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I thought I just saw a mention of this subject recently. When one installs the rear spring, someone mentioned(was it Joe L.?) to leave the rear spring retainer plate bolts loose! I assume, loose meant with the spring center bolt head (mine is the original) captured in the assigned rear cover dimple, tight means finger tight or simply not torqued to specs??? This was mentioned of the great possibility of breaking of the rear cover during the de-arching of the spring. Also, my spring arch on the workbench was 11". The local spring shop said it should be 10 1/2". Does this sound correct to you? Just want to make sure I don't have to remove it again after body is back on. Thanks
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Rear spring arch
Dick,
When you say your arch is 11", from what two points did you measure? The correct points are adjacent to the center bolt nut down to a line that connects the centers of the two holes at the ends of the main leaf. Also, is the spring in question an original spring? If so, generally the problem with an original spring is not enough arch, not too much. Or is it a new repro spring?
And yes, you are correct about de-arching the spring. The spring needs to be loaded in some safe way to partially straighten it out before fully tightening the 4 retainer plate bolts.
Gary -
Re: Rear spring arch
Gary, I measured again. From the face of the spring that will face down to the road;using a straight edge from outer bolt hole center, to the other outer bolt hole center(cushions)of these 2 holes. I had just over 10 1/2". I said 11" before,sorry. This is the original spring. No doubt after reading several articles with photos. I guess I was surprised how much arch was left in this spring.The previous owner had a 2" spacer under each cushion,so I figured I would need a new spring but glad I don't. DickComment
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Rear spring
Dick,
The 2" spacers might have been used to compensate for worn out cushions and spring liners, although 2" sounds like a lot to me.
The arch in my original 66 spring was also close to spec, but I opted to replace the main leaf with a repro main leaf, since I worried that a broken main leaf at highway speeds would be a disaster.
GaryComment
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Re: Rear spring arch
Dick,
The 2" spacers you mentioned were probably used to raise the rear of the car up so wider tires could be used. Some guys used to do that back in the 60's and 70's. I had them on mine for a short time way back then.
Floyd
65 FuelieComment
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Re: Rear spring arch
Gary
What is the preferred "safe" method of de-arching the spring for installation with the body off?
SteveComment
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Rear spring arch
Steve,
What is safe in the mind of one person might not be safe to another. I think the Chassis Service manual describes a procedure for removing and installing the rear spring. What I did to remove my spring was partially loosen the 4 retainer bolts and the spring end bolts with the car still sitting on the ground and the spring nearly flat. I then used a large heavy duty C clamp to clamp onto the leaf spring out toward the end of the spring and then I used a floor jack just outboard of the clamp, with the C clamp preventing the jack from slipping inboard after I removed the end bolt and I jacked up under the spring. Once I got it up high enough I put jack stands under the frame and then slowly lowered the jack. As the jack was lowered I loosened the 4 retainer plate bolts a liitle at a time. I haven't put the spring back in yet, but I think the process can be reversed. I think one key is never put youself in a situation where the slipping of the jack can result in injury to you or the car.
Note that I think the procedure I descibed above might not work if the body is off the car since the frame doesn't weigh enough to counterbalance the force needed to straighten the spring.
GaryComment
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Re: Rear spring arch
Gary
One other question I forgot to ask. You said that you replaced your bottom leaf. Were you able to buy a bottom leaf separately, as opposed to buying an entire new spring? If so, where did you find it?
Thanks.
SteveComment
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Main leaf
Steve,
No, I wasn't able to buy just the bottom leaf and I think it would be hard or impossible to do so. You might be able to save some shipping costs by buying an entire spring and having the vendor dismantle it and ship you just main leaf. I used just the main leaf from a repro spring from Eaton Detroit Spring. The repro main leaf looks virtually identical to my original main leaf, except is was 0.023" thicker (about the thickness of 5-6 sheets of photocopy paper) than my original. I describe my restored spring (cosmetics and engng specs) in an article in the Restorer from a few years ago.
GaryComment
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