The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk How much spring arch?

How much spring arch are my front springs supposed to have on my early 50's 3/4 ton. I don't know the exact year of the chassis. Mine look just about flat..the center is maybe 2" lower than the ends. Is this normal?

Anyone?

Not normal as far as I can tell.
But I cant tell you what is.
I took my old ones to a spring shop and had them re-arched for 40$.

in2deep, is that $40 per spring? That's about what I paid.

Well, ok... So does rearching really work? I heard they just go flat again really quick. True/False?

I paid 40 for both. As in 40 dollars total.
(it was a cash job)

Normally, there should be about 3 or 3-1/2 inches between the rubber bump stop and the frame rail.Also, check out the shackles on the front,should be just over center towards the front of the truck.

On both of my half ton pick ups there seems to be no arch in the front spring at all. The rear are arched considerably without a load in the bed. I just think it is because of the weight of the motor.

South-

Most re-arching will involve re-tempering the metal, taking it up to temperature and re-forming the arch. If there are any flaws in your springs, they'll pop at high temp, forcing replacement.

Re-arching is on my to-do list for the '54 GMC that sits pretty low. Hope you have a spot nearby that can do a good job. The closest one for me is 80 miles each way. Worked well for my former S-10 and really made all the difference when you put a load in the bed.

I also hear a little Viagra with every fillup will do wonders for your truck's stance...

My old friend and mechanical mentor gave me instructions on "fixin'" a "flat" spring on the driver's side, front on the '54 I used to have. It was the poor boy's method.
I took the sping off of the truck, took it apart, put each leaf in a blacksmith's leg vise in a vertical postion with the spring held by one end then commenced to re-bend the leaves one by one with the help of a cheater pipe. I put in an extra leaf from a donar. It was one of the shorter, middle pieces.
This brought the height on that side even with the passenger side. It remained that way for the several years more that I drove the truck.
Jacques

To directly answer your re-arching question , yes they _ALWAYS_ go flat agin in about two years top or less if you actually work the truck at all ~ I do lots and lots of spring work in our truckshop and we tried deveral different re-arching places , _all_ of them plain old _sucked_ new springs are only 2 X the price of re-arching and come with new bushings to boot .