Leveling the body

[Vic in E-TN]

In a previous thread about removing the rear spring that I started, John Kunast asked on 18 January - about leveling the body by adjusting 4 U-bolt nuts.
Tom Wesenberg's response was - "No spreader required. Just loosen the low side (2 nuts) and tighten the high side (2 nuts) 1 turn. Repeat as needed".

I need some help in understanding this. I have a leaning car that could use this medicine.

Thanks.
Vic

[Charles Coe]

He's referring to the U-bolts that hold the rear spring to the frame. If it's low on the driver's side just loosen the nuts on that U-bolt a little bit and tighten the two on the other U-bolt. If that doesn't fix the problem then repeat the process until it's level.

[Vic in E-TN]

Charles:
I read it and understand what to do but I don't understand how it works. I always tighten up the bolts and put in the cotter keys. I don't see how this will shift the spring inside the rear cross member. Maybe it will. I will try tomorrow to see what happens.

Vic

[Charles Coe]

I haven't tried it myself but Tom's usually right on the money with his suggestions. Let us know how it turns out.

[Tom Wesenberg]

It's most common to lean to the driver'ss side, as mine did. Mine was a good inch low of the left side. After I R&R the rear end to replace the clutch, the car sat level. With a single transverse rear spring and 2 U bolts close to the center holding the frame to the spring, it's easy to slant the car to one side by uneven tightening of the nuts.

You could have a weak or broken spring, but the nuts is an easy fix to try first.

[Vic in E-TN]

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Tom:
Thanks for the reply. The weather should be good tomorrow and I will try it.

Vic

[Vic in E-TN]

OK. The weather was good - 60 deg outside and I had the garage door opened to heat up the garage. The difference was 1/2 inch. The high side was very tight and I was only able to turn the nuts 1/2 turn after I loosened the low side by 1 followed by 1/2 turns. I rocked the body (255A) a few times and re-measured the height. The low side was raised 1/2 inch and the high side also came up 1/8 inch. I think that was a fairly easy procedure and the results were good.

I measured the heights after turning the nuts and before rocking the body. There was almost no change in the body height before the rocking. It is necessary to rock the body.

The 255A does not have rear bumpers at this time so I made my measurement to one of the rear door hinges. I would suggest avoiding using the bumpers to do this procedure because they may not be exactly aligned.

Tom - many thanks for your suggestion.

Vic

[Diastole]

I tried this technique. It worked very well. It was also quite easy.
Thanks FordBarn.

I included a picture of how much the spring and body moved. You can see the exposed rust to see how much the body moved on the spring in the leveling process.

Diastole in the Smoky Mountains

PS: I know the center bolt is missing. It has always been like that.