Floating Feeling?

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BJDEALER

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I have started driving my 66 Cuda now just cruising. I still have lots of work to get it "Road worthy" My question is when i am cruising about 40 or 50 Mph hit a bump or dip in the road creates a floating feeling almost fish tail. I figure its bad leaf springs. When i park my car on a level concrete floor the driver side is noticably lower in the back. Thanks for the help
 
I have started driving my 66 Cuda now just cruising. I still have lots of work to get it "Road worthy" My question is when i am cruising about 40 or 50 Mph hit a bump or dip in the road creates a floating feeling almost fish tail. I figure its bad leaf springs. When i park my car on a level concrete floor the driver side is noticably lower in the back. Thanks for the help
The torsion bars are adjusted too high. Lower the front of the car.

George
 
How do i adjust the torsion bars? That does not explain why the back driver side is so low does it? I just had an alignment will this mess it up? I found some other leaf springs so i think i will pick them up anyway. Probably need to be replaced.
 
There's a big bolt sticking up on the lower control arms. Loosen to lower the front end. My handling improved after raising the rear of the car, but I still get that loose feeling around 95
 
The driver side might be a little bit lower in the front, but the back is really low. The car looks like a see saw from the back.
 
If your car needs constant steering correction to maintain a line and the front end parts are tight like new, increasing your caster settings should alleviate some or all of the twitchiness.

If your car feels like it has a bad case of the Clem Kadiddle hops, or at least uneven dipping and floating, it's probably because the shocks have gone away. Replace the shocks.

Because your Mopar has adjustable front torsion bar springing, you can level out your car from side to side and front to rear by adjusting the torsion bars, (for instance, lowering the right front will raise the left rear, etc.), but doing so will just mask the real problem. Your rear end is sagging because the rear springs are worn out with the driver's side having lost more of the factory arch than the other. The short time fix is to have them re-arched, but the best fix is to replace them with new, not used, ones. Raising the rear ride height up in relation to the front will lessen any existing caster requiring the static setting increased just to maintain what's there now.

Modern gas replacement shocks (good ones, not wally world specials) will also allow you to run higher all around spring and stabilizer bar rates than the factory did without ruining the ride, making the car handle far better than these cars could when factory new.
 
How do i adjust the torsion bars? That does not explain why the back driver side is so low does it? I just had an alignment will this mess it up? I found some other leaf springs so i think i will pick them up anyway. Probably need to be replaced.

We covered this ground thoroughly on this forum not so long ago, but here's the jist of it.

1. Loosen the control arm bolts and retorque them afterward to prevent binding of the bushings.
2. Take the weight off of the torsion bars before you turn the adjustors.
3. Lubricating the adjustor threads will make them turn more easily and help prevent them from galling.
4. Measure the car's static ride height before you start. Using the front and rear of the rocker panels next to the pinch flange gives you a convenient place to measure to the ground to get the car level front to rear and side to side.
5. Park the car on a long enough section of level pavement to give you room to roll it back and forth to unload the suspension after lowering it back on the ground.

And yes, no matter what causes it (adjustments, parts replacement, etc.), altering the ride height will change suspension settings requiring them to be reset.
 
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