48 coupe- car stance is not even all around
 

I raised the car today and put it up on four stands. The rear axle droops down about 1 1/ 2 inches on the driver side when the rear tires are up in the air. I guess this means the spring is weak on the left side.
Is this common? Does it indicate it could have a broken spring?

Re: 48 coupe- car stance is not even all around
 

I would be more concerned with the frame height with weight on the axles (normal driving configuration). I'm not sure the droop you are measuring tells you much on anything. We'll see if anyone else responds with a different input, but I wouldn't be concerned about if unless it was extreme. Might check to be sure the spring is centered correctly with the square nut in position in the hole in the frame cross-member and the retaining u-bolts are tight.

Re: 48 coupe- car stance is not even all around
 

Are your jack stands at the same height?
Check the condition of the rear shocks.

Re: 48 coupe- car stance is not even all around
 

When that happened to my car it was a frozen shock.

Re: 48 coupe- car stance is not even all around
 

What is the STANCE when the car weight is on all 4 tires ?
Have never heard of checking and correcting the stance by how the suspension hangs from the frame :confused:

Re: 48 coupe- car stance is not even all around
 

Alex, have you installed new rubber mounting pads on the car? I'm sure over the last 70 years there was weight on the drivers side and no passenger.

Re: 48 coupe- car stance is not even all around
 

Actually I discovered the way the rear end was hanging low on the driver side when I was getting ready to start taking it apart to fix a seal and do an axle swap. When I saw it, I was reminded that I had seen that the car didn't sit level with all the wheels on the ground about a year ago. The front end seemed to be slightly lower on one side.
The shocks are disconnected.
Chuck, I did replace some of the rubber mounting pads in the rear cross bar under the trunk when I replaced that rusted out section above the gas tank. There may be some slight difference there, but I think it's in the spring from the way the shackles look with the wheels hanging down when the frame is on stands. See the pics.

Re: 48 coupe- car stance is not even all around
 

Other than replace the springs one way to adjust the body level is to install wedge shaped shims between the spring/s and cross member.
This is/was standard practice.

Re: 48 coupe- car stance is not even all around
 

Alex, From the first picture, it is obvious that your shackles are not at equal angles, the driver side allowing the driver side axle to hang lower than the right. New shackles are available, the Nylon ones from Speedway are easy to install. This is only part of the problem, however: Hard to tell for sure from the picture, but it appears that the U Bolts are not cinched up tightly, the passenger side appears to have slack in it, which also may be from installation of wedges as pictured in another post. Looking at the center bolt, it may be off center from either wedges, or from not being centered in the frame hole.

Re: 48 coupe- car stance is not even all around
 

Looks to me that the spring is not centered in the crossmember. The center bolt for the spring does not line up with the center of the banjo housing.

Re: 48 coupe- car stance is not even all around
 

Looking at the jacks and the bottom of the fuel tank, it looks like the chassis may not be level. How about a frame to floor measurement on both sides?

Another thought: if the car was lifted ones side at a time, it could leave the rear axel hanging cockeyed because of friction in the spring and shackles. Put a crowbar or something between the right shackles and see if you can force the rear end to the left far enough to center with shackles at equal angles. If you can it will probably stay that way and all is well.