like that!

Oh well, it was cheap and easy to replace them.....

-Chris

From PP catalog:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/shopcart/911M/POR_911M_SUSshk_pg6.htm#item22

You can see in the pics that they are split...

smdubovsky · 08-03-2006, 02:12 PM

Randy, from the link Chris posted, you can see there are two different bushings 74-77 and 78-89. PET shows there are two different clamp types too. 901.333.753.01 for the early cars and 113.411.333 for the later ones (weird part #, but it pulls up correctly in pelican). I bet a PO has mixed and matched parts on your car...

SMD

rcecale · rcecale's Garage

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions, guys!

Haven't had a chance to dig into this issue, hopefully this weekend.

Scott, haven't PM'ed anyone yet, was really hoping to get this answered here, for everyone's benefit. (I suppose I could just post whatever I received as a reply...) Just may end up doing that anyway over the weekend.

Anywhooo, Chris, it's not the split in the bushing that has me concerned, it's more the big, almost-half-inch gap between the bushing and the "cradle" spot on the mount. Pretty sure that's not supposed to be there.

SMD, not sure yet about the parts, compared to the right side. I swung by Ryland's Import Auto Service (Free plug for Ryland!

) and spoke with him about it. Showed him a pic of the situation. He had a set of bushing attached to a swaybar he had in the shop that he gave me to compare to what I have currently installed.

Should be able to drop both clamps this weekend and do the comparison, but first glance indicates the same parts on each side. I'll post back whatever I find...with more pics.

Thanks again, fellas! This forum just never quits!!!

Randy