The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks C10 leans towards drivers side.

I have a '65 Cl0 big window -custom cab- long bed - fleetside and since I've had the truck it leans to towards the drivers side about an inch or so. I installed new coil springs, shocks and so on to the front and haven't gotten around to the rear yet. I know the shocks are worn in the rear and the coil springs aren't bad. I changed the front coils and shocks thinking it would correct the problem. When I take a curve to the right the truck does lean a bit more and on a left turn it leans as well and it almost seems to correct itself..like it found it's tipping point and balanced itself out..but it will lean towards the drivers side again once out of the turn. I'm a big guy and I know I help it lean a bit but when it's parked, shouldn't straighten itself out? I do have rusty cab supports but it's not that. the whole truck leans..bed and all. There's no torsion bar on the truck. The tires all wear correctly and the truck drives straight. I know I need to replace the rear shocks of course..but has anyone here delt with this kind of problem before?

Any suggestions would be good.

Thanks..
Marc
"radioripster"

check for crushed or missing body mount rubbers.

It has the original cab mount hardware I'm sure,but the whole truck leans..the bed as well. The bed mounts are not in bad shape..so, I still feel that it's something else. Like I said earlier about having new shocks and coil springs in front and the worn shocks in back, would that be enough to pitch the whole truck to one side still? It's leaning about as much as it did before I put the new springs and shocks on the front.

So..I don't know.
Thanks for replying..I'm sure I'll get to the bottom of this eventually.

Marc

The best way to determine what is wrong, is to measure the fender to floor distance directly above all four tires, on the axle centerline.

Then place the frame on jackstands, with the stands in exactly the same position left to right, in both the front and rear. Measure each fender to floor distance again. If the lean is the same, the problem is in the frame or body mounts. If the lean goes away you have a problem in the suspension.

Worn shocks have no bearing on the ride height, unless they are gas shocks and one is bad. The good gas shock will tend to raise the suspension while the flat one won't do anything. If they are not gas shocks they will have no effect.

I put four new springs and all new suspension pieces in my truck and after about a year is also leaned about an inch to the drivers side. I determined it was the left front spring being weak. Rather than going to all the trouble of replacing the springs again, I installed a race rubber in that spring only, and now the truck sits dead level. The following link shows the type of spacer, I don't remember where I got mine:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Dual...torsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

To install it I had to remove the upper rebound bumper, then jack up the frame to allow the suspension to fully relax. It quite a chore, but it simply slips in between the coils and increases the spring rate on that corner.

If it turns out to be the coil springs, these should work too.

Like Markeb stated, measure and measure some more. It's probably in the suspension on that side and taking measurements will help determine where. I had to do that to figure out why my '71 leans on the right side and ended up finding a bent trailing arm and bad spring on the back after taking many measurements.

That's a temporary fix at best, and also put exsessive stress on the springs. That can lead to premature spring failure.
Just from what I'm reading, it sounds like somethign is possibly bent/damaged. Perhaps the spring bucket in the frame or the control arm. Could also be a weak spring in the rear.
There is also one other possibility, the problem could be on the right side. A damaged spring seat in the right control arm, not allowing the spring to sit properly, could be jacking the right side up, making it lean to the left.

It's easy enough to check everything: fenderwell measurements, frame level-ness, spring mounts, body mounts, BALL JOINTS, A-ARMS, WHEEL BEARINGS, TIRE SIZES...Could be a combination of things, so spend a little time underneath with a flashlight.
The fixes are generally not complicated, either. Chances are that someone here has seen the problem before, and can help.
Good luck.
cm

Does it lean all the time, or just when you're driving it?

hmmmmm more salads!! lolol

If you get under there and see nothing broken or bent.. Take and swap the springs on the right with the ones on the left.

I guess there is a chance if you put new springs on there that one is stiffer than the other.

At any rate I would take them out and compare the springs.

Hey everybody..

I appreciate all the replies. I took the truck over to a guy I know that has a shop. He looked under there and saw that the drivers side rear shock had lost it's upper rubber bushing mount. This truck had been pretty well kept in a barn or the like for quite a few years. I suppose age had taken it's toll on the rear shocks. I know they were pretty worn out when I got the truck and the rear coil springs are tired too. As I had written earlier, the front coils and shocks were replaced not too long ago and I that did help, but I still had the lean and the truck would feel like it would reach a point and tip a bit..turns out that was because of the shock mount rubber was gone so it was just the shock mount bushing and the eye of the shock mount being the only bit left and having a total tipping/wiggle space of around an inch or so. Replacing the shocks not only improved the ride but helped the leaning problem but I still haven't replaced the rear coil springs but,I bought some of the old school twist in coil spring boosters for the front and back of the drivers side and had them put in while the truck was up on the lift while getting the shocks installed. So,now with all that place the truck is dead level in the front and the drivers side rear is up about an inch too high. I will be replacing the rear coils soon and will leave them as they are out of the box and leave the coil boosters on the front. Then go from there. So far so good. Hopefully when I replace the rear coil springs I can get rid of the coil boosters on the front drivers side and all will be level.

I'll keep ya'll posted and thanks again for all the input..I love this site.

Marc