<VV> Listing to the Left

[Robert Marlow]

At 03:52 PM 3/24/04 -0800, Ian Harding wrote:

> I have a 63 Corvair that is listing to the left.  It has a 64 rear
suspension.  It didn't lean when I got it, so it has happened relatively
gradually. <

Well, how gradually?  If you got the car in 1963, I'd describe this as
"normal."  If you got the car last week, it's a bigger problem.

> A visual inspection of springs, shocks, etc doesn't show anything bent or
broken (I haven't driven it much).  The lean seems to be about the same
front and back, it is about 1.5 inches.  What should I look for? <

Well, some folks have "helpfully" implied that you ought to look at the
bathroom scale.  I suppose that if you are a large fella and only drive the
car alone, and if perhaps the prior owner was a big guy as well, we can
identify some of the cause.  But let's look at the car instead.

You say that it has a '64 rear suspension, so that's where I want to look.
Are the coil springs installed on the correct sides of the car?  (They're
different left and right; they could be switched or somehow you may have
ended up with two lefts or two rights.)  Is the transverse leaf spring
properly installed -- that is, does the car have a proper '64 diff with a
mount for the spring or is the spring simply riding against the bottom of
the '63 diff, which could allow it to shift side-to-side?  Are the end
bolts properly adjusted, without one of them having the nut back off?

--Bob

Robert W. Marlow
nortechcorp@optonline.net