Right front takes a plunge when braking.

[Erik the Awful]

I'd suspect a bad spring before a bad shock. The spring supports the vehicle. The shock just slows the oscillation rate of the spring.

I'd look for bad control arm bushings as well.

 

[DeCaff2007]

Better not be a frikken contol arm.....

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

I'd suspect a bad spring before a bad shock. The spring supports the vehicle. The shock just slows the oscillation rate of the spring.

I'd look for bad control arm bushings as well.

It would sag all the time if it was the spring.

 

[DeCaff2007]

JUST got home from work and it's an unusually nice day out for February. I'll start checking things here in a min.

 

[GoToGuy]

Ah cheese, jump up and down on left front bumper, then right front bumper and note reaction. A bad shock will not dampen the bounce. Springs whether leaf, coil, or torsion bar are springs and tend to continue reacting untill energy that was input is disapated through action. Or converted to other use.
A Brocken coil should be obvious on inspection, visual or through action, sound. A broken leaf same unless it requires a load to give unbalanced visual. A broken torsion bar would be obvious as there would be no support for that side, obvious droop. Firm braking, not a bat stop toss out an anchor, but firm with excess nose dive is most common when front shocks have either lost hydraulic action through fluid loss or worn out valving bypassing too much too fast.
One brake having more action than the other, hard braking on one side usually causes a pull to that side not a dive.
Rear shocks being bad, not my first guess, seems a stretch as the condition is visually only front affected.
Broken spring, on flat somewhat level surface measure at the bottom of wheel through center to top to feder lip. Same for other side. Providing fenders are in good shape. Although you should be able to see of out level from about 30 ft away looking back at the front.
Ok I know some of you got this already, but if you installed calipers upside down or backwards , uh yeah. This might help.
Good luck.

 

[DeCaff2007]

The verdict is in, somewhat. First thing I did was make sure all 4 tires had equal air pressure by topping them off to 35 psi as per the door tag.

Then, I jumped up and down on the front bumper like a fool. Both sides seemed to have an equal reaction. Hmm.. then I tried the rear. Again, nothing obvious. Went underneath and checked all 4 shocks for damage/looseness. Nothing.

Then I checked the leaf springs, hangers, shackles, etc... Leaf springs should look like a smile, not like this:

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Granted, this pic is NOT a GMT800 (it's a friggen Jeep, actually), but the condition of my leaf springs is about identical to this pic.

Also, I checked the sway bar bushings and links. I could see daylight between the sway bar and the bushings. That's not good. I replaced the bushings and the links. It made *some* difference.

The control arms on either side are fair. The driver side CA's are in worse shape than the passenger side, but they are still serviceable.

Even if I had two brand new leafs in front of me, with hangers, shackles, saddles, and hardware, there's no way I'd get a project like that done by Saturday morning.

I did take the money pit for the test drive afterwards. There's not *as* much dive in the front. Also, I noticed it's TOO easy to break the back end loose. Also on braking, I can feel the back tires not gripping the road as much.

Grrrrr I think we have the answer.

 

[Schurkey]

SOME GM vehicle are notorious for broken leaf springs.

'67--82 Camaro/Firebird, and '68--'79 NOVA (Nova, Omega, Ventura, Apollo) for example. (Same spring design on those vehicles.) You see one of them, it either has broken leaf springs, or the broken leaf springs have already been replaced. Failure rate is about 100%.

'77 Nova (Concours) leaf spring

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But I don't know that that's the case with the pickups. They actually seem fairly reliable. 'Course, anything can happen, and there's no reason leaf springs can't break even if it isn't common for that application.

Be aware that some older Chrysler leaf springs always look "sagged", because the Chrysler engineers intend the spring to be fairly "flat" (not "smiling") in use, and bounce into a reverse-curve (frown) on bumps. It's a mild form of steering the rear axle using the spring deflection. Clever...if weird.

 

[DeCaff2007]

@Schurkey, why do you copyright your pictures?

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

SOME GM vehicle are notorious for broken leaf springs.

'67--82 Camaro/Firebird, and '68--'79 NOVA (Nova, Omega, Ventura, Apollo) for example. (Same spring design on those vehicles.) You see one of them, it either has broken leaf springs, or the broken leaf springs have already been replaced. Failure rate is about 100%.

'77 Nova (Concours) leaf spring

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

But I don't know that that's the case with the pickups. They actually seem fairly reliable. 'Course, anything can happen, and there's no reason leaf springs can't break even if it isn't common for that application.

Be aware that some older Chrysler leaf springs always look "sagged", because the Chrysler engineers intend the spring to be fairly "flat" (not "smiling") in use, and bounce into a reverse-curve (frown) on bumps. It's a mild form of steering the rear axle using the spring deflection. Clever...if weird.

Clever...if weird, isn't that standard Chrysler engineering/design principles?

 

[Schurkey]

@Schurkey, why do you copyright your pictures?

Because most folks don't know that all photos are inherently copyrighted; they think there has to be a copyright symbol on the artwork somewhere.

I've had my photos stolen and posted by other folks without my knowledge, permission, and without attribution. Found 'em on-line by accident. This way there's no question, and I can get them removed from websites I don't approve of.