A couple of quick basic mechanic question. I have to tighten the rubbers on top of the rear shock absorbers. 1 rubber under the car, 1 on top. How tight do we want the nut on the rubbers to be? How much compression do we want on the rubber? How can we measure it? Is it just a matter of slightly compressing the rubber and then a bit more? Difficult to estimate the play (and the compression) as the shocks are pushing up...

Now on the rear leaf springs shackle. I know the car has to be on its feet to tighten them so the rubber/polyurethane do not over work. However do we have to simulate full gas tank and driver weight or is it just empty car at rest. I noticed that if I pull down on the car, the shakles move quite a bit...

 

Curiosity Question: Do you have a copy of the appropriate year for your car of the "Camaro Factory Assembly Instruction Manual"? This document answers many questions of this nature, and it seems fairly authoritative. You can find it available by year via Google search, either as a Portable Document Format ("pdf") file for free, or in paperback for a fee. For instance, mine is for 1968 model year, and I think I'm finding answers to your shock question on page 66 for springs and page 68 for shocks. If I understand this document correctly, these were instructions provided to the line workers for actually assembling the cars.

I appreciate that you are asking this population for opinions, but it seems to me that "authoritative" is better than "in my opinion"... I do appreciate a well-stated opinion, don't get me wrong. It's just that an original assembly instruction manual seems better to me, when available. After reading the insturctions, you then are free to ask for clarifications based on member's history, if the manual doesn't seem clear to you. If that is indeed what you are doing, shut my mouth. I'm not sure how to explain it any better than what I'm finding.

 

Yes I do have the manuals. I have 3, one for the body, 1 for the factory assy which is not really usefull for me for now and a so called "manual"
Car is a 68
I must say that the manuals are a bit confusing for me. Not easy to go through it.
Also mine are not page numbered but section numbered like 6-11 for instance. So I don't see a page 66 or 68.
I did found some information about the front suspension in it but not yet about the rear suspension.
Also I like to ask questions as sometimes some people can help me to read between the lines or bring some corrections as 5 years old manuals sometime can be improved especially when you want to improve a bit over the OEM set ups...

Thank you for pointing out the manual, I just found one to download.

 

Hmm. Both my printed copy and my downloaded pdf have hand-written page numbers at the bottom of each page. If yours does in fact have page numbers, study page 67, for instance, it should be titled "Spring to Axle & Spring-Rear Shackle". Looking at this page, you will figure out that the nut with the number 4 next to it has a small triangle showing the number 1, in the parts list at the top of the page, and that the triangles are providing torque values. Going to the bottom of the page, you will see that the first (#1) torque value is 35-45 lb-ft. You really don't need to ask anyone whether, in their opinion, it might have meant 85-95 lb-ft. You just need to tighten those nuts to 35-45 lb-ft. When you see a "NOTE" that says, "tighten with vehicle weight on springs", picture what the vehicle would have weighed on an assembly line. Probably not a full fuel tank... Generally speaking, I think these notes were generated for a reason, and I would advise following them, even if the reason isn't obvious.

 

OK I found the right manual (factory assembly) and can refer to the same pages now. As I said I am using different manuals and at the start of the manual it refers to UPC number and that's what I am using. And I just noticed there is hand written page numbers too (at least on my Pdf, I will have to check on the paper version.
I am also using the Chassis Service Manual which contain more detailed information on how to but have not been succesful in downloading it so far...
I was not questioning about the torque values which I usually use except some exceptions but how to tighten the shackles but your remark about the assembly lines makes sense.
For the shocks I went until the rubber is crushed to almost the size of the steel washers, which should be close...

 

For the upper shock mount, you tighten the nut until the rubber bushings are the same diameter of the steel washers.

 

Thank you. I got this information confirmed from another forum...