The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk leaf springs?

I haven't gotten this far yet...just thinking ahead. When the time comes to start cleaning my frame, should I take apart the front and rear leaf springs? The reason I mention this is because I was talking to a guy at work, who owns a street rod, and he wasn't going to take his apart to clean, but decided he should. He's glad he did because he found 2 of them cracked. He didn't know they were cracked until he took them apart. Got me a little spooked.

How hard would it be to take apart? Do I need any special tools and if I find anything damaged, are the parts available for the 2 tons...ie, shackles, leafs, clamps, etc? Whew...that was alot of questions!

Thanks alot,
~Ron

I have had my springs worked on by our local spring guy. I did however learn quite a bit. They generall take them apart by placing the stack in a vice, file down the end of the centre bolt and undo the nut.

My rear leafs had eyes that were a bit olblong. The spring guy tightemed the eays up and installed my new bushings.

I think your leafs can be supplied by a spring shop but the bushings are not that common. I bought most of mine from Jim Carter and the ones I couldn't get form there I bought from Espo.

I also found that the bushings at the top of the shackles had very little wear in them. The major wear was in the spring eye bushings.

I bought some front springs on eBay and they had hex head centre bolts. The spring guy took new bolts and ground the heads round before installing them. The hex heads do not fit in the axle index hole.

I have taken spring packs apart and built "new" ones from them a few different times. It can be done with a grinder to cut the bolt and a vice or c-clamp to hold them together. They don't really spring apart or any thing like that. They just lay there like a bunch of flat iron. I put them back together with Grade 8 bolt and ground the head round so it would fit back into the hole on the spring perches.

Ditto the above, also check each leaf for any grooves that are worn in and grind them out. For a really smooth ride, put some poly liner between each leaf on reassembly. Have fun!

mummdog - I took all four of mine apart, replaced the center bolt, etc. and the bushings as well. The bushing loops are pretty oblong, but they'll work. Also sandblasted and repainted everything. It all looks great. Just do it and have fun with it.

I took both rears and both fronts apart on my 37, just recently. I cleaned all of the parts and reassembled them with Teflon liners between each leaf. This was my main reason for taking them apart. I wanted to improve the ride and give the springs some more movement ability. This allowed them to move "on" each other more easily and has softened the bounce somewhat. By so doing, it caused the stack of the leaves to be thicker causing me to have to make new straps to use for the clamping system on the spring leaves. No real big deal and the old ones had been bent so many times in the past that a couple of them were cracked and close to breaking. For centering bolts, I used an Allen head bolt. The round head is almost exactly the same size as the original round headed factory bolt.

The real purpose was to Teflon line the springs which was worth the effort.

Joe

I am close to doing the same thing. I considered removing some leafs to soften up the ride. How many could you remove and how much would it lower? Not concerned with the load aspect as I have daily pickup driver. Spring pics below
Dan
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2542262160071274430DbnTiM

If you buy socket head(allen) bolts for the spring pack clamping, they fit right into the axle locating holes. Saves having to grind off the heads of the bolts & they are removable, also if you are removing more than one or two leaf springs you may need shorter bolts anyway. My .02, Brian

You can get new spring center bolts at NAPA or any trailer shop. Spring shops sell them two. Just tear into them, heat the clamps and open them up. You can replace the clamps pretty easy using small strap steel bought local and a large rivit or resecessed headed screw to hold them in place. Besure to clean and paint each one and use the teflon liner for a smoother ride.

I have taken three leafs from the front and two from the rear, then added blocks to retain the ride hight. Joe

NICE truck, Joe.