34coupe rear spring bowed
- Thread starter TerryS
- Start date
Flathead Fever
Well-known member
All leaf springs eventually wear out as the metal fatigues. I have Eaton make me new front springs for just about every project, Early Fords or Mustang coils. I worry about the fronts springs failing. The rears I don't worry about as much, the rears depend on what the spring looks like and if it sagged. I have a '70 Boss 302 project I bought not running. The front end is leaning bad on the drivers side. I looked under there and the front coil spring on that side is broken in two. I know the springs must be shot all the way all the way around. It will be gettin gnew Eaton springs front and back. They have the Ford blueprints to make those special stiff Boss 302 springs. Eaton can make early Ford springs with the original size eyes for the press in bushings if you tell them to, otherwise, they will automatically make them for their slip in bushings. I prefer the original press in ones. you want the studs and castle nuts so they look original. I measured the original spring eyes and the Eatons' spring eyes, they were the same to the .001", I was impressed. They have all the original spring blueprints, but they cannot make a front spring exactly like an original Ford spring because that thickness of the Ford leaves is no longer available. You will get a spring with same rating as the original Ford but it will have a different number of leaves. Super nice people to deal with but they are not cheap and there is a long wait. If you are restoring a car, I would order the springs when you first start on it.
The modern metal the spring manufactures use does not like petroleum products on it. It can cause spring breakage. You can grease those old springs but not the modern ones. That's not just Eaton but any modern leaf spring.
You can weld two large studs spaced a part to a heavy piece of metal and sit the main leaf on top of the studs, hit the spring with a big hammer between the studs and move the spring a little and hit it again... This is one way they used to reverse the spring for reversed eyes. They did not re-bend the eyes, they reversed the arc of the main leaf I've seen it done on a 200 mph Bonneville roadster. They just chalked on outline on the concrete and beat the hell out of the spring until the arc was completely reversed. That has got to destroy the metallurgy of the spring. These were a bunch of old-timers and I was standing there thinking these guys are nuts. Buy a new spring!
The modern metal the spring manufactures use does not like petroleum products on it. It can cause spring breakage. You can grease those old springs but not the modern ones. That's not just Eaton but any modern leaf spring.
You can weld two large studs spaced a part to a heavy piece of metal and sit the main leaf on top of the studs, hit the spring with a big hammer between the studs and move the spring a little and hit it again... This is one way they used to reverse the spring for reversed eyes. They did not re-bend the eyes, they reversed the arc of the main leaf I've seen it done on a 200 mph Bonneville roadster. They just chalked on outline on the concrete and beat the hell out of the spring until the arc was completely reversed. That has got to destroy the metallurgy of the spring. These were a bunch of old-timers and I was standing there thinking these guys are nuts. Buy a new spring!