Right wheel thump

Jan,

Thats were I jack mine. I use two 1x2x6 alumn bar strap (one on each side) and a 2x2 box to jack from the center and lift evenly.
Two jacks are helpful as well. Good luck

PS did you hear that Cyrstal Cove is moving to FOMOCO headquarters in Irvine next week?

Regards Mark 6808

That's where I jack mine up as well.
But as far as the thumping noise, are you sure it just wasn't the neighbors cat ?

Seriously, hope you find the problem....

[/QUOTE]I am thinking of using 2 jacks, one on each side of the 2 front rails just under the front suspension area by placing a 2X4 (or less) piece of wood under each small flat part of the frame rail so I don’t mar it all up. See below. Is this a good jacking area?

Thanks guys, I may get to jacking up on Sunday & hopefully it will jack up straight on both sides without slipping off the wood...ouch! Will be interesting to see what is causing the thump, maybe bad shock, lose or broken upper A arm bolt, broken weld where the upper A arm attaches?

Mark, where is that FOMOCO place in Irvine?

Sounds like the same area that I use also. My car sat so low when I bought it (2" from pavement to metal) that it scraped when ever I went over a speed bump etc. and when we first put it up in the air this area was all bent up from dragging and probably being jacked up there (do not know how they got a jack under it!). So Les Gray welded in a solid peice of steel 3/8"x approx 4"wide and cut to fit. Then smoothed it all out before we repainted the engine compartment. You cannot tell at all, but it is solid! I know most of you are thinking why was I adding more weight, but with the aluminum suspension, wheels, Fontana engine block and C302B heads, I did not feel the little weight would ever be noticed.

Did you ever do the bushing replacement in the steering rack? Right side is the common side to wear the most and have more shift then the left. Easy to check and easy to fix, in fact you do not have to remove the rack from the car.

Got the car jacked up & wheel off, and all the bolts and welds on the suspension are all snug. For some reason I think the thump may be the shock. When feeling the koni shock, I can press down by hand about 1/4 inch until I hit some tension. I don't know if this is normal, but I thought the shock should be pretty tight against the spring and not allow movement even with the car jacked up & wheel off. When I get more time I may take the wheel off the other side and see how the shock feels. Can a shock go bad just like that? It happend suddenly just backing slowly out of the driveway and into the street.

Yup, the original Koni shocks do that. My front left did exactly the same.

It started with a knocking noise, I couldn't find it.
On advice from a local camaro owner (not many of these in the UK) I removed the shocks and found exactly the same problem you have. The right side moved smoothly the full distance, the left side only about 1/4 inch then went stiff.

There is a design fault in the original 70s Konis that makes them fail this way. I got my rebuilt for not much money.

Other guys on the PBB in the US have done the same with Koni USA.

Thanks Rapier. An experienced vendor also told me today that the Koni have a habit of getting off center out of adjustment on occasion, especially if the springs have been cut down for a lower ride height. So I may slap the wheel back on, make sure the shock/springs are all lined up and drive it around again and see if that may have been the problem. Like I said it occurred suddenly with a big thump when backing out of the driveway onto the street.

Also I can only press the shock down by hand about 1/4 inch, but I suspect that is probably normal with such little force. It seemed you were compressing yours off of the car on a machine and then you only got 1/4 inch movement. So I think your situation may be different because I still have mine on the car.

If this doesn't work I will also probably send off to Koni to look at. Do you have an address for Koni, or web page?

Hi,
I was compressing mine off the car - by hand.

I tried that too - in the hope it would go away, it didn't. I hope you have more luck than I did.

After meeting the camaro guy (who had suffered a similar knocking noise on the camaro) I removed both front shocks and compared them.
One moved smoothly with even resistance for the full stroke but other moved about 1/4 or 1/2 inch easy then very stiffly.

I don't have an address for Koni in the US, I only have the address for the repair specialist in England.
TurboTim1 just sent his off to Koni, perhaps he can help.

Or - I just found these guys with a quick google search http://www.propartsusa.com/contact_us.php?
Based in Canoga Park, CA 91304.
No idea how near that is but it's at least in the same State

Oh.
If you need a rebuild, send both shocks.
When they rebuild old Konis they completely replace the internals with more modern Koni parts.

Geez! I finally checked the shocks to see if they were on straight on the springs and I thought that may have been the problem because the plate at the top looked off somewhat when I had it jacked up.

But when I drove it around a bit down the coast even small bumps in the road gave pretty solid jolts (almost lost a couple fillings). Then I hit a little bump in the road going slow speed and it really slammed with a hard bump. I thought the springs are what holds the car up and the shocks just steady the ride. In other words I though shocks just prevent repeated bouncing. It doesn't feel like I have repeated bouncing, but instead it jolts the car pretty hard even going over small bumps.

Seems my next step is to get some new shocks, rebuild or new Koni because I don't know what else it could be.

Sounds like one or both of the Konis have got very stiff and are stopping the suspension from moving with bumps.

I definitely have to get my front Konis redone, I found trying to get the right one off it was leaking oil all over. I didn’t even know they contained all that much oil. Anyway, I am having difficulty getting the shock out due to the tight area. It seems I need to lower the A arms by unhooking something to get the shocks out. Looks like I may have two choices, (1) to unbolt the sway bar bracket and see if the A arm drops further or (2) take out the bolt just under the Koni shock where the lower A arm attaches to the wheel hub. I started loosening the sway bar, but stopped because I am not sure if the bar is under a lot of pressure with both wheels off and the suspension hanging, maybe I am asking for trouble that way. Any help would be appreciated before I get back at it, maybe the whole lower or upper suspension needs to be unhooked?

Sway bar should not be under any pressure with both wheels off the ground. But you should be able to just remove the remaining bolt on that lower a arm that holds the hub, rotor, spindle whatever it is. Then you can lift up on the hub and pull out that shock.

Lots of ways to smash and pinch your fingers around the front and rear suspension, gloves are recommended

Thanks Mark. Got the right shock out, but just getting that last bottom bolt out didn't give much more room trying with all kinds of angles & trying to raise the hub too. I had to disconnect the sway bar to get the bottom A arm to move down more. After the tryptophan wares off I will try the left side & get them in the mail to Koni.

Finally got my Koni rebuilds back and now on to the car. Took over two months. I thought Koni would be faster being a well known name. But anyway, car runs perfect again.

Good news Jan! glad to read that.

Hey Jan. Glad you solved the problem. But I must say, having seen your suspension up close and personal, I did notice some dirt ruining the reflection from your splash shields. You better get in there quick!

quote:

Originally posted by deeb:
Hey Jan. Glad you solved the problem. But I must say, having seen your suspension up close and personal, I did notice some dirt ruining the reflection from your splash shields. You better get in there quick!

Ha, right Deeb. While waiting on the Koni's, I got out the polisher, took it to the inside wheel wells and finished it off with a nice wax..., then picked my teeth up close using the reflection while the wife looked on scratching her head.

Had a hell of a time starting it though after the long sit. It usually kicks in right when I turn the key, so it didn't like the long sit. Was nice to hear the 383 again, I almost forgot how that engine rips.