Help: Reverse eye leaf spring problem 34 Ford

F

fordson

Senior Member
Took my original 34 front and rear leaf spring to a professional leaf spring repair workshop in South Africa!
They reversed the eyes on both main leaves.
However the front and rear leaf main springs are now a little shorter and the eyes are somewhat offset!!! Now is that normal ? What went wrong ? The spring looked good when it came back, all professionally done.
No-one here has experience with reversing the eye of a leaf spring and installing it.
Anyone for advice on what we are doing wrong!
I wonder if we havent messed it up now and if i have to install stock springs again.
Sounds all easier than it is😔
 
It is really hard to picture what you're saying??? How can the spring be shorter if it was made from the same original leaf? Did they make you new ones? Also, include some pictures of the "offset" problem - can't imagine what you're trying to convey?

And as I finished my post . . . poooooooof, the showed up!
 
If it was mine, I'd take it back to them and have them fix the problems they created. This should be standard stuff . . . that spring shops have been doing forever.

I can understand the rear spring giving them some head scratching (giving the goofy Ford curve), but the front is super simple . . . they must have some issues they need to attend too.
 
Exactly, same question i asked myself since we gave them the original stock springs which they disassembled, reversed the eyes on the main leaves and reassembled again.
The company said they can do nothing about it, but i dont understand the difference in length and offset eyehole either.
So you would think it a problem in the workprocess of leaf alteration?
 
Very much a manual process. You heat up the eye, unroll it while trying to keep it straight, heat up again, and re-roll in a bender - and finish off manually to get the proper eye size.

One might even trim the curled end a bit to get it to "come together."

Very much fraught with places to go wrong, or places where errors can creep in.

A good spring shop knows about the errors - and the corrections - and does these intuitively along the way. Not so good shops don't care so much.

I would speak to another shop if you have one available. They might correct the issue quickly - but then they might defer. Each heating results in "grain-growth" which alters the chemistry of the spring and eventually make the results brittle or soft - either of which condemns the spring. Spring changes are limited and commonly once only.

You may be at the point where you have to spring the bucks to get a reverse-eye'ed spring from a reproducer. But let the better shop tell you that.

Joe K
 
I have had it done many times with no issue, this is the spring shops problem. Do they have the ability to make a new one (with new material)? I agree with going to another shop if possible, but there are normally not that many around. Next step would be to get them to make a new one, even if it cost some extra. They should recognize that the one they worked on for you is not usable.
 
Thank you all for the reply!
What are my alternatives?
The Posies 34 reversed eye rear leaf spring is an option, but its so darn expensive and i would have to ship it to South Africa. Besides not really traditional. I wanted to use original parts in a traditional way, now my original set springs is gone and from your reply i realise that the work was not done accurately and i cannot install the springs.
Its obviously not normal!
Isnt there a possibility of aquiring a correct fitting 34 reverse eye main leaf and fitting it to the rest of the leaves? I was told nobody makes singles anymore in the USA and i doubt i want anyone in South Africa dealing with this again.
There must be guys who can do correct reverse eyes to stock main leaves.
Thanks Randolf
 
Any spring shop can do one, you just had a bad experience with the one you used. If you can come up with another main spring leaf you can reverse them yourself with a little effort, no heat involved.
 
fordson said:
Thank you all for the reply!
What are my alternatives?
The Posies 34 reversed eye rear leaf spring is an option, but its so darn expensive and i would have to ship it to South Africa. Besides not really traditional. I wanted to use original parts in a traditional way, now my original set springs is gone and from your reply i realise that the work was not done accurately and i cannot install the springs.
Its obviously not normal!
Isnt there a possibility of aquiring a correct fitting 34 reverse eye main leaf and fitting it to the rest of the leaves? I was told nobody makes singles anymore in the USA and i doubt i want anyone in South Africa dealing with this again.
There must be guys who can do correct reverse eyes to stock main leaves.
Thanks Randolf
Click to expand...
I've found just the single eyed leaf spring on Amazon for $40 . It was for my 34 front .
 
Looks to me as though they have cut the ends off and welded new ends on. Looks like a weld just inboard of the eyes in all your photos. Totally wrong!!
 
It is hard to tell from pictures what is going on. My '32-'34 spring looks like the eyes are perpendicular to the spring leaf. There is a slight angle on the spring hanger that is part of the axle. I think what you are trying to show is too much angle. I am wondering if your hangar has been modified? Another bit of trivia. When you reverse the eyes you do it by reshaping the main leaf and turning it over. The eyes are not modified. See this thread on HAMB: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/re-tech-reversing-a-main-leaf-spring-eyes.225377/

Charlie Stephens
 
That's what I was referring to as the non-heat method. A spring shop would most likely heat the ends, straighten them & reroll them.
 
It looks like you posted pics of the rear spring.
I can't imagine actually rerolling the eyes. The shackle has to fit perfectly and the original eye had a tapered end to the roll. All the springs I have seen were reversed by reverse bending the leaf arc. Simple.
The rear spring looks fine to me.The shackle is supposed to be sguare to the spring. The spring hangers are canted to accomadate the angled spring.The spring should be a little shorter in the real world as originally the eyes were angled in at the bottom and with a reversed spring, they angle out. This lenghens the spring.
 
Andy, spring shops have the tools to make the eyes, like a mandrel. I have had a number of them made. Piece of cake if the shop knows what it is doing.
 
,they heat the spring to below red then press it at 2"intervals until it curves the other way ,I would be asking for new replacements.
 
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