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By charliemccraney - 18 Years Ago
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I've had chatter when using reverse since I bought the truck about 8 years ago. The only things that have been consistent since I've owned it is the transmission, rear end, and rear springs. There have been 3 different engines, along with three different clutches. The driveshaft was replaced after the installation of the second engine. Diggerdon thinks it might be the springs wrapping. Anyway it's getting to be annoying. The transmission, rear end, and springs have not been rebuilt since I've had it. Might any of these three be the culprit? Any of you truck guys experienced this?
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By GREENBIRD56 - 18 Years Ago
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Charlie - I also think spring wrap is doing this - has one of the transmissions been a "granny low" set-up? Usually they are awful about spring wrap in forward as well as reverse. Trucks also often have those "dual rate" leaf springs where they put a soft, unladen arch in there that goes away when you load the bed. Applying a load of multiplied torque to the drive shaft (in either direction) tends to rotate the housing and lift the right rear in forward and left rear in reverse. When you add this rotation to the tendency of the pinion to climb the ring gear - the soft arch of the spring gets wound up prettty quick.
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By charliemccraney - 18 Years Ago
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The transmission has been the same the whole time. It's a top loaded 3 speed so I think it's a T86. Good traction bars might be a cure. It does hop when I do a burn out so I need to do something in order to prevent breaking things.
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By MoonShadow - 18 Years Ago
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A cheap way to find out is to make clamps out of 2 pieces of flat stock with a bolt at either end. Place them near the ends of the longer leaves at the front of the housing. Usually two on a side will do it. This was a fairly common practice on a lot of 60's cars. You clamp them down hard for the track and effectively bind the two leaves togather. If this works but dosen't cure it then go with tracion bars. Chuck
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By Pete's Panel - 18 Years Ago
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Charlie, the most over looked item in a leaf spring suspension is the spring and hanger bushs, my be yours are still the originals. "Seat of the pants" difference between old and new is very noticeable. Made a big difference to any effie I have owned. For some reason people tend to not think about them. The new poly style give you a choice of hard, soft or in between. A mate of mine with a 78 F100 spent a fortune on the front end trying to stop it "walking around", in desperation he did the rear bushs and the problem was solved. Check and/or replace the spring centre bolts as well.
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By charliemccraney - 18 Years Ago
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The bushings probably are worn. I have not replaced them. The fronts were real bad. The bushings were so loose that the truck would slide on them when cornering. I didn't figure out what was making the poping noise until I put a pair on monoleafs on to lower it. I'll try Chuck's suggestion first. Don has told me about that one too.
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By charliemccraney - 18 Years Ago
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I haven't done anything about it yet. Got busy with the exhaust.
Here are some pictures of the springs.
It looks like this clamp may have slid forward some. So I guess I'll see if I can knock it back and make some clamps to hold the front leaves and see what happens. Are the ones that are separated from the rest the helper springs?
Do y'all think mono leaf springs are any good for performance? I need to lower the rear so that it matches the front. I've already installed mono leafs up front. They seem to do pretty well. I'll probably need traction bars with them but that shouldn't be a big deal. I don't really plan on carrying much.
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By MoonShadow - 18 Years Ago
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Looks like just a standard truck spring. The spring wrap does appear to have slid a bit but they do very little anyway. The clamps keep the springs from sliding and make them much stiffer. You may not want to run them tight on the stree. Traction bars are always a decent idea. I never have been able to convince myself to use the mono leaf springs. If you break one your in deep )(&^$%$% Chuck
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By Glen Henderson - 18 Years Ago
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How much did you lower the front? The most economical way to lower the rear on a slick is to relocate the housing to the top of the springs, this will get you at least 3 to 4 ins. It will require a frame notch, but pretty easy. Just a piece of 4'' tube split in half and welded in. Boxing a section of the inside frame is a good idea. You will also need to install shorter shocks.
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By Eddie Paskey - 18 Years Ago
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Hey Charlie; You might look at the pinion angle. Looks like it is pointing up amd believ it should be down a taste. Bell tech makes shims for this problem. Just a thought. GOD bLESS eDDIE
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By Pete's Panel - 18 Years Ago
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Most of our Aussie F100 came with 9 leaves in the rear spring pack, counted 8 in yours Charlie, so is propably the same just can't see the last small one in the photo's. Because I don't carry big weight in the back I pull the bottom 4 out. The truck sits lower because the thickness of the 4 leave [approx 1"] has been removed and the remaining 5 flatten out a little bit more than before. It softens up the ride as well. Just make sure your springs are not to worn and the hangers are not to far past vertical. I get 2"-3" doing this. Longer hangers will give you a bit more and move your pinion angle down a touch as well.
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By charliemccraney - 18 Years Ago
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I have thought about the monoleaf breaking but it seems to me that if a multileaf broke the situation would be the same. After all there is only one leaf holding it to the frame. The front monleafs provide a 3" drop. It actually dropped it about 2.5" because the original spring bushings were toast. I think that flipping the axle will drop it too much. The tubes are 3", I think and the spring pads are about .5" high from the axle tube. So I think flipping it may set it closer to 4" from where it is. If the rears are anything like the fronts were, I need it to go about 2.5" from where it is. I measured it a year or two ago and the rear needs to drop less than 3" from where it is in order to level the truck. Can the pinion angle cause it to hop? It's possible that the axle is not original. It should be a 3.70 but the tag on it looks like it reads 3.89. I haven't tried to verify it yet. My biggest concern about lowering the rear is that it looks like there will be about .5" of clearance between each tire and the frame rail. I don't know if that will be adequate.
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By pegleg - 18 Years Ago
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Charlie, Pinion angle could explain some of it. Summit or Jegs sells angled wedges to help correct it. You may need to move the nose of the rear end down a hair if you lowered it.
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