Leaning towards driver side?

MrTube

MrTube

Well-known member
I've seen this mentioned from time to time but never really found an answer.

Our 31 truck leans quite a bit towards the driver side. I was told a few years back the front and rear springs were changed to fix the problem, yet its still here.

Is there a chance they did something silly like clamped to the springs off center? Or did they simply lie to me and the springs are original?


I also noticed I don't see any shocks mounted, were shocks optional on trucks?


Thanks,
 
If your truck is a pick up, yes it did come with shocks. If it is an AA they did have shocks, but sometime in 30 or 31 they did away with the rears except on a few models.

The springs could have been changed, but if the nuts on the u bolts wern't torqued correctly the spring could shift. The front spring, and I am not sure of the rear, had a square bolt head that sat in a recess. This topic was recently discussed on this site, you may wat to search "truck with a list".

I had found with my roadster, it was not greased much and one of the spring shackles was frozen. I squirted a good bit of penatrant on it over a few days and worked that corner up and down and it fixed the issue. I now grease quite often and havent had the issue again. Some have also found dry spring leaves to be the problem, I know my springs are dry (havent' gotten there yet) but that doesn't seem to be much of an issue for me. I am sure they don't act as they should, but until I can get them apart and apply the correct lubericant I am not too worried about them.

I like to try the simple aproach first, try the shackles...
 
Both front and rear springs are attached to their respective crossmembers with two large "U" bolts. I have found that the left and right attachment clamps on the bottom of each spring sometimes are not equally torqued which can induce a "lean" in the body. I have corrected the list, sometimes completely, by changing the manner in which those clamps are installed. Gar Williams
 
Aerocraft said:
Both front and rear springs are attached to their respective crossmembers with two large "U" bolts. I have found that the left and right attachment clamps on the bottom of each spring sometimes are not equally torqued which can induce a "lean" in the body. I have corrected the list, sometimes completely, by changing the manner in which those clamps are installed. Gar Williams
Click to expand...

WHen I first got my Ford, the large U bolt on the rear springs was MISSING! Consequently, after driving a bit, the body would work its way to one side or the other whereupon I would recruit some buddies to help me bounce it back to reasonably level. Being at the very bottom of the learning curve, I hadn't a clue what was wrong--I just assumed that's the way they were. Eventually, I tumbled to the problem and fixed it.

Steve
 
So I guess its safe to assume that if someone found both the front and rear U clamps were loose (me) and decided to just tighten them with the truck leaning. It would continue to lean.

So I need to loosen them and then... how do I get it straight? Jump up and down on the highside? :D
 
hate to be a bearer of bad news and I wish you luck with swapping springs. Many Model "A"s lean at the drivers side do to a bent frame. usually they sag right about where the frame number is located.
 
Layed under the truck for a bit and had a look see.

I am not sure what they are called but there are two bars\arms that go from the rear axles right near the wheels to the rear of the transmission like a triangle. The one on the drivers side is bent.

Can this be removed and straightened or replaced easily? Or is it not even related to the learning?

I didn't see anything else that was obvious other then we need to replace a lot of the wood under the bed of the truck.
 
MrTube said:
Layed under the truck for a bit and had a look see.

I am not sure what they are called but there are two bars\arms that go from the rear axles right near the wheels to the rear of the transmission like a triangle. The one on the drivers side is bent.

Can this be removed and straightened or replaced easily? Or is it not even related to the learning?

I didn't see anything else that was obvious other then we need to replace a lot of the wood under the bed of the truck.
Click to expand...
you have what is called a Sagging Frame goodluk.
 
When you are under the truck re-tightening all of the u-bolts, spray a good deal of lubricant on the rear springs. I found that this will help the tilting quite a bit.
 
MrTube said:
Layed under the truck for a bit and had a look see.

I am not sure what they are called but there are two bars\arms that go from the rear axles right near the wheels to the rear of the transmission like a triangle. The one on the drivers side is bent.

Can this be removed and straightened or replaced easily? Or is it not even related to the learning?

I didn't see anything else that was obvious other then we need to replace a lot of the wood under the bed of the truck.
Click to expand...

You might be able to straighten the bent strut without even removing it. They aren't real heavy steel.
 
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