Front suspension at full droop with no engine.

[L67ss]

While messing with my f41 cutlass with no engine(but still has a th350 in place) that my front end had no give. When I started jacking up the pass rear tire the pass front tire immediately started lifting and did not compress the driver front at all. I couldn't even get any give from it when I was jumping on the front frame. Only reason I ask is neither of my other cutlasses I had nor the 79 Malibu extended this far without eng or trans and on those I could get them to bounce. I did quite a bit of weight reduction on this on and wondered if that was why. (Side note one of my other cutlasses was also f41)

 

[pontiacgp]

I would remove the shock to see if that is the problem

 

[UNGN]

Removing the Engine moved the CG back which is why jacking the back tire lifted the front tire.

What you are seeing is the same mechanism/principle of how a a torque wrench works. If you compress and hold a spring, it takes much more force to get it to move than if the spring was not compressed. Turning the handle on a torque wrench preloads a spring and increase the force needed to overcome movement.

The shock is putting a preload on the spring and so even at full extension, there is lots of resistance to movement in the spring.

With higher spring rate springs, very small length changes can add a lot of Preload, and a 200lb person may not be enough to overcome the preload.

 

[Bar50]

Full droop or full extension?

 

[L67ss]

Extension I guess would be the word

 

[pontiacgp]

my eyes are droopy in the morning....

 

[lilbowtie]

Since the suspension is fully extended there is no movement left. The frame is like a door, you pic up on the side- the whole side comes up.

 

[L67ss]

I just never remembered my other cars having fully extended suspension without the engine