The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline front spring questions

I have a 52 3100 truck. I also have a set of front spring issues. And a wear issue on one tire. The King pins are new. The Tie rod is straight and it has good tie rod ends. The left front tire has wear on the inside. And just for fun, I have about 2 inch drop on the driver side. The spring bushings have been replaced. The tie rod is all the way short(as far as the ends will screw on) The toe in is 3/16ths at roughly level front to back on the tires. Steering is on center and it does not wander. As long as it is straight and smooth. Things get funky if the road is rough, and it is worse at higher speeds. What is the cause of the wear on one tire on the inside? I thought it was a loose spindle. So I did fix that. It made a huge improvement. I thought it would fix the other stuff (Ha!).There are no shims between the spring and axle, but the wheel returns just fine. I moved the worn tire to the pass side and have not seen any extra wear on the good tire. The drop is measured from the frame rail end to the ground on a flat surface. So my question for all you kind folks is this. Is the "flat" spring my issue? I do have a "spare" set of front springs. But they are not perfect. There is a bit of difference in the arch height. And some wear in the spring eye. So, if I put a full spring upside down on a flat surface, what should I get at the high point? Has anyone mixed and matched leaf spring stack to fix this sort of issue? I can see how to get it apart. And I can replace the bushings if need be. Replacing the center bolt is not a problem. But I don't know what the arch height should be. It should be the same left and right, but, what is it? I tried the search function, but this old geezer is not getting that to work. Not the fault of this site. Just me and not enough coffee. Just a note to you young ones. Being in my 20s in the 70s was more fun, than being in my 70s, in the 20s Thanks for letting me rant.

Uneven spring height side to side will definitely affect tire wear.

You can have your spring re-arched at a spring shop to fix the issue. I found some pretty serious spring wear and wound up replacing them with new. My spring shop would have charged me more than the cost of new springs to replace just the main leaves, which had worn eyes.

Most all trucks should have 2 degree caster wedges between the axle and springs, if the rear sets higher then the front, then 3 or 4 degrees caster may be needed. This will help with the rough roads and fun steering. As far as springs go, I doubt you will find an accurate measurements for off truck measuring. At best you can swap parts to get two evenly spaced springs and see how it acts. https://www.gmheritagecenter.com/do...hevrolet-Trucks/1953-Chevrolet-Truck.pdf This link is from the GM Heritage Center, 1953 trucks, go about 3/4 down and you will find front spring information. You maybe able to work backwards and find a starting measurement. The papers show a 315 lb deflection rate, thats 1" compression for every 315 lbs of weight applied to the springs. If you was to measure yours while on the truck, front, center, and rear, you could then remove one and measure the same points again to see how much they compressed, not sure if any of that would be helpful or not, but it may show something. My '37 has flat front springs, they were designed to be that way, I don't know if '53 have any arch or not, but the early trucks didn't. Tire wear was likely from the worn spindle.

Joe

Thanks. It is what I thought. New project, messing with springs. There is an element of certain learning in doing something for the first time.