The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Rear Spring deflection normal '49 3100?

Dear friends,

I put 400 pounds in my recently restored 3100's bed and was amazed at how much the springs deflected given their robust appearance. If i loaded it with 1000 pounds the deflection it might have would be extreme, with the rear of the truck really sagging. The load was wood heating pellets. With my GM SUV rated at 1/2 ton, with a thousand pounds it barely is noticeable! See the pictures. one with no load and the other with 400 pounds.

Best regards,

Joe

Looking at the severe angle of your spring shackles with no load, I am guessing that you have a set of tires springs. They should be closer to perpendicular to the ground without a load in the bed. I bet it rides smoother with those tired springs. I know mine does.

It could be an illusion but your main spring by the u-bolts looks strange. It should follow the same arch going thru the u-bolts and yours seem to have some strange bends. My bet is you got a cracked spring or two in the spring assembly.

I just took my front springs apart due to worn eyes and found one cracked spring and an extra spring on one side. Nine on the drivers side and eight on the passengers side. I surmise they added a spring because the spring assembly was sagging and didn’t notice the cracked spring.

I ended up buying new main springs from Classic Parts and reassembled the spring pack with liners. I was able to cut the additional spring to the size of the cracked spring so now all is good.

It was allot of work and if It wasn’t that I wanted to install liners, I should have just bought new springs.