Pontiac T-37 Handling Upgrade Frustration - Roadkill Garage S5 Ep 59 FULL EPISODE | MotorTrend

we'll change and raise it an inch and find out what the one inch drop is the springs will do, hope they work, let it go, oh yeah, it looks pretty good, it seems to be fine, it's a quarter of an inch lower than it was. I don't understand that it's 23 inches here, that's what we had with the 2 inch spring. It's very hard to believe we could have screwed it up. We should have replaced the same spring. There is no way these two sp034s have the same part number. How could it have been lowered by a different amount on each side?

That side of the car is quite a bit heavier than that side of the car because I don't know why, but when I put the jack in the center, it lifts the right side of the car much higher than the left. I have an offset that tends to indicate that the rear springs are working, so I have to offset the jack almost six inches to get both front tires off the ground evenly, yes that tends to. to indicate a rear spring situation, so what you are contemplating here or suggesting is to adjust the ride height on the front suspension, we are going to change the rear springs, yes I knew that, after all it had something to do with the rear springs , so I remember on the front I was seeing wildly strange measurements and I thought it had something to do with the corner balance on the rear springs.

Well, it's easily because the rear spring has completely fallen out of its seat and is sitting sideways on the frame. I think it's not an installation issue right off the bat, but we're going to go ahead and change these springs now because this one is just fubar, okay, let's put the new springs in there and the shocks and let's do it, it just comes out, it's interesting the original spring. It has a much shorter clearance than the aftermarket one inch drop spring, I don't know what that really means, let's find out, hope

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y it means the new one won't fall out like the old one did, there you go, yes the top installed, I need to raise it higher before I tighten the bottoms, okay the wheels will go in the back, they will go down, then the front will go down, it sits much higher in the back, wow, like two inches higher and still not level.

It's so weird it's like we can't get the car to sit level, it's all caddy wampus again, you think it's that spring, I don't know, there comes a time in the hit-and-run

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where we have to turn off the cameras and throwing wrenches like a real reality show that's what's been going on for three hours while dulce and I are trying to figure out why we couldn't get this car up to par this is what it comes down to these coil springs right here for the front of the car they have the same part number written on them they have a two inch drop you can see they have the same spring height.

These two springs have the same part number stamped on each spring, but check this out, they are not the same spring at all, this one is marked and parts. numbered as a one inch drop spring, so is this one, but look, they are actually radically different, if I take this one and put it here, you can see it's actually a two inch drop spring, and that? What we've been dealing with all day is two springs with the same part number one of which is a one inch drop coil and the other is a two inch drop coil and that's why this crap doesn't is level, so what are we going to do?

Take our original springs, cut half a coil off them, and throw them back into the car. I can't assure you anything for a hamburger. I am not going to put those rusty springs back in under any circumstances now that it has a half coil. cut out the stock spring which now has much higher clearance than the aftermarket ones so this is not going to be fun right now, oh wow that hurt my thumb. This will be our first drop with half a coil cut off. the original front coil springs, I predict they do nothing, oh, it fell off, looks like we've got it done, really, that would be really cool, oh man, the left side of the car is still a lot lower, wow, it's way up, yes that's how it is. half an inch higher than it was original and this is half an inch lower so what's happening is there's an inch difference from left to right, yeah do you think it could be in the timing of that thing?

It could be because that's the part that hits. first and now it's on the outside where it has less influence on the lower driver, the timing of this, yeah this is going to be like trapezoid cops around here man I'm getting pretty frustrated we've had three different sets of front coil springs. on the car there are two different sets of rear coil springs and it's getting lower on the front left and I still think I found the solution first it was that rear coil spring that was all wedged there on its side second it was the aftermarket springs that they were two different heights now we have these coils cut here and they're doing the same thing so I'm kind of racking my brain to try to figure out what's the one variable that we're overlooking in all of these scenarios that makes that happen sweetly think it's I just weight that side of the car is heavier because the steering gearbox and the battery or whatever the only thing I have now is I know I have this coil spring timed to its lower seat differently than I do in the other side, it was easier to install so I'm going to undo that and see if that fixes it and if not I'll swap the spring from side to side and find out what happens. and if that doesn't fix it uh firebomb that's all I have to say okay, out, that's what you don't want to happen is still wrong did this help now he's half an inch taller than when we got here and this?

He's half an inch shorter than when we got here, so he did absolutely nothing. Do you want to test the rear springs or swap these springs from side to side? Honestly, I'd cut half a coil off the passenger side and move on to make it that way. It doesn't bother you that we haven't actually found out what the problem is, so no, it doesn't bother me at all. I would cut an extra half coil off that side level of the car and send it down the road. The problem with that For me, yes, that solves our cosmetic problem and will work fine, no big deal, it leaves an unsolved mystery that really frustrates me, yes, but I think it's all psychological because of the precision of the Freiburg, there is some kind of mental imbalance because one spring would be higher than the other but that's what the car asks for so do this for me please.

