Hi All,
I am nearing completion on my 1968 Cadillac Deville
convertible, and need a bit of help with a rather strange issue. It has a
very bad “lean & sag” which I am not able to figure out.
The car leaned to the left when I purchased it, so it was
not a surprise. As it had been sitting on two flat left tires for 15
years, I chalked it up to needing new shocks & tires all around. I
replaced all of the shocks, and found one of those rubber ‘spacer’
things in the left rear coil (but not the right), leading me to believe the car
also had some leaning problems when it was last driven.
As the car still leaned, I measured the ride heights on each
corner. The left rear sits 3” lower than the right at the
bumper. The left front sits just under 1” lower than the right at
the bumper. Figuring it was a bad left rear coil, I replaced both with a
brand new set of TRW progressive coils. The car still sits exactly the
same! Still tilting to the left, by the same amounts.
I crawled back underneath to see if I could spot anything
unusual. I am fairly certain that the car has never been involved in an
accident, and is almost completely rust free. Nothing appears bent or
broken.
I measured the compressed height of the springs. The
fronts are exactly the same compressed height. The left rear coil
compressed height is 1” lower than the right rear. The spring seats
at the top of the coil are the same distance to the body on both sides, and
neither appears to be warped or bent.
The body mounts all look fine, the tires are inflated
correctly, etc. I also replaced the lower spring insulators when changing
the springs, and reused the top ones (which looked just fine). I was
careful to align the springs with the notches in the perches. It almost
seems like it just has 300 extra pounds on the left side for no particular
reason, but that isn’t the case.
Could this be a sign of a bent frame? Or can anyone
think of something else for me to check that I have missed? Should I just
put the spacer back in and let the mystery stay a mystery?
Any help would be greatly appreciated – please just
email me off-list if you can think of anything. Thanks!
-Dave
PS - I am a big right-wing conservative, so anything
“leaning to the left” bothers the heck out of me! =)))
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