Creaky leaf springs

[bugedd]

I recently replaced the bushings on the leafs and trailing arms, thinking they were making the creaking noise. But it would appear its the leafs themselves. Typically, does this noise come from between the leafs, at the spring box, or ? I tried spraying penetrating oil between all the leafs and letting it soak, but that didn't seem to help.

 

[jlaird]

Comes from between the leafs. Need to disassemble the springs and clean and paint and lube.

 

[bugedd]

That sounds like a sucky job

 

[Billm]

Or just spray in some common (like 20W-50 or so) oil.
Many of the penetrating oils will dry and not stay very long, common engine oil will stay for much longer.
BillM

 

[bugedd]

I'll give that a try, maybe just lay the springs on their sides on the bench and let some 20/50 soak in. Might get lucky.

 

[jlaird]

If they are out of the car, put them in a bucket of old motor oil for a day or so.

Seems reasonable.

 

[Hairyone]

I read somewhere that rubbing candle wax onto each leaf (once appart) was the trick.
Anyone else heard this?

 

[bugedd]

That would make sense, wax is an excellent lube for other applications like bicycle chains

 

[regularman]

I took mine apart and cut up a very thin sheet of teflon and put between the leaves. It takes a little while but you should never have that problem again.

 

[twas_brillig]

I think the teflon sheet was also a modern modification for Ford Model As(?) and Ts(?).
Doug

 

[jlaird]

That is correct of course Doug.

 

[twas_brillig]

I think the teflon sheet was also a modern modification for Ford Model As(?) and Ts(?).
Doug

 

[Nelson]

After I sandblasted all of the leaves I put a coat of POR15 on them. I lubed my leaf springs following a suggestion from Colin Dodds in Australia. Colin suggested using paste shoe polish for the lubing sgent - I used KIWI. He said to heat it gently so it melts and then apply a thin coating of it to all the mating surfaces. He claims that it is very long lasting. YMMV

 

[jlaird]

LOL, KIWI in your choice of color.

 

[lbcfan]

There is a 1-3/4" preformed polyurethane liner product made for the leaf springs- called Poly-Slide (I think). It has a lip on each side to hold the piece in place.

An alternative to wax or shoe polish is Slip Plate graphite paint. Supposedly it won't attract or hold dirt.

I disassembled the springs, cleaned them, loosely re-assembled them so as to prime and paint the outside edges of the leaves, and the top and bottom. I then disassembled once more to spray the contact surfaces with the graphite paint- just angled the spray so as not to coat the outside edges.

Once re-assembled I resprayed paint over the exterior.

Sounds like a lot, but it actually was pretty painless (except for the cleaning).

Michael