[Scooter]

I bought a rear leaf spring bushing kit by Energy Suspension and everything seems to fit very well. But now that I am mounting the shackle bushings onto the frame rail, the bushings seem too short. I have tightened the bolt all the way down until the nut hits the shank of the bolt yet I can still wiggle one of the shackles back and forth. The shackle on the nut side is super tight and doesn't wiggle at all almost solid feeling, but the other shackle on the head side is pretty loose and wiggles around. Shouldn't both shackles be pretty snug? Maybe after it is driven the super tight side will loosen and in turn tighten the other side and so both sides will be moderatly snug. I am using the stock bolts and stock shackles, was I supposed to buy special shorter shackle botls or something? or maybe it is ok how it is and it wont make that much difference? Thanks for any help, I really want to be able to drive this thing on Monday.

-Aaron

 

[Jason628]

Greetings,

I'd run shorter bolts....If you're replacing bushings you might as well replace the old bolts too! Hardened bolts at the hardware store don't cost much and it'll help fitment as well.

Jason

 

[74nova350ss]

the bolt bottoms out before they get tight, just swap to shorter bolts and you'll be good to go. i had the same problem, but its a easy fix.


Eric

 

[Scooter]

Will regular grade 8 bolts work with threads going the whole way or do I have to find some bolts that have the long shoulder on them?

-Aaron

 

[Scooter]

Ok I got the shackles installed and they seem good. But now I am having trouble with the front leaf spring bushings. When the bushings are installed into the springs, they are too wide to fit into the spring pocket. Then I thought maybe the way it is designed is that you put the inner bushings in the spring and slide it in the pocket, then you install the outer bushing from outside the pocket and as you tighten the bolt it will go through the large hole of the pocket and then into the spring eye. Well I tried that and it doesn't want to work, I think I saw that the pocket was bending so I stopped tightening and ran here for some help. I guess what I need to know is: How do you install the front spring eye bushings?

Thanks loads.

-Aaron

 

[footbrake68]

Hey Scooter ... we completed our rear swap on the '74 to poly bushings about 6 months ago ... they were "tight" as well. I wonder if your spring pockets are flexed closed or have been "tightened" and squashed due to the worn out bushings you are replacing.

Did they send you the right parts you asked for (silly question - but check)?
How tight is it?
Does it seem the spring pockets are bent / or out of parallel?
Can you squeeze 'em in without damaging anything?

Trying to help you out ... hang in there !!

 

[Scooter]

I finally got both springs in. I hope I NEVER have to do that again! My dad and I worked on the front bushigns for hours trying to get them to go in. Our main problem was that when the bushing was being tightened down, it would mushroom out around the edges and therefore not go totally in to the spring pocket. We first tried puting in the outer bushing half through the outside of the pocket and using the bolt/washer to puch the bushing in, then on the other side we tried just jacking the bushing both halfs installed into the spring up into the pocket. This didn't work very good either as the side by the big hole in the pocket where the washer on the bolt goes caused problems. The bushings stuck out the side of that hole and we couldn't get it to go back in, it would just squish out when we tried using the bolt to tighten it. So on both front bushings we had to use a bench grinder and a razor blade to trim and bevel the edges of the bushings so as they were tightened they woudl slip into the pocket instead of just being squished between the washer and the pocket around the perimeters. Either the bushings I got were not manufactured very accuratly or the bushings are always a pain regardless. I think the front spring mounting design is terrible on the first gen novas.
I guess this just surprised me since no one every talks about hard installation of their poly bushings. Fortunatly my rant ends here.

-Aaron