time to rebuild the rear suspension

[mgbmedic]

Ok...time to rebuild the back of the "B". I've experienced the front suspension twice now. But I've never dealt with leaf springs. My approach is to place jack stands just forward of the rear springs with the wheels just barely touching the pavement. Then placing a floor jack barely under load at one end of a spring, cut the bolt with a saws-all. Then lower the spring to unload it. Sound good so far? Sound safe? Anyone done this operation before and lived? This is the best time to find out if my plan is...flawed.

 

[SilentUnicorn]

sounds good. here is what i do.

support the car as you said, be sure you are on a good solid body point. shake the car a little,if it falls over, start again. Undo e brake , brake lines and exhaust. with a jack under the rear holding tension, undo the rear shackles. lower the rear end down. undo the front bolts and slide rear rearward.

hmmm the term "undo" means what ever it takes to get the job done ie. saws all , grinder, or your personal weapon of choice.

now you have a small project to do. Have Fun


mark

 

[BCruzn]

MGBMEDIC, Yes I have, jack the car up as you have. Unless the breaks or exhaust are in your way, don't mess with them. (mine is a 70' yours may be different). If your rear springs are really old as mine where, I just unbolted one side and worrked the bolt out. Stay as far away as possible. You will have more problems putting the new ones on, but once you have achived that, your car will probably have a raised rear end. Don't panic. Once everything is tightened and in place, loosen all of the bolts. This will give the springs time to rest. Then put your floor jack under the axel attachement and jack it up a few inches and tighten up all of the bolts again. Your vehicle rearend may still be raised, it will go down. good luck. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif

 

[mgbmedic]

BCruzn- I have a new front end and looking at the profile of the car, it appears to "sag" at the rear. So, i'm hoping it will lift the car. now, that part about "stay far away as possible" sounds scary. Did you try to hold the spring up with a floor jack or did you just let her go...wham. Sounds either way it worked for you. thanks, bob

 

[BCruzn]

Bob, I'm a firm believer in safety, that's all. At my age I wouldn't want to mess myself up and be out of commission for any lenght of time. I don't think of myself as bullet proof anymore. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif

 

[mgbmedic]

i agree, I'm no "spring" chicken myself, pardon the pun. I always like to cosult with the members of bcf before undertaking a project, it can save you from making costly mistakes.

 

[Nunyas]

When I redid the bushes on the rear of my B, I just blocked the front wheels, but the car in gear, set the parking brake, jacked up the rear, and found nice solid points for the stands. I jacked the rear wheels completely off the ground, and used a floor jack to move the weight from the spring to the axle. Then I unbolted the axel from the spring, before moving on to removing the spring bolts from any of the chassis mounting points. Removing the axel from the spring ensures the only thing loading the spring is the spring itself, and makes removing and replacing necesary parts a lot easier because you're only fighting the spring. With only the mounting points influencing the spring it's a LOT easier to work with.

If the axel is still attached to the spring, then you can run into one of the problems I had initially. I did my car by jacking up 1 side at a time. In doing so the springs have a tendancy to "twist" because the axel is no longer parallel to the car. The twist caused by the axel still being attached to the springs can really make disassembly and reassembly a major challenge. Fully disconnecting the axel from the springs ensures no outside forces are "loading" the springs, and makes the job a lot easier and safer.

3 floor stands could be handy in this operation but not totally necesary. I would use the 3rd stand for the axel after disconnecting it from the spring, and then use the jack to manipulated the spring to the position you want during reassembly. I managed to do it with just jack stands and a floor jack easily enough. It took me about 2 days to do both sides, working only during daylight hours and no power tools.

If you're changing the bushes, the front hangers on the leafs can be a major PITA. Mine were pressed in steel sleeved rubber bushes. I swapped them out for polyurathane bushes. If it weren't for the pressed in bushes, I would have been able to do the job in 1 day.

 

[mgbmedic]

Well, it's done. It took me about 4 hours, 3 busted knuckles and 2 cuss words. Nunyas, I see what you meant by the twist, but that was easily corrected by setting a jack at the front of the differential at the u-joint. It really wasn't a difficult job, I don't advise using a cutting torch on the front bolts unless you want to melt your carpet inside behind thwe seats. I used a die grinder type cut-off wheel on the driver's side and the passenger side came out with a few good hits with a hammer. But it's well worth the trouble as the car rides and handles like brand new. Thanks again for all the responses, bob

 

[tony barnhill]

Just a thought while you're under there....

look to see which direction your shock mounting bolts are facing....are the nuts inside the wheelwell?

If so, reverse them so the nuts are facing inward (next to shock) & the bolt head itself is in the wheelwell......that way, if you ever go to wider tires, the tire won't rub on the part of the bolt that normally sticks out beyond the nut...

 

[DrEntropy]

IIRC, Abingdon did it right and only after some "jackleg" replaced the shocks did the bolts get "reversed"...

Unless I've been 'blessed' with thoughtful PO's over the last 35 yearn, but that'd be unlikely, huh?

 

[tony barnhill]

Don't know, Doc...I looked under several of my cars & found them both ways...seems the chrome cars had them "nut in the wheelwell" & the rubber cars had them "bolt head in the wheelwells"....I know my '79 Vermillion is stock because I'm the only owner & it has them 'bolt head in the wheelwell"...

...could be somebody's moved them over the years so there's something else to look out for!