Disassemble quarter eliptical leaf springs

[BillyBud]

My leaf springs look OK, not bent in the wrong direction or horribly rusty. However there is a lot of road crud built up in mostly the top small springs. I can probably get that out with solvent (for road asphalt) and a thin slice of metal, but was also wondering if anyone has disassembled these springs. There is a weird looking bolt through the end which I suspect is pressed in somehow on one end and bolted on the other. If this could be removed it would make cleaning a lot easier. Can it?
Really not interested in buying new 10 leaf springs, mine are usable.

 

[RickF]

They can be disassembled, cleaned up, painted, and reassembled. The stud in your photo is used to line everything up and is actually just a bolt with a round head. The biggest concern is the hardware fastening the leaves together. The small clamps are usually rusted solid and you may have to find new screws, tubes, and nuts that hold the clamps together. The small U-bolts at the eye end of the spring are hard to find. Do your best not to break them. I coated the leaves in this set with a graphite impregnated paint before reassembly.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Bugeye Guy has the small U bollts which formerly were unobtanium. The Larger U Bolts will unscrew and you can get apart. Soaking for several days in PB Blaster or bathing in Washing Soda - Google Electrolytic Rust Removal will aid in getting these apart. A Battery Charger, a Sacrificial Anode, and some Arm and Hammer Washing soda, and a tub big enough to immerse the spring set, Some cheap Battery Cable Clips or really cheap Battery Cables and that is all you need. 24 Hours later those screws will come apart. That bolt that holds the leaves together I sim,ply used a BFH and a smaller bolt to pound things apart. I painted wit hsome black actually more like dark grey graphite paint Source Tractor Supply, And just put everything back together. Done this twice now and as long as you are careful taking apart it's petty simple to do. No Squeaks afterwards.
Oh and those round tubes, you can find some that will work at Ace Hardware. I think i needed to use two as I could not find long enough but it worked.

 

[BillyBud]

Great info, thank you! I also need a couple of those top spring plates as one is rusted away and the other is just missing. The bolt block seems ok, it's just the extended plate which looks suspiciously like a bench planer blade, which I may try since I am told these are on backorder forever.

 

[RickF]

Moss Europe has them stock. Shipping from England is usually faster than in the US.

Plate, locating

Moss Europe

www.moss-europe.co.uk

 

[BillyBud]

One more question: the bolt gizmo on one spring had a very rusted off vestigal little leaf, but the other side had none, and no sign of one ever being welded to it. I was going to make two new little leafs and weld them on but thought I'd ask first if this was the way the originals were.

 

[RickF]

The originals look like your photo above with the short plate that extends to the u-bolt.