Broken spring?

[TheGr8Doughboy]

After wheelin it pretty hard this weekend I noticed the left rear sits just over an inch lower than the right side and is MUCH softer (ie. if I sit on the DS of the tailgate it sinks down but not so much on the PS). None of the springs show damage from a visual inspection. I don't have a bumpstop on that side and they are stock springs with add-a-leafs.

On a seperate note I have front end vibration causing the steering wheel to bounce back and forth but only when the steering wheel is turned slightly to the left... and only bad in the first 30 mins of driving. Tie rod ends or something allong those lines?

A picture of the action to spur on the advice.

Thanks
Chris

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Did one of the spring retaining clips break open? That happened on both sides of my '87 and now it looks like a lowrider, but not quite. The springs are probably atill intact, but now they can seperate due to the fact that they are not being held together. Did you check that?

 

[TheGr8Doughboy]

Just ran out and checked that... there's more space between the leaves on the high side than on the lowside and all of the clips seem to be fine...

Chris

 

[GLTHFJ60]

And all of the leaves on the low side are intact both on the engine side and tailpipe side of the axle? Concentrate on the bottom spring, because I believe that the bottom spring carries most of the load.

Did a spring mount break? What about a shackle mount? BTW, I mean the metal mount that is part of the frame. I think that if it had split on one end but not the other, then it would not come off but only let the spring to travel more. That would be the worst case scenario.

Good Luck!