Rear Coil Springs, Knowing when Bad??

[aboyer]

I have a 68 C-10 and have just replaced the body bushings and shocks all around. Earlier this year I weight in the back of my truck to handle better in the snow. Now that the weather is better, I have removed the weight, and I am getting a ton of wheel hop.

I am trying to improve the driveability of the truck, but I am wondering if the springs might be shot?? The rear end seems very light and not handles well over bumps at higher speeds 40-60mph.

Does anyone have any suggestions? How do you know when the springs need to be replaced?

Thanks in advanced.

Adam

[byrd]

I don't know a whole lot about suspensions,but for around $130 or so I would replace the springs. It isn't that hard to do and I'm sure it would make a vast improvment over the 35-40 year old springs. Just my .02

[Longhorn Man]

The wheel hop has me scratching my head here.
I would get under there and look at the Trailing arms REAL good. They tend to sud and seperate, and even break in 2 pieces...esp in your (our) neck of the woods. Pay special attention to where the two halfs are joined. There's probably a bunch of rust forcing the metal apart.
Also look at the bushings at the front of the trailing arms, and the U bolts on the axle, and may as well look at the pan hard bar too, but that would be another issue all together.
In reality, while there is a posability that your springs are bad, I would say it is not probable.

[71chevylongbed]

my guess would be that your shocks are shot. with bad shocks the coil backends can act like that.

[cdowns]

a good pair of shock absorbers should also be added to the list

[byrd]

He said in the first post he has replaced the shocks all the way around.

[aboyer]

I know its not the shocks, I have replaced with brand new shock in the front and rear.

The odd thing is that it didn't do this when I had the extra weight in the rear. Once I removed this, the back end feels very light and likes to bounce.

[4x4Poet]

Wheel hop is generally defined as a result of axle wrap under grippy tire traction until until the suspension springs won't bend anymore and the springs overcome the traction coefficient of the tires and everything lets loose. Like LonghornMan implied, wheel hop is more of a leaf spring thing, not coil spring with rigid axle-locating trailing arms.

Bounce is generally defined as a strict up and down motion with no axle wrap.

Which behavior does your truck exhibit?

[aboyer]

It is definately axel bounce in that case. It only happens when the truck bed has no load on it either. When it has weight in the rear, you don't feel the bounce.

[4x4Poet]

OK. If you placed heavy weight in the truck after you installed shocks, I can just about guarantee that the lower stance of the weighed down truck punched out the shock inside. Before throwing anymore $$ at it, pull one of the rear shocks and check if it still dampens.

As far as the springs go, if they're bad, you'll see abnormal bends in the spring windings and/or the truck will usually sag in comparison to the front since the front never had an extra load like the rear cargo area of the truck.

I'm replacing the undamaged, but tired coils all around on a '72 C10 burb. I discovered while researching what coils to use that *cargo coils* are now available for the rear. They compress the first few articulation inches like stock coils for a good ride, but have closer windings that come into play nearer full compression to handle loads better. A good upgrade over OEM.

[sneakysnake]

Sounds like a knot or an out of balanced tire.

[Longhorn Man]

Originally Posted by 4x4Poet

... I discovered while researching what coils to use that *cargo coils* are now available for the rear. They compress the first few articulation inches like stock coils for a good ride, but have closer windings that come into play nearer full compression to handle loads better. A good upgrade over OEM.

Most coil spring trucks have that set up stock.