Rear Spring with correct height 72

[Steve L.]

Re: Rear Spring with correct height 72

When Eaton's and others make this spring, they say that they cannot get the right thickness from the mills so they get the next gauge larger which is why the ride height is heigher because of the stiffer spring.

They take sheets of the milled material and slit it to the correct width of just over 2 inches wide. At this point, why can't they grind these slits to the right thickness before the springs are formed, arched and hardened. Surely, they can make a grinding machine dedicated for this where they just pass each slit through quickly. There isn't that much of the thickness that needs to be taken off.

[Gary B.]

Rear Spring with correct height; Eaton should change the arch

Steve,

Here's another solution for Eaton. Rather than grinding the available spring stock to the correct thickness, which would no doubt increase the cost, perhaps substantially, of the final product, why doesn't Eaton just decrease the arch to correct the ride height? They have to arch the leaves anyway, so there would be no additional manufacturing step once the arch forms are re-made.

I suspect they will never make this change, however, UNLESS the promised 9-leaf spring that America's Finest Corvettes (AFC) says is coming to the market is spot-on and Eaton's Corvette spring sales dry up. Nothing like some actual competition to get the attention of a vendor. With everyone for years (myself including) recommending Eaton as opposed to the other repro vendors with even worse springs, Eaton has never had an incentive to really improve their product. I'm hoping AFC will change that. Actually, I'm hoping that AFC gets it right with their 9-leaf and then I won't give a hoot what Eaton does.

Gary

[Jack H.]

Re: Rear Spring with correct height 72

Spring steel is tricky to work with... When you cold-work the stock (milling/grinding), it's easy to change the underlying characteristics of the metal. BOTH the spring rate AND the excursion distance of the component need to be right to exactly duplicate the factory original part.

That's one of the reasons savvy suspension shops are leery about re-arching used original springs that show deterioration and deformation...

[Steve L.]

Re: Rear Spring with correct height 72

Gary,
The grinding operation would increase the cost but if they built a dedicated tool, that might help.

The main leaf on the repro spring that I got (before I knew better) already had a shallower arch, presumbably to compensate for the stiffer spring.

It will be very interesting to see how AFC gets around this when and if they deliver.

Perhaps they are getting it from China where they use metric sizes.
I believe the proper thickness is 0.194inches(4.935mm) which is close to 5mm

[Bob I.]

Re: Rear Spring with correct height 72

How correct is (AFC) 7 leaf spring.

Bob