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Hi, I have a question. my 48 custom 8 has new shocks and springs and I have to say it has the work botting out ever seen in a car. It isn't bad with one person but if you add a total of four every bump feels like your hitting the frame. So I took it to the mechanic and he said frist to drop the muffler as it seems like that was the noise. Well I did that and it did help a bit. But in the end with 4 people not at all. Is there some kinda spring bumber os something like that I might be missing? Or am I looking at putting another leaf in the springs. Yes it does sit level.. So any ideas might help as I also talked with a parckard guy about changing all the body mounts and he said that woundn't do much.

Thank agian

John

If the car sits level with no load, but bottoms out with 4 passengers, then I'd say the springs you installed are not the correct replacements and have an incorrect "rate", or amount of deflection per unit of loading. The shock absorbers really have no influence on deflection from loading. Have you compared the old springs with the new ones? Same leaf thickness, same number of leaves, etc.? There were quite a few rear springs for the 48 cars, differing for various chassis and body styles. Perhaps what you had installed was just a "universal one size fits all"? If so, though it's kind of a primitive process, you might be far better off having the old springs rearched.

what I did was take the old springs to a spring shop; and they took out the broken one and replace it and did the same on the other side also. So it has the original smaller ones and one new one added. So they are all the same size. But could it be a rubber stop that the car is missing?

There should be a rubber rebound bumper mounted probably to the frame above the axle and that might make things quieter when it bottoms out, but it still shouldn't bottom out with 4 passengers. My old 48 Custom 8 sat a bit low at the rear even with no passengers, but it didn't bottom out out with 4 passengers except on the most outrageous bumps.

Sounds like your springs were weak to start with and your guy just replaced a broken leaf but didn't restore the arc to the springs. Can I assume the springs that were in there had the antimony/lead buttons on the end end of each leaf? What did he do with the new leaf (add a plastic interleaf)?

yes they still have the button on the ends. The new leaf was the longest leaf that was replace and doesn't have the button. But I am going to start looking now for the rubber bumper that you talk about first. then I will go back to the spring guy

None of my Customs or Supers have had the problem when the springs are correct. I had one that was bad and the springs looked flat with the car sitting with no load. After re-arching the car was OK. I recommend getting new springs if you can as re-arching is a minimally satisfactory cure.

I agree my 1947 Super Clipper sits pretty much level with no load and very little deflection with 4 passengers. I would take this advice and rearc or better renew.

what would happen if I just added another leaf ?

Let me understand better, was the leaf that was replaced the main leaf (the one with the eyes at each end)?

Could you post pictures of both rear springs? These may give some clues as to what is the cause of the problem.