[Guest]

Well, I thought after replacing the bad GW lca I had, this problem would be gone, but's it's still here.

Basically, what's going on is whenever I take a turn somewhat sharply (freeway or city) and there are bumps or uneven pavement on the road, my rear axle seems to shift and then my entire car shakes slightly and feels wobbely (sp?) and loose. I don't feel like I'll lose control of the car but it is definetly noticeable and it's not a comfortable feeling.

BTW, the rear end looks good, meaning the upper control arms are in good shape, and I have GW lca's, hotchkis sway bars, koni shocks, body bushings and 107k miles on the original rear end (3.08's).

Any idea's or things to check?

I was thinking maybe the sway bar is shifting, but it used to do this when i first got the car (thought lca's were going bad), then it was better when I upgraded to the hotchkis sway bar and GW lca's, and then it got worse as my GW lca went bad, but it has since been replaced and it's still here. Let me know if there is any other info I can provide. TIA

 

[Guest]

Check the bolts on the shocks. If they are even a tiny bit loose, your car will have the symptoms you described. Grab each shock and try to wiggle it. If it wiggles at all, one of the bolts (or lower nutted stud) is loose.

Besides the wiggle test, you need to reach waaay up and see if one of the two bolts on each shock top is loose. HTH.

 

[Guest]

Could the posi be the cause?

slick50

 

[Guest]

kdrolt: Thanks, I'll go check that now. I actually didn't even think about it being the shocks but it's worth a shot.

slick50: I don't know if this could be the posi but I sure as help hope it isn't. Oh well, if it is, I guess it will be time for 3.73's, alum. driveshaft, and an eaton.

EDIT: I checked the shocks. I shook and grabbed them but they didn't feel loose. I threw a socket up there anyway and did find a loose bolt on the left (if looking at front of car) shock. I tightened down as much as I could but then I broke the socket. Luckily I had two set of sockets (both of which are cheap, poor quality sockets) and I threw the other 10mm socket on there. Went and tightened down the other shock, but I broke that socket too. I think I could get the bolts tighter but now I need some "real" sockets that won't break before I can be sure. I'll be at Sears this weekend buying some high quality tools and then I'll re-tighten those bolts again.

I drove the car around breifly and it felt fine. I couldn't get a shift out of the rear end but I will be able to test it better tomorrow on my way to class because there are certain points in the road where I KNOW the rear end has shifted regulary every time I traveled over the same spot at the same speed.

Thanks for the help so far. If anyone else has any comments, suggestions about this, please let me know.

 

[Guest]

If possible, with a very trusted friend. Have them get in, and go from park to reverse and drive, while you look underneath see if anything moves more than what would seem normal. If that checks out, have them push against the car (to shake it from side to side), this might point to the problem, hopefully. Perhaps the rear control arm bushings are giving up on ya?

 

[Guest]

Justin,
At least if you're breaking the sockets you can't leave them hanging on the car!

When I first saw you post that you had a problem with your rear end I was sure it was because you hang out with Bruce just a little too much!

Just giving you a bad time as usual

Rick

 

[Guest]

Lynn, I will being trying your advise in about 30 minutes with my buddy. What exactly should I be looking for. I am decently aware of what should and should not be moving, ect. but I was wondering if there is something in perticular you're talking about. Like I said, a bunch of us looked at the rear end when it was up on th lift at the Fresno Mod day. Everything seemed to check out but we didn't inspect very cautiously because we had narrowed down the problems to the GW LCA.

When you say the "rear control arms" I assume your talking about the upper ones right? The lowers are Global West and both have less than 2k miles on em. One actually has like 300 miles on it cause it's brand new. The first one was bad so I had to trade for a new one. Now I know for sure the lowers are fine. The uppers did look very good though. I wanna say Tully, but I could be wrong, and a few other people looked at it and said it (including bushings) was in good shape.

I also wanted to throw something out there that maybe will help a little. I was behind a mustang gt for a little bit on the fwy while heading home today. I noticed that around these turns (75mph) his car and rear end would do the exact same thing over the bumps as mine does. The rear end hit the bumps, popped up because of the impact and the fluctuation in road surface (which is perfectly normal), and began shifting back and forth. I could see the rest of the car kind of rattle and shake a little bit while doing this. It appears to only happen around turns, which is the same as my car. It basically looks like the ass of the car is shaking and you can see the rear axle shifting back and forth quickly yet not a significant amount. Make sense?

I'm beginning to think that there may not be a problem with my car and that it just might be the stiffness of the koni's and whatever. I have the koni's set at 3 which isn't too stiff but maybe it's stiff enough to give the rear axle enough harshness to make it smack against the fluctuations in the road and so while turning, I'm not getting a full grip on the pavement because of the forces against the car when traveling fast in the turn. Maybe the stiffness of the rear suspension and the fact that i'm running on stock ss springs with 107k miles on them is just not a good combo for taking turns fast. I dunno, this sounds kinda crazy as I'm saying it, but could it be?

Hmmm interesting though. I'm kinda thinking something is wrong but ya never know. I could use more input and advise from some of you smart suspension people! TIA

 

[Guest]

Sounds like axle hop to me, only a bit worse than normal...I'd think upper control arm bushings, but you say they look ok...our cars don't have the best suspension for holding the axle in place side to side.

 

[Guest]

I'd double check your upper CA's. If you have aftermarket lowers and the orig uppers. Ive heard they can tear the stock ones up. Mine went bad and it was hard to tell just by looking at them. I had to take both hands and wrench that sucker to even see if it moved any. Theres a lot of pressure on that rear end, but the main symptom is wheel hop. I got it around 75-80 and my tires were wearing a little funny because I rode like this for a while. When I removed them I could see what the problem was and it was the bushing close to the body. The bolt had worn an elliptical hope which I could not see. Just an idea but that what it seems like to me. Good Luck!

 

[Guest]

Thanks Karl..I'm gonna look into the uppers alot more in depth tomorrow. The more I think, and read about this, the more I think it is the uppers. I will probabaly end up putting in hotchkis ones anyway. Just cause I seem to enjoy blowing money away so mine as well do it all, right? LOL!

But right now I'm off to celebrate my dad's b-day.

Oh and I'll be more than happy to take any more comments/suggestions about this. THANKS!