Rear spring Liners

[Jordan S.]

Can anybody tell me who has the closest to corrrect rear spring liners?? I have read in the archives that Quanta are the ones to go with but they list only uncut individual liners.

Anyone ever compare Doc Rebuilds vs. Paragon vs. Quanta?? I have my originals to compare for length but they are too far gone to reuse.

Thanks,

Jordan

[Timothy B.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

Jordan,

I restored the spring for my 63 and 67 with Quanta paint and liners, no problem cutting liners and they fit nice.

[Ed K.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

I'm currently doing my 66 big block posi spring. I have Long Island Corvette Supply liners that seem to be OK. They are not cut to length but that's easy to do. I've found LI Corvette to be a good source for as original. In another post I have in process, I'm told liner length is about and inch beyond the leave length above it.

[Keith B.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

I would think there is only one manufacture for these liners.

[Bill C.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

If you have your originals - clean them up and re-use them if possible.

The originals are made from a very pliable/flexible rubber.
The ones that come from the Vendors are a plastic material and are rigid.
After about 5K miles they will become very distorted and crimp up under each spring. The spring looks like crap after a while.

I used the liner kit previosly available from Quanta (included a quart of spring paint then). I just recently ordered the liner kit from Paragon, same material as the older Quanta kit.

SO======
I purchased a used leaf spring, dissambled and removed the liners. The I cleaned the liners and trimmed the ends to make look nice.
That was my solution to get original liners.

[Ed K.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

I agree with Keith's comment that there is probably only one manufacturer. I'm a product designer and therefore familiar with manufacturing processes. Those liners can be made two ways:

1. Hot molten plastic being pushed (extruded) through a die shaped like an "H". Produced in a continuous strip and cut to length.
2. Injection molded - plastic injected into a cavity formed by two female halves. Plastic injected, mold splits and part removed.

I suspect these parts are extruded since I don't see a witness line at the injection mold halves meeting seam. However, there appears to be a sink mark which is typical at extruded "T" intersections.

Either way, it's relatively expensive to purchase extrusion tooling and machines, as well as expensive expensive tooling and an injection molding machine and result in selling the part for only $7 each. Would not pay to spend that kind of money to compete in this low volume low cost part market.

Whoops, now fully awake this AM and ventured to the garage again to start my rear resto day. Therefore editng the above. The liners have "lines" along there length, a definite indication that the parts are extruded. I realize this is not fully addressing your quesrtion but it seems to indicate that probably only one source makes the part

[Alan S.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

Hi Jordan,
The liners on my 71 were too worn to use again.
I bought a cut set of liners from Quanta and then realized each was a bit shorter than the original on my car. I called them and they sent me one longer piece and I was able to use the rest then by moving each one up one position from where it was intended to be used and t******* it a bit.
So, buying a long length sounds like a good idea.
Regards,
Alan

[Ed K.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

Hi Bill,

In looking at your photos regarding spring liners I noticed the upper and lower washers are oriented with the rounded side away from the rubber cushion. I would have thought the rounded edge should face the rubber, thereby avoiding any chance of the washer digging into the cushion. I'm about to install mine right now. Are you confident yours are correct?

Ed

[Bill C.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

Ed,

I am pretty sure that I grabbed a picture from a low mile car at a NCRS meet - and used it as a guide when putting my car back together.

To be sure, I would take a look at the picture albums that Kevin Goodman has of his 71 454 Bowtie car. The link is under his signature.

CORRECTION +++++++++++++++++

I would say I'm 98% sure of the washer orientation. WRONG ----------------------

Just looked at Kevin's pictures, my washers are flipped.
Thansk for catching this!
I am in the middle of redoing the spring and now I can get them installed correctly!

[Ed K.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

Hi - Glad I helped in time. Dumb luck on my part - Coincidentally I'm assembling my spring now also and wondered about that washer. Recalleld your photo, hence, here we are. Question for you. The lowest leave of my spring has a 1" dia hole. But the retainer clips that go into it are only .93 or so. That's a lot of play. Do yours measure the same? Also, it appears you were able to swage your clip sleeve, as it should be. How did you do that? I tried placing a large 1-1/4" dia ball hammer on the clip sleeve and then hit with another hammer but cannot get it to swage.
Ed

[Bill C.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

I did what you are doing with the ball-peen hammer.

I had a buddy hold the spring while I was beating down.
It is not a one person job.

[Ed K.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

Thanks. Was your hole sizes so different as mine are?

[David S.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

If you get them from Corvette Central they come precut. I know LICS you have to cut them. Not sure about Quanta.

-Dave

[Jordan S.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

thanks for all the replys. I ordered the Quanta Liners. I figure I can make sure they're the correct length by using the originals as a template.

Thanks again.

Jordan

[Bill C.]

Re: Rear spring Liners

I pulled my spring apart this afternoon.

I noticed some very odd streching of the Quanta liners. They had buckling and were streched wider. I purchased a pre-cut liner kit to compare the old and new - all I can say is WOW....

I put mine back togther with the rubber originals and I can say that it was much easier to compress the spring and the liners sit very neatly between the spring leafs.

Only thing I can see to help with the plastic reproductions would be to grease between the liner and leaf. When the spring compresses and decompresses it slides over the liner. Maybe having some lubrication would reduce the friction (and heat generation).

Just an idea.