Author Topic: Coil spring spacers for 67-69 Air Conditioned Camaro's?  (Read 10221 times)

nuch_ss396

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Coil spring spacers for 67-69 Air Conditioned Camaro's?
« on: August 04, 2006, 05:24:57 AM »
Hi everyone,

There is a topic on the SuperCar Registry that sparked a question for me.  I'm sure members here can elaborate.

Did 67 - 69 Camaro's with A/C have a horse-shoe shaped spacer under each front coil spring to raise the front end
up due to the increased weight of the A/C components?  If such a spacer was used, were they steel or rubber?
Does anyone have an image of one of these that they can post?  I'm forever amazed at what I pick up on these
forums. ;D

Steve
69 SS 396, Hugger Orange, D/80, D/90
Chambered Exhaust, N/66, THM400, 3:73 posi

Steve A.
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JohnZ

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Re: Coil spring spacers for 67-69 Air Conditioned Camaro's?
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2006, 03:50:04 PM »
Absolutely not - Chevrolet NEVER released "spring spacers" for any application on any car line. Springs were computer-selected based on option weights in order to keep the bumpers within the Federally-mandated bumper height "window"; that's why there were so many different part numbers of springs with unique loaded heights and load rates, to suit the application.
'69 Z/28
Fathom Green
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nuch_ss396

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Re: Coil spring spacers for 67-69 Air Conditioned Camaro's?
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2006, 05:54:20 PM »
You know John,

That makes perfect sense to me.  I do know that there were a lot of different front coil springs
for the 1st gen. Camaros and things like A/C were figured into the selection for the correct springs.

Problem is that one member there posted a part number for such a spacer.  Would these have
been over the counter parts for sagging springs?  Would GM have offered such a thing back then?

Go over the yenko.net and see the topic under the general discussion ( pertains to Motion Camaro ).

Steve
69 SS 396, Hugger Orange, D/80, D/90
Chambered Exhaust, N/66, THM400, 3:73 posi

Steve A.
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BlackoutSteve

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Re: Coil spring spacers for 67-69 Air Conditioned Camaro's?
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2006, 12:12:59 AM »
I thought spring spacers were illegal for street use.-
-At least here in Australia they are..
Restoring my RHD 69 Jane in Melbourne, Australia.
http://www.usmuscle.com.au/Forum/showthread.php?t=2840

bertfam

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Re: Coil spring spacers for 67-69 Air Conditioned Camaro's?
« Reply #4 on: August 05, 2006, 02:54:51 PM »
I'm not going to answer for John, but here's what I've found so far...

The THREAD ON YENKO.NET shows an article from the February, 1967 issue of Car Craft refrencing coil spring spacers being placed in a 67 Camaro due to the addition of a 427. The EBAY AUCTION also referenced in the thread is for a P/N 3789664 coil spring spacers.

I looked in my 1971 issure P&A 26 "Dealer Parts and Accessories Price Schedule" and sure enough, P/N 3789664 is listed under Group 7.425. I looked in my 1968 P&A 34 "Parts and Accessory" manual for the Camaro, Chevelle, Nova and Corvair, and there is no group 7.425 listed. I also looked in my P&A 14a for Corvettes, and again, no group 7.425. Therefore, you can safely say that these spacers were not used on any of the above cars from the factory. I then looked in my 1957 issue P&A 30 for Passenger Cars, Corvettes and Light and Medium Duty Trucks, and there WAS a Group 7.425, but it didn't show that part number. The part numbers shown were earlier than the 3789664, but not by much, which tells me that that particular part was used in the late 50's or early 60's. Unfortunately, I don't have a P&A 30 from the 60's, so I can't verify this, but part numbers starting with "378" are late 50's/early 60's issue.

Now, with that in hand, the group 7.425 title in my 1957 P&A 30 is "SHIM - SPACER, Front Spring", but gives no further explaination. There are a few thicknesses listed (see the picture below), so we at least know now that this spacer was available from GM. HOWEVER, it was never used on the 67 Camaro except in the case of this particular Nickey conversion. I'm assuming the reason they used the spacer is because when this article was written, the 67 Big Block hadn't yet been released so there were no springs available for it. Nickey used a truck (or possibly a full size car) spacer to raise the front end an inch. I would also assume that when the big block DID become available, and therefore the accompanying springs, this spacer was no longer needed and wasn't used.

Remember, magazine articles are written 3 to 4 months prior to the cover date, so no big block Camaro's were yet available. I would imagine that this particular article was written in late September or early November, 1966 before the release of the Camaro 396.

Ed


« Last Edit: August 05, 2006, 03:43:04 PM by bertfam »

nuch_ss396

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Re: Coil spring spacers for 67-69 Air Conditioned Camaro's?
« Reply #5 on: August 05, 2006, 03:45:24 PM »
Ed,

Thanks for the in-depth analysis on this for me.

Steve
69 SS 396, Hugger Orange, D/80, D/90
Chambered Exhaust, N/66, THM400, 3:73 posi

Steve A.
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Steve68

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Re: Coil spring spacers for 67-69 Air Conditioned Camaro's?
« Reply #6 on: August 06, 2006, 12:50:46 AM »
For what it's worth....

Part#                           Status
474682                      Removed from service January 1971
36947719                  Removed from service December 1968
3656476 & 3722769   Still in service in January 1971

Steve                   

 

anything