Wheel hop/vibration
 

Ok i finally made my way back to my 63 Lemans V8, manual 3 speed convertible. It lives in a different city than I do.

The issue im having is coming out of first gear, its brutal with wheel hop. If im rolling a little in first gear its not bad. 2nd & 3rd gear are fine and works like it should. The new clutch feels good.

I cant find any info on this at all on why this is wheel hoping and what to check.

I had a bunch of work done to it which includes new clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing and resurfaced flywheel.

I had the differential rebuilt (by someone most of us know with these cars-Charlie's performance) with new bearings throughout. The pinion shaft had the bearing seize up on it so they built up metal (smelting) on the shaft and ground it down to the original size for that new bearing.

New rubber bushings throughout the rear end.

The car has been in storage between myself and the last owner for around 20 years.

I've only driven the car maybe 5-6 times in 4 years. Wheel hop before and after the work was done.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advanced.

Today, I did raise up the rear end and started the car. Keeping the rear end as level as possible, started the car and slowly let the clutch out in first gear. There was zero wheel hop/vibration like it does when on the ground. No weird noises at all either. The rope drive shaft sounded quiet as well..

What condition are the driveshaft insulator bearings inside the driveline tunnel?

Hey Doug, since I dont live where the car is i had a place do the work that was accomplished.

Replacing the rear main seal on the engine, he disconnected the rope drive shaft. I'm assuming when he took this apart if the insulator bearings were in need of replacement he would have either done it or called me to ask where he could find them.

But to completely answer the question, I haven't removed the tunnel to see them for myself.

Unfortunately, I did not get an invoice of all of the work done. I didn't pick the car up so I wasn't there to ask for the invoice of work performed.

I'm seeing the car for the first time since it was picked up for me 1 1/2 years ago.

When I raised up the rear end and slowly released the clutch in first gear, both rear tires started rotating. The right back tire slowly stops spinning as the clutch is completely out in first gear. I think thats normal, but never having to dig into this kind of issue on this car, it seemed....different.

But I liked the fact that there was no odd noises coming from the car.

It is an open rear end, so one wheel stopping when the car is off of the ground is normal. Have you had a 4 wheel alignment done on the car? There are adjustments for the rear wheels on these cars. How hard are you accelerating in first? Wheel hop is usually suspension geometry and hard acceleration. It also has a tendency to break stuff if you do it to often.

Thanks Rad.

I thought that might be the way the open rear-end worked, but it seemed weird that the right side started to rotate, just like the left side did as the clutch was released. But then within a minute, it slowed down to not rotating at all.

There was a slight vibration as the clutch was slowly released, other than that it seemed normal.

Since I have owned it (4 years, with little mileage put on the car), it has not had an alignment done.

I dont drive it hard. But since I had the work accomplished, and driving it yesterday to get it to a place im able to work on it, it felt better (less wheel hop/vibration )under more acceleration than very easy on the gas. But it still wheel hopped pretty bad.

Is the (rear) alignment something that's totally different than newer cars? I'm wondering if I have an alignment done if any shop will be able to do this?