Alvin, from what I’ve been able to find, the springs from the factory were simply lightly oiled to prevent rusting. Mopar is using a type of damping grease in their leaf spring equipped vehicles but the Mopar parts department never heard of it. I suspect that it is only used when they are assembled at the factory. Disassembling a leaf spring is a rather rare occurrence for a late model vehicle in normal use. That’s usually reserved for us restorers or the off road guys that are always tearing up their rides. Running a spring dry does have a certain damping effect and that is probably why they are using damping grease. The damping grease dampens the action and at the same time it reduces the wear at the tips. Real lively springs reportedly don’t last as long as a dry stiff spring and that was why GM didn’t recommend using a lubricant.
Eaton-Detroit spring does sell liners and buttons, but both add thickness to the stack. They make note on their web page that these are “Delrin” not Teflon. They also caution against using chassis grease on any spring made past the early 50’s because the alloy changed and the grease will react with the metal and cause it to become brittle. I’ve never heard of such a thing before, but then again I’m not a 100-year-old OEM spring company either. And they stress that you shouldn’t paint between the leaves, only on the outside edges. When the paint wears away between the leaves the reduction in thickness causes the center bolt to become loose and allows the stack to move around. I would think you would have similar problems with a plastic liner also.
The way it stands right now, I’m just painting the assembled stack dry, then when the paint is dry I’m gonna loosen the stack and lightly oil them. As far as that collecting dirt I don’t think there is any way to prevent them from gathering dirt other than wrapping them as has already been mentioned. Some of the vintage cars did have metal shields and some of the real early ones even had grease fitting for greasing the springs. I think all of that is pretty much a waste of time and the fact that all of the later springs and those used today are simply assembled and run dry (or lightly oiled at first). I believe that what we see on all of the thousands of over the road trucks to day is evidence enough in favor of running a leaf spring dry.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
