The front end of my 71 Pinto rides fine- it actually dampens bumps. The back end of my Pinto feels like the axle is welded to the frame with no suspension or shocks. Is this normal? I have heard that Pintos have stiff rear springs, but this goes beyond stiff. Anything I can do to soften out the ride?
Thanks!
I've noticed this on my 78 Sedan. All I can say is, that as far as I know, it is normal. I've just had to learn to drive over speed bumps a little slower and only with half the car whenever possible.
Is this with the car loaded or empty? Reason I ask is that if you have a bit of weight in the back it may be hitting the bump stops. This happened in my 79 hatch when I had two people or something heavy in the hatch, but didn't happen on my 78 trunk. Turns out the 78 has little half-leaf helpers my Dad bolted on it long ago when he used to pull a truck bed trailer to the dump with it.
Mine has never been loaded in the back with any significant weight. Just myself, or me and my girlfriend. Never more than that though, and the same type of impact.
Well, I don't know about "loaded". I know the total carrying capacity of the Pinto sedan is 600 pounds, I weigh 300 pounds, and I have been carrying a trunkload of some lightweight parts, maybe 100 pounds worth + or - ten pounds or so.
I don't have a spare and the rear still sits somewhat high. I suppose I need to crawl under there and take a closer look. Make sure a previous owner didn't install air shocks or something.
Thanks.
Maybe I will save up and get some custom springs bent. Get the same ride height but a softer rate. i can make up for the loss in stability with a swaybar.
Reed stop driving off cliffs :lol: mine is the same as everyone else Fred
Fred:
It's not the cliffs that are a problem for his springs, it's the sudden stop at the bottom. Do you know an off-the-shelf spring that will handle that - uh - pothole :hypno:?
I am NOT saying that you have the same problem I had.
Years ago I bought new 'replacement' springs from JC Whiplash and installed them in my car. They were so stiff that as I tightened the bottom of the shock mounts it pulled the car down (basicly it was topped out all the time). It gave a very harsh ride. I removed the shortest leaf and added a spacer of about the same thickness as a leaf and it settled the car down and it rides much better.
BTW, and IMHO: A rear sway bar should only be installed in conjunction with a BIG front bar. Also, I plan to make and install a panhard bar for my car; it is amazing how much the leafs can flex, with or without a rear sway bar installed.
Bill
Thanks. I need to investigate this further, but I think I may be removing a lea fin the future.
Hmmm. Looks like I have 2.5 leafs per side, with a tiny spacer on the bottom of the stack. Shocks look to be old Monroe Monroe-Trac shocks. The rear end is STIFF. It moves when I lean on it, but not much. :cheesy_n:
IIRC: The early cars take a shorter spring than the later ones, and the shackels are longer too. If your car had later springs installed they could be binding on the shackles (?).
Bill
Nope, it is all original. The springs still have the factory undercoating sprayed on them. I checked and the shackles move freely.
....Nope, it is all original.....
The only thing left are the shocks. Try un-bolting them from the top or bottom and hand compress them. Are they even, too hard, rusted solid? Bounce the car with them loose and compressed or better, removed. WAY different? I say shocks...
71HANTO
Thanks, I'll give it a try.
hmm i think i drive truck's to much i have never felt that a pinto was stiff in the rear. i always thought just the opposite. but most of the time i have a 1000 lb of tools in the back so....
When I replaced my rear shocks early this year I did the "no shocks test". The rear wasn't terribly/b] bouncy, but it was noticeably stiffer once I put the shocks back on.
As it is, the rear of my car is easily bounced by standing on the bumper and pushing downwards.
If you want a softer ride,that you can control and plus will make your car handle corners better.You will need a set of air shocks for a pinto, plus you will need a pair of bottom shock mounts of a mustang II that are a direct bolt in to the leaf springs.Just unbolt your U bolts and remove the pintos shock brackets and install the mustang II's bottom shock brackets to the leaf springs.But you will need to open the holes up where the bolt goes through for the pinto air shock hole is a little bigger and you have to use the pinto bottom shock bolt that slides thru the mustang shock bracket.If you decide to do this you will see what I am talking about.if you do this you will see the car will handle 110 precent.better.You will feel the differents like night and day.
I am very leery of air shocks. I have heard too many horror stories of overinflated air shocks tearing the upper shock mount out of the body of the car......
Quote from: Reed on October 08, 2008, 05:37:58 PM
Nope, it is all original. The springs still have the factory undercoating sprayed on them. I checked and the shackles move freely.
i don't think the 'factory' shot undercoating on the springs
i had a pair of new rear springs made for me; 'way back when' by a guy I knew that raced an old Alfa Romeo & just happened to manage a leaf spring shop and have a degree n mechanical engineering ( not to mention he was a real regular guy). he made me a set of rear leafs the set the car down in the rear but had the pinion angle correct and the springs consiste dof only 1 leaf per side.
the car NEVER road smoother or handled better in ALL conditions. control in hard acceleration and hard braking (especially braking while entering a corner) was so much better i couldn't believe it was the same car
The cheapest buy in is to try the "Lite Duty" gas type shock or on the "soft" setting if adjustable type. If you have a junk yard around, you can use maverick or early mustang secondary springs to "tune" your ride. The springs in the picture are for a full competition road race Pinto. I made the ride more reactive to the bumps. This gives a smoother ride but also mantains better contact and traction over uneven surfaces. Going SOFTER in a race car seems counter to old school thought but faster track times don't lie. The center junk was taken out and the larger secondary spring was used to centralize the up and down movement or confine it to the spring and less to the body. The trade off is less load capacity. The race car is lightened so if the suspension does not react, I hop, skip, and jump all over the place in a bumpy (real world) turn.
(http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj72/71hanto/Pinto/SpringsPainted.jpg)
Thanks for the input! There is a spring shop here in Tacoma that has been around for ages. I think they have at least one true metallurist on staff and they only recently shut their furnace down and subcontracted the forge work. I need to talk to them about my problem.
Don't put air shocks on a 1971 without re-enforcing. The upper mount is SO WEAK that Ford redesigned it for the 1972's on.