Mustang Coil Springs Help Please
Posted in Coil Spring | Asked on Jul 30, 2010
I had a recent post about me changing the coil springs on my 66 stang, and as I stated it only had 1 coil spring insulator on it and it was at the top, which was not useable at all. So my question is do I need two insulators on the coil spring one at the bottom and one at the top, or do I need only 1 insulator, my car only had one at that was at the top. I just want to make sure this car is done right the first time, and i dont wanna hear clanging noise.
There are 2 Answers
I think these only had the insulator on the top. I also looked at a NPD mustang parts catalog, and the picture in there shows just on the top. I restored a 1968 mustang and I remember I had a lot of trouble trying to compress the coils besause I didn’t want to invest in a spring compressor. I eventually built one. But anyway, I would just use the one insulator. It should be fine.
Yes… there is ONE coil spring insulator pad on each side of the car’s suspension and it’s located at the top of the spring no matter which side of the car the spring is pulled from. You install it before the spring is installed. If I remember right, you simply place it on top of the spring and make sure it doesn’t become dislodged while you put the spring in. Pretty easy huh?
At the bottom, the spring sits into a spring perch which is bolted to the control arm… WITHOUT a coil spring insulator pad.
Bottom line here? One coil spring insulator pad per coil spring. Install them at the top of the spring.
I will say this however… and it’s not meant to confuse anyone, it’s meant to CLARIFY in case anyone brings it up. At the factory, there were very small “tabs” of a rubberized material that were installed onto the springs with some sort of sticky adhesive preventing most metal-to-metal contact with the spring perches at the bottom side of the last coil on the springs. These tabs look NOTHING like a coil spring insulator pad though so don’t get confused. The little rubberized tabs at the bottom were around 1 inch long by 1/2 inch wide – rectangularly shaped – while the coil spring insulator pads are round and are a little larger than the diameter of the springs. You cannot possibly get them mixed up because they aren’t even close to being the same things.
Why were the small rubberized strips applied? Just to make sure the suspension was as quiet as reasonable. That’s all. Ironically, over the years, most of the little rubber tabs fell off the cars pieces at a time because they became brittle… thus they disintegrated slowly… and mostly you only find remnants of them if anything at all if you dis-assemble a vintage car. If you were to buy new perches… some suppliers give you those little tabs and some don’t. Why is that? It’s simple… many folks just don’t believe they’re needed like the upper coil spring insulator pad is. It seems that the connection between the lower portion of the coil spring and the perch isn’t prone to making any noise anyway thus they’re often not supplied. What can you put in there if you REALLY want to? Just to be sure? Cut out something similar to the original tabs Ford used… and put them in place using a dab of silicone or gasket sealer. What’s common for material? The inner tube from a tube type tire like an old bicycle tire. It’s probably about the same thing Ford used back in the day. Will it help? My experience is that you probably will never notice any difference either way… but if you’re a concours correct restoration freak, you might go that far just because you’re a concours restoration freak. Otherwise, I wouldn’t think twice about it. You’re far more likely to get creaking and groaning from the spring perches or the upper control arms being worn out! Hope that answers your questions and is clarification from the previous answer. By the way… if I were the owner of a vintage car or truck and I already didn’t have one, I would buy a reprint of the shop manual for my ride. They really, really, REALLY help out! Hint-hint! Best wishes!