Install C1 rear leaf spring

[David H.]

[Rod K.]

Re: Install C1 rear leaf spring

Recently did my '57 and it was much easier than anticipated. I agonized over this operation for a long time thinking it was going to be an almost impossible one man job with the body on, but it turned out to be pretty simple.

Jack the car up and support it under the frame ahead of the front spring mounting bracket. Raise the axle as far as you can and support it on stands including the pinion yoke to keep it from rotating. I used a small floor jack to support the spring near its center for balance. Raise the spring as much as you can w/o causing interference with the body, etc., and feed the rear of the spring into the shackle recess in the body and over the rear frame cross member. The spring should easily slide rearward enough to allow you to insert the shackle into the spring and the frame hole from behind the cross member and install the bolts and outer shackle link w/o interference with the frame. Tighten but leave it loose enough to settle in the correct position once you lower the car. Position the spring so the front hanger is in it's correct location location and bolt it in place. Lower the axle onto the spring (after doing the opposite side of course) and install the U-bolts and you're there except for the little stuff. Good luck with it.

[Joseph L.]

Re: Install C1 rear leaf spring

Hi David

I did my 1957 springs with no issues. I did them on the garage floor and left the rebound straps in place to hold the axle. I am not certain what you mean by the alignment with the rear shackle. A photo will help. The shackles slip from inboard with the bolts pointing out. If you have that correctly oriented, something else must be incorrect.

How much arc are now in the springs? Did you measure them? If they are excessively arched, the eye-to-eye length will be reduced. My main leaf springs were 3.8 and 4" (arc). This was insufficient and I would increase that by 3/4-1" on the next batch. The car sits a little low in the rear but is within spec.

If yours are greater, maybe 6", that may explain it. I had the standard dimension of the length from eye-to-eye, but need to locate it.
Joe

[Keith R.]

Re: Install C1 rear leaf spring

There is an excellent method of doing this in the NCRS Restorer as written by Joe Calcagno and entitled " 1953-62 Corvette Leaf Spring Installation". I used his method to install the springs with the body off and I think that it would work with the body on just as well. I can find the article on my Restorer CD but can't determine which issue it is taken from. I've downloaded it to a pdf format and attached it for your use.