38 Rear Spring Removal - help a newbie

Scott H

Scott H

Well-known member
Please help me verify if I'm going about this the right way.

I want to remove the rear leaf spring from my 38 chassis. The frame is completely disconnected from the rear end. I'm accustomed to a leaf spring NOT being under tension if the body weight is off it, but I understand from reading other posts the spring may be under tension and I might need a spreader to remove it. Is this true for the '38? I hear a lot of A and T guys having problems with theirs..
P1060010 (640x480).jpg
Photo shows right side shackle with nuts removed. If I use a porta-power to spread the leaf spring eyes the shackle bars should be loose and come right off, correct?
With one shackle off, release the tension and the other side will be loose, right?
Thanks in advance. Next question will be how to take apart the leaf spring assembly...but I'll do another thread search first :)
 
You are right on track with how I reassembled mine. I did come up just short (usually do) of getting it together but had a extra set of side links to re grab it. After getting it done I have seen spreaders made of large 1" ? althread and pipe a lot of guys use. It is very tight be careful and buy a buddy a beer for that one, your in for some dirty work....
 
An alternate way of getting a spring off is to disassemble it while it's still on the rear. Once only the main leaf remains, it's easy to remove it. To disassemble, I use a 3/4" Pony pipe clamp to clamp close to the center bolt. DON'T USE A "C" CLAMP!! I clamp up the leaves nice and tight and then remove the center bolt. Once that's out, I replace it with a piece of 3/8" threaded rod at least a foot long with two nuts tight on one end and a third nut screwed up to about an inch from the spring. Then, I loosen up the clamp until the rod is holding it. I reset the clamp, tighten it up on the spring and then back off the "loose" nut another inch. I keep repeating this until the spring is loose. The reason not to use a big "C" clamp is that when it's tightened up on the spring, any little sidewards motion will put a big sidewards force on the screw part and twist the frame and the spring will explode, usually with BAD results.
You can put it back together by easily installing the main leaf and reversing the above procedure.
 
Are you talking about dissasembling the spring, or just removing it from the axle assembly?
When I installed my spring on the axle(spring already assembled) I did use C clamps and some heavy 1/2" flat bar under the center arch of the spring. I just kept slowly cranking it down until the spring would fit between the shackle eyes.
Probably not the best way, but it was all I had at the time.
If I was going to take the spring apart I would use a press.
 
Ralph Moore said:
Are you talking about dissasembling the spring, or just removing it from the axle assembly?
When I installed my spring on the axle(spring already assembled) I did use C clamps and some heavy 1/2" flat bar under the center arch of the spring. I just kept slowly cranking it down until the spring would fit between the shackle eyes.
Probably not the best way, but it was all I had at the time.
If I was going to take the spring apart I would use a press.
Click to expand...

I disassemble the spring in place to make it easy and safe to remove the main leaf by itself. If the spring is together with a center bolt, I see no reason to not use a "C" clamp. It's when the center bolt is out that use of a "C" clamp can get hairy.

By "in place," I mean attached to the rear end (or front end) but with the rear end removed from the vehicle.
 
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Thanks for the quick responses!
The axle with spring attached is basically out of the car. I'm not keen on the idea of disasembling the spring while its attached to the rear end, and I don't think I want to re-install it in the frame just to disassemble the spring. Seems like that would be a waste of effort.
I'm leaning towards using the porta-power (since I already have one) to spread the spring outwards...that should give me the clearance I need to remove the entire spring as an assembly. I'll deal with rebuilding the spring when its on the workbench.
 
Many people to be on the safe side will wrap chain around the spring to hold together. Remember "Murphy's Law".
Paul in CT
 
The porta power worked like a charm on my '40 Zephyr. If you already have one, thats the way to go.

Norm
 
All the above instructions are good. Use lots of caution when removing or replacing those springs. They can hurt you bad......or even worse.
 
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