Removing leaf springs on 1960

[Joe M.]

I started the process yesterday; had decent sucess. Twisted off six of the bolts that hold the front bracket to the frame. Question on that issue later.

I have all of the bolts removed and the springs appear to still be loaded, but I have a floor jack under the differential. The springs are pushing down hard on the emergency brake cable and the front of the springs are wedged into the frame where the plate was bolted. How do I fully unload the spring?

With the back shackle nuts removed, is it time to take a sledge hammer and tap the springs toward centerline of the car to remove them from the rear shackle?

sheared off bolts - drill out and re-thread? Or can I drill out enough of the bolt stub that I can pick out the remaining pieces in the threads?

[Terry D.]

Re: Removing leaf springs on 1960

Joe
The springs are still loaded cause you have jack under differential. Put jack stands under the frame so you can lower the differential to unload springs. Check the archives, as this has been covered before.
Terry

[Ted S.]

Re: Removing leaf springs on 1960

Joe, Have you removed the straps? If not the straps limit the travel of the diff and will create some load on the leaf springs.

[Tom P.]

Re: Removing leaf springs on 1960

The straps don't have to be removed (unless of course they need to be replaced).
As mentioned, put stands under the frame, lower the jack to unload the rear springs, then remove the lower end of the shock, place the floor jack under the leaf spring, remove the nuts from the axle housing U-bolts and lower the jack to fully unload the spring (although, it is most likely already unloaded). This will allow the weight of the housing to be supported by the straps. Once all of this is done (again, no need to remove the straps if they are still in good shape with original rivets), the axles can be popped out, brake backing plates can be removed, the differential can be removed from the housing and the axle housing can be lifted out of the straps.
Otherwise, if the straps need to be replaced, it will be a little easier and faster to just cut the straps (or drill out the rivets on one end) and then lower the whole assembly.

[Joe M.]

Re: Removing leaf springs on 1960

Thanks to all. The first place I checked was the Archives, twice, back to 1998. Nothing on the topic of removing the leaf springs, at least not on a C-1 and I wasn't sure if it was the same process or not for vintage cars. I finally figured out that I had to place jack under the frame to unload the springs. The emergency brake cable seemed to be in the way. Now I know why the driver's side was lower than the passenger's side, one broken leaf! I twisted off five off the eight bolts holding the front spring mounting bracket; was able to back out the stubs or drill out and re-tap the holes. Twisted off one u-bolt nut. Since we received 4 inches of snow on Sunday morning in north TX, not a bad way to spend some time in the garage.