The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline 3100 springs on 3600 soften up ride?

1955 1st. series P/U "6,900GVW". Can you put 3100 springs on 3600 to soften up the ride? Has 8 leafs 1 3/4" wide in front. 7 leaf 2" wide on rear.Very stiff now. Or can you remove any leafs from stock? Thanks,Dennis

I have removed leafs from spring packs before to play with ride, it also may lower it a bit.

Thanks, would you start with top,bottom,middle leafs?

Leave the two top longest leafs, then remove every other one below them. Add Poly-liner between each leaf. This type of material,
http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Multi+Leaf+Spring+Liner+1+3+4+Inch+Poly+Slide

Great help thank,Dennis. Will give it a try..

Dennis, my stock(ish) 47,000 mile 1951 3600 rides great. Actually rides better than the wife's 2015 2500 Ram with flatbed. Of course we usually run 70 psi front and 75 psi rear in her truck due to her pulling a gooseneck horse trailer a day or two each week.

The deviations from stock on my truck that likely help the great ride are; modern 215/85/16 tires that I run 35 psi front and rear. Also it has a Clark flatbed that weighs more that the stock bed.

If you're still running original type bias ply tires, radials aired up to 1/2 ton pickup no load pressures will defiantly help.

Good Luck, Ron

Graphite paint is also helpful if the plastic liner is not available.

Ed

Speedway Motors sells the teflon liners for a third of what other venders are charging... these are the rolls of black.

The 3600 and the 3100 front springs are supposed to have slightly different spring rates, but after having a set of each disassembled in front of me, I saw no obvious differences between them- same thickness, same length, same arch..... the 1/2 ton were from a '52 and the 3/4 ton were from a '50.

The rear springs on a 3600 are 2.0" wide and are a different length than the 3100 rear springs- so I doubt that they would be interchangeable.

I have teflon strip in the springs in my '40.

I found I had to put better shocks in to stabilize the ride.

You are a lot of help! Thanks,Dennis

The teflon strips improves the ride? As in my springs are stuck together?Do springs have to be re-moved from truck to install teflon strips?

The Teflon strips help the springs to work/slide better against each other as they flex. You'll have to take the center spring bolt out to do a good job. Good time to clean/blast and paint them up nice!

Sandblasting spring leaves can lead to stress risers, so, use other means.

Ed

You may find when you get them apart, and yes, they have to come apart, that the spring on the bottom has worn into the one above it. This is true for the whole spring pack. When they wear like this, it creates a step, which the lower spring needs to ride up when flexing. Over time the steps get bigger and the amount of spring travel gets smaller creating a very stiff ride.
If you find yours in this condition, round over the lips and smooth out the steps best you can. If the steps are deeper then you think they should be, buy new springs!

I used a hand held grinder with flapper wheels to clean my springs. The material is very hard so it will take a little work on your part to clean them.

I would suspect a fine grain sand or glass beads would clean them up OK. Very course sand may be harmful, but then again, mine were so hard, the flapper wheels hardly touched them. I tried drilling holes in the ends to install teflon buttons, but never found a drill bit good enough to make a mark in them. The spring shops use a very heavy duty punch for this.