Driver side front sagging?? June 02, 2005, 06:17:46 PM I was looking over a few things yesterday, and it seems like the front driver side of my Cougar is about 2 - 2 1/2 inches lower than the pass side. I'm pretty sure it could use new struts, and shocks for the rear, but is it normal for the driver side to be slightly lower? I have noticed from some of the pictures posted here that others seem to be doing the same thing. Quote Selected
Re: Driver side front sagging?? Reply #1 – June 02, 2005, 06:30:09 PM Woah 2 1/2"??? Sumphin' wrong there, likely a broken spring... Quote Selected
Re: Driver side front sagging?? Reply #2 – June 02, 2005, 09:22:37 PM Our '88 Tbird had a broken spring--hairline crack. Until we took the front out and the srping fell out in 2 parts, you wouldnt know it by looking. You could sure feel it when hitting a pothole. My opinion is that the springs on these '80s front ends ---with the strut setup, take a beating by design. If it has lots of miles and is 15+ years old, time to change them. Our replacement springs are stiff (surprised and somewhat disappointed really), but now the air dam underneath doesnt rub on curb drop downs or bumper stops--a plus. I am surprised I havent ripped it off in 15 years. Quote Selected
Re: Driver side front sagging?? Reply #3 – June 05, 2005, 08:48:50 AM My 84 T/c had a borken front springs on both sides. I never even new it until I went to replace them. Mine were broken inside of the lower rubber piece. You couldn't tell untill you took them out. Quote Selected
Re: Driver side front sagging?? Reply #4 – June 05, 2005, 08:54:27 AM my tempo had the same thing in the back. Couldnt tell until we found it alittle suspicious that we lost two spares. So we stopped and looked at them and found a nice little line cut out perfectly straight alll the way acrossed the side. Quote Selected
Re: Driver side front sagging?? Reply #5 – June 05, 2005, 09:05:03 AM My 84 T/c had a borken front springs on both sides. I never even new it until I went to replace them. Mine were broken inside of the lower rubber piece. You couldn't tell untill you took them out. Quote Selected
Re: Driver side front sagging?? Reply #6 – June 07, 2005, 01:02:02 PM Hey all,The '88 TC I owned for a short time had a bad sag in the driver's front corner, probably 1.5" to 2" I'd guess. I guessed/assumed that maybe a very large person had driven it for much of its life and had wore that spring out. I took it to my local Ford dealer and asked them to fix it, and all they did was jam 2 or 3 "spring rubbers (that's what they call them in Nascar)" til they thought they had it level. Well, it still wasn't by a long shot, but they kept insisting that it was within factory spec. I didn't care about factory spec, I wanted my car to sit level and look normal. I took it to another independent mechanic who took one look at it and said it just needed a new driver's front spring and that Ford was finding ways to not have to do the job. Well, he got the business, and when he was done it looked like it was supposed to. I don't like the idea of "rigging" the car instead of actually taking care of the problem.Way, way back, when I got my first car, which was passed down from my mom (a '77 Cougar XR7), it had a bad driver's front sag. My dad had said he had tried several things to level it up, but nothing worked (the car was actually in our family from '79 to '91 or so). I just drove it that way most of the way through college, until one day in deep downtown Memphis, TN, the driver's front lower ball joint broke and the wheel all but came off (boy, you talk about a ride!). After spending all of my small college student budget to get it fixed, lo and behold when I got it back with a repaired ball joint, the front end was level! To my knowledge nothing was done to the spring. I sure wish I could have kept that car (don't we all). I babied that thing. But at the time it was just an old car that needed to be replaced with something newer and more reliable. Most of us don't have the convenience of just putting the old car away in the garage until it's worth something. You know the story, blah, blah, blah. As Forrest Gump said, "that's all I have to say on that sub-JECT".Fordman3 Quote Selected
Re: Driver side front sagging?? Reply #7 – June 08, 2005, 06:50:38 PM Thanks guys...need new struts AND springs will be changed also. Quote Selected
Re: Driver side front sagging?? Reply #8 – June 08, 2005, 09:10:03 PM if your looking for springs.......nate (Manson) has some LX springs for sale Quote Selected
Topic: Driver side front sagging?? (Read 3185 times)
previous topic - next topic