Although these are the exact same springs we drove here with and you cut the exact same amount, don't rely on that. baseline why it just doesn't make any sense and we all observed that the car was malicious at some point even though it measured perfectly level, I just don't trust that measurement baseline, I just don't do myself a favor, let's swap the springs Side to side coils are fine because if your theory is correct it will raise that side if these springs are not equal. No spring is the same. I think this side of the car is just heavier, but we can try if you want to eliminate that. from the realm of possibility that the spring rate on the right side is slightly higher than the spring rate on the left side even though there are identical coils, three different coil springs in the front, same problem every time , yes, so the chances are better than average, if we swap them side by side if the same thing is going to happen we won't do anything, yes, I know, so I think the director would do well to cut at this point, ah , this is furious man, I had to get away from that front suspension and In the rear we switched to one inch springs and it's still a little high; in fact, it might even be a little higher than with the worn out original springs, so I know we have to put the two inch springs back in here.

I'm just going to do that so I can have the satisfaction of doing the job right, she's coming, hey, Steve, yeah, I promise I won't be disappointed, no matter what. Okay, this is like an I love you moment or something. What's going on here? fried burger, looks good here, yes this is 26 inches, just like when we had the original springs. How about yours? This is 27 and a quarter. 27 and a quarter. It's an inch and a quarter taller than here. It's because the front is low. Yeah you can see the cars okay so the next step changes the spring from side to side and when that doesn't work we'll just go ahead and cut the springs and do it the same and I don't care oh I like the idea there happening. to be the last step before I give up and start cutting coils to level the car we swap the springs from side to side let's see what happens let me lift it out more now oh man ah hit oh that hurts oh wow that hurts I don't even know what happened ah boy , that hurts ah it's like I'm shy now you want me to do it now I have to have the pleasure of victory in this thing and the lock nut is on oh I'm just fatigued, it's okay don Don't you feel good knowing it's the Second time we are going to do that?

Yes, we only have to do half the work next time. Ready, ready. Fixed, is it actually fixed? It seems fixed to me. That's 25 and a half exactly. was when we started and this is 25 and a half it's level yeah we're back where we started two days oh freiburg you're faking excitement two things first of all I'm vindicated the side to side coil spring swap really worked in second place. The thing is, this entire

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has been one giant comedy of errors. Whether or not you really have an idea of ​​how many times Steve and I have changed these coil springs for approximately how many hours, I won't know until I see the final cut of the show.

We have put into it how many discussions we have had about it. It was stupid. I think we've done the least amount of final work on an

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for the most hours spent, but there are some learnings here first. There can be multiple combinations of things going wrong at the same time that ruin us all, like a displaced coil spring in the rear combined with incorrect replacement springs in the front and so on, secondly, when you take apart the original springs , look at the label with the part number on them, keep track of what's on the right and what's on the left because what we just demonstrated is that the coil spring over there on the left side has a different rate than the one over here on the right side even though they had the same clearance height, meaning you put the stock coil springs next to each other, they are the same height, unlike the aftermarket ones which have a higher rate and They're the same height and the same rate, so anyway, all that talk, ultimately, I think we're.

I'm going to cut another coil of this thing so we can take a little stance and get back to the six fools and man, that's going to be a glorious moment because I'm sick of this, this is the last straw, Steve, nevermind. What's happening? So am I going to storm out of here or am I going to be excited? Prepare to be enraged. Okay, let's go down and finish. It's lower? You can bet your sweet petunia is and then, uh, gas shocks will ensue. Mention a little, I think we're good, yeah oh man, it was a ridiculous amount of work for a very simple job, but we're finally happy with the stance of the car, now we have it back on jack stands because we have to finish the job of the brakes, put shocks on it and then change the master cylinder and then bleed it and then we're going to kick it.

I don't know what it feels like from the driver's feet, but it really makes me feel it. like it's less junky it actually feels like it's level and when we hit improvements you don't just feel like the right rear lowers it's like the whole car is more settled you know what I mean yeah I was just thinking The same as the rake gives you a sportier feel behind the wheel. I mean, it feels like a muscle car, it's not like grandpa's car with the nose up. I would say we made this car much more useful. Yes, seriously, that's how I feel.

All we really did was set the stance, change the rear coils, put in shocks and disc brakes, but the shocks made the biggest difference in the ride and quality of the car. Well, he was basically like a junker. I would do it, I would even go that far. like call it responsive because i know this is so much better oh yeah wow it's agile that's just crashes right there the t-37 has won me over well there's only one way to really prove it i can't stay in my seat That's how it went. Don't do that before I stick out, okay, that's half a second better, but yeah, I was slipping, that was funny, oh, okay, 6-0, how am I going to prepare?

I'm going to get ready, try not to hit me, it's hard. to control the car when you hit a quad 635 I thought it was faster okay I'm getting stuck I can't oh friend 582. best ofeveryone wow oh man wow the

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isn't afraid of potholes wow that's super fun that's the win bro it was fun yeah this is good I just couldn't believe the tenacity, fantastic road holding, you have low standards, but it's really good, we really like our Pontiac, I feel like we worked less in this episode. of run over

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or less mechanical progress than practically any other time and yet I got the best results, looks better, drives much better and seven tenths improvement on the six clyde, what can you ask for, oh brother, take out This thing here, man, try another one?

Wow what just hit me here is a gopro or something something just landed on my arm like a gopro I don't know it was something that big it just landed on my arm and bounced could it have been a fallen bird ? dead in the air and landing on my arm, that would be really funny since I drove what are the chances that you?