Bent spring perch?

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Jun 20, 2018
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Crestline
ive been tracking down a thunking noise coming from the rear suspension. While under the truck I had someone rock the truck back and forth and found the noise to be coming from the spring where it sits on the perch and it appears the perch may be bent down. Has this ever happened to anyone else? My local shop suggested bending it back up and welding in some kind of support? Maybe a 1”x1” angle bracket.
I’ve got a 3” tough dog lift.
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Thanks Jason. The truck was bone stock when I got it. What kind of abuse do you think would cause this?
 
I've never seen a spring bend a perch even under severe load. It's a short span and to bend it has to have had quite a bit of force to bend it. Especially with the spring saddle/hub upright less than an inch away.

Maybe someone beat on it previously or something got wedged in there on a trail. I don't see rust, so IMO, that's out of the question.

I may be wrong but that's where I'd put my money.

J
 
Thanks. However it happened, the fix will be the same. Think I’ll try to pry it straight and get a plate welded in there.
 
That bend looks normal to me. I'd keep looking for thunk.

Check top nut on shock tower. I've found this one will thunk if loose, with buddy rocking/bouncing.
 
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I've never seen a spring bend a perch even under severe load. It's a short span and to bend it has to have had quite a bit of force to bend it. Especially with the spring saddle/hub upright less than an inch away.

Maybe someone beat on it previously or something got wedged in there on a trail. I don't see rust, so IMO, that's out of the question.

I may be wrong but that's where I'd put my money.

J
Looking around a little bit more, it looks like that bend may be factory? This is from one of your trucks right Jason? I’d really like to confirm this before I go bending and welding on mine.
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The shop that installed my adjustable control arms rotated the axle back to fix the pinion angle. That might be making the spring perch lean back at a slight angle, making it appear more bent than it really is.
 
My pass side looks the same way. I’ll see if I can get pics of the drivers side tomm. I’m almost sure it looks the same way. I was doing my extended sway bar links last week and noticed the same thing.


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Few pictures:
Stock 07 127K mi. PS
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Stock 06 194K mi. DS
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Stock 07 174K mi. PS
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Stock 01 160K mi. PS
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Thanks guys. So it looks like that bend is factory.
Now I just need to figure out why my spring is moving around on my perch and making that noise.
 
If anyone is running adjustable control arms, could you get a measurement of both upper and lower arms from bolt center to center? I tried doing a search and couldn’t find anything. Thanks.
 
If anyone is running adjustable control arms, could you get a measurement of both upper and lower arms from bolt center to center? I tried doing a search and couldn’t find anything. Thanks.

Go back and measure your stock control arms (eyelet to eyelet) for the baseline adjustment. Are the upper or lower rear control arms adjustable or both? Upper requires much less adjustment to get the pinion to move compared to lower since lower have more impact on axle position (thrust angle) and the uppers have more impact on rotation of the axle. That makes comparing with others adjustments more challenging. The objective is to point the pinion up about 1 to no more than 3 degrees combined difference between the TC flange and the Pinion flange. So if TC is 89.5' degrees UP then your pinion should be 90.5' degrees UP (1 degree).

You can rule out pinion adjustment out as the cause of rotating spring perch angle: adjusting the pinion angle and that action relating to the position of the spring perch, the axle rotation would have to have been pretty substantial to visually notice a difference in position at the spring perch. Under normal pinion adjustment conditions we're talking a couple of degrees of movement, almost imperceptible to the eye. Anything greater would have created some pretty noticeable driveline vibrations.

Is your spring loose in the perch as it sits there? The axle had to droop so far downward for the spring to get loose, I don't see how under normal driving conditions the spring could be moving to the point of making noise unless a perch is broken, the spring isnt correctly seated, or its broken. Have you put a go-pro under there to capture the noise under motion? Are the shocks secure? The upper shock bushing should be bulging outward and rounded at the edges sandwiched between the two washers. Are the control arms torqued correctly and lubed?
 
Go back and measure your stock control arms (eyelet to eyelet) for the baseline adjustment. Are the upper or lower rear control arms adjustable or both? Upper requires much less adjustment to get the pinion to move compared to lower since lower have more impact on axle position (thrust angle) and the uppers have more impact on rotation of the axle. That makes comparing with others adjustments more challenging. The objective is to point the pinion up about 1 to no more than 3 degrees combined difference between the TC flange and the Pinion flange. So if TC is 89.5' degrees UP then your pinion should be 90.5' degrees UP (1 degree).

You can rule out pinion adjustment out as the cause of rotating spring perch angle: adjusting the pinion angle and that action relating to the position of the spring perch, the axle rotation would have to have been pretty substantial to visually notice a difference in position at the spring perch. Under normal pinion adjustment conditions we're talking a couple of degrees of movement, almost imperceptible to the eye. Anything greater would have created some pretty noticeable driveline vibrations.

Is your spring loose in the perch as it sits there? The axle had to droop so far downward for the spring to get loose, I don't see how under normal driving conditions the spring could be moving to the point of making noise unless a perch is broken, the spring isnt correctly seated, or its broken. Have you put a go-pro under there to capture the noise under motion? Are the shocks secure? The upper shock bushing should be bulging outward and rounded at the edges sandwiched between the two washers. Are the control arms torqued correctly and lubed?
Thank you for the in depth reply. I finally got some time to figure out what was going on, and thanks to your reply I had a good place to start.
I checked the pinion angle, and using my cheap angle finder, it was about 6 degrees up from the TC! I don’t know how I wasn’t getting crazy vibrations. I ended up adjusting the upper links in (shorter) 3/8” and brought the pinion angle to within 3 degrees of the TC. That was enough to stop the spring from moving around on the perch. I can’t believe the shop who installed my control arms actually set the pinion angle that far off! I haven’t talked to them about it yet.
For the hell of it, I checked the shock and control arm bolts. Everything else was tight.
So thanks for your help. It is so nice driving around listening for the clunk and NOT hearing it now!
 
Thanks for the pictures.
Did you coat your undercarriage in Cosmoline or something similar?
Just grease. As I work an area, I'll brush/wipe with marine or some similar grease that doesn't wash off easily.
 
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