I was forwarded this post and I thought I'd help you out. The squeaking is
most likely coming from the spring clamps....there are two per leaf, one in
front and one in back of the axle. Sometimes they are crimped kind of funny
and rub on the leaves themselves. Try spraying lube into them, one at a
time. Testing for the squeak each time you lube one. We have seen this
before and it's not an incurable noise. I doubt it's the bushings, as we
use rubber bushings in the eyelets, just so they don't squeak (there's no
way to lube them!)
The hopping problem you're noticing is one of the problems when you make a
truck handle (or many cars for that matter). We have always found that the
poor weight bias of a truck combined with the heavy solid axle usually
handles more predicatably with a more compliant tire. On a flat surface,
sticky tires are awesome, but if you get into bumps during a corner an axle
will tend to hop. Even Camaros, Firebirds and Mustangs have this kind of
problem. Thats what makes an independant suspension far superior to an
axle.
One other question relating to the hopping. Is our spring kit the only
thing you have installed on the truck? What could also be happening is the
sticky tires are making the suspension work harder than before. This has
the effect of making the truck lean more in the corner (i.e. more weight
transfer), and sometimes lifts the inside tire, braking traction suddenly.
We've seen with stock SUV's, that really good tires will make the suspension
work so much more, it'll lift the inside front tires as well. If you don't
have the Hotchkis sway bars, do you have the tire and handling package on
your truck? If you don't have a rear bar at all, it'll lean quite a bit,
that'll help add to the hop.
-Gary Pinkley
Hotchkis Performance
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean Bruckman" <bruckman@urisp.com>
To: <dakota-truck@buffnet.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2000 11:45 AM
Subject: DML: hotchkis rear leaf
| I'm sure someone can enlighten me here... i have a few questions about
| hotchkis rear leaf suspensions.
|
| First of all, mine squeaks like crazy even on little bumps. When i got my
| truck new the leafs did that for thousands of miles, then the noise went
| away... i installed my hotchkis and still about 10k miles later, it still
| squeaks like that. I'll prolly call hotchkis today, but since i'm on the
| subject, maybe someone has a suggestion to rid myself of the squeak? I
can't
| really tell if it's the middle of the leaf or the bushings on the ends.
|
| Secondly, i noticed that with no tread on my stock tires there was a nice
| controllable drift when cornering under power... now with the firehawks,
it
| doesn't slide, it sticks. If i really push it though it HOPS. The back
end
| tries to roll and loses it and hops sideways. I know it's because of the
| horizontal grip i now have--duh--but it seems like a problem to me
| regardless.
|
| Sean
|
| 4.7 4x2
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