The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Helper springs ??

This seems silly, but… I just cleaned up the overload Springs and slapped coat paint on them without taking them apart and now looking at the way they were installed when I got the truck looks ridiculous. They were mounted in a frown instead of being a parallel smile with the actual leaf springs.(best description I can come up with) SO, should they be like the first picture or the second? If like the second picture, I will need to take them apart and put the center bolt in the other direction with the smooth round pin going into the bracket. It makes a lot more sense with the remnants of the bumpers on the frame as well. Larry

Here's a few pictures of my '46. Original picture from 2001? I think in your second picture, it only uses the two long springs since they'll pull down away from the others. Your first picture shows how the small length springs will help to support the top springs?

I'm not sure that would even work since only the end of the long leaf would contact the main springs, and push them away from the shorter length helper springs. Only if they also contact the main spring leaf would they contribute to carrying the load. Only if the long helper leaf contacts the frame would the shorter leaves help carry the load as that contact would mash the leaves together instead of separate them.

It seems like Larry's first picture would require quite a bit of suspension compression for those overloads to contact the frame. Possibly they've been bent down by too much overloading. I looked for pictures on the Vehicle Info Kits, but came up short. They only show helper springs on 1-1/2 ton trucks, with long leaves above the shorter leaves.

The only way Larry's "smile" mounting would really work is if the helper was taken apart and reassembled with the leaves in reversed order, with the long leaf on top of the shorter ones.

Maybe someone has a known survivor and can weigh in on the helper spring arrangement.

It’s a mystery. The first picture looks like John’s, but I can’t imagine how it would ever carry any load and they would never hit the bump stops. I will never need them but the top ears have the holes so I’ll mount them for appearance. I’d just hate to be ata car show someday and get laughed out, lol The original front springs had short helpers clipped on the ends, I had to buy new because they were so mismatched in height.

There are bump stops attached to the frame for the overload springs. You can see in the pictures where the top leaf has a worn spot from all the years the rubber has made contact.

Note: When I installed my overload springs, they were an inch or so away from the bump stops. Now that my truck has the bed, fenders, bumper,.. installed, the leaf is only a 1/8 to 1/4 inch from the rubber stop. After I installed the bump stops, I tried to adjust the overload springs so both ends were equal distance from the stops.

They have to go like the first picture, leaf springs always have smaller springs under the main leaf. I will post some pictures of my '37 rear springs so you can see how it's going to set with weight on them.