Leaf Spring Grease Fittings

M

MABidwell

Junior Member
I'm working on a 1946 Ford Super Deluxe station wagon (woodie) that has metal wrapped leaf springs. Each spring has two zerks embedded in the wrap. The zerks are mounted in a special cage nut that has a flange that holds it in the metal wrap. I have 3 of the 4 cage nuts, but need a fourth. I've searched quite a bit and haven't found anything. If anybody is familiar and knows where I can find this part I would appreciate it. Thanks
 
If the "cage nut" is square then with a little imagination and ingenuity it would be a simple matter to fabricate a replacement.
 
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I'm looking at the springs from my '46 and what it looks like is a square "nut" that is captured by the sheetmetal spring wrap. The sheetmetal looks like 22/24 gauge so the nut needs some way of attaching to the sheetmetal. It looks like some sort of folded edge to capture the nut. I would just fabricate a square piece that fits and tap it out for the grease fitting size. What shape is the spring cover that the nut attaches to? I suspect that someone tried to unscrew the fitting and twisted out the nut from the sheetmetal. Yes, they are totally stock.
 
Just took a wire brush to the fitting you are asking about. As I previously mentioned, all it is is a sheetmetal part that captures the square nut. It will move back and forth a little so I imagine that there are tabs that fold under the cover that will anchor the cage between the cover and the spring. Nobody reproduces this as far as I know. As you can see the cover is segmented in several pieces so you might be able to find the piece with the fitting somewhere.
 
it could probably be soldered on, perhaps a sawed off piece of brass fitting
remember the fittings are not for grease, they are for spring lube, about 70% light oil, talc remainder (+ a dash of ground asbestos) ---the center bolt has a passage for lube too, the spring leaves have lubrication passage grooves down to near the tips ---using grease cloggs the passages
 
Well after 70 years of people trying to pump who knows what for ""lubricant", the fact is that they are now clogged and useless to lubricate the leaves. JMO

My 46 has the wrapped leaves with fittings and I leave them alone. They don't squeak after 62,000 miles and probably wearing against each other.
 
Thanks everyone for the input. My hunch was that taking a cage nut with flanges and then working with them to get them into to metal wrap was the best solution. Also appreciate the advice on the lubrication.
 
MABidwell said:
Thanks everyone for the input. My hunch was that taking a cage nut with flanges and then working with them to get them into to metal wrap was the best solution. Also appreciate the advice on the lubrication.
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Unless you are doing a concourse restoration, I would not worry too much about the absent fitting. As most have correctly advised, these lubrication fittings (the effect) were "ok" at best.

The fittings on the top of the covers were especially useless in greasing the springs themselves. Rather, they were there to offer a cushion of sorts between the cover(s) and spring.
Those covers had a tendency to rattle back in the day and many owners would simply peal them off.
 
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