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rear 1/4 elp springs

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texas_bugeye

texas_bugeye

Jedi Knight
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I have new leaf springs in the rear of my sprite, well almost new 5 years old. I thought that after a while they would straighten up a little but they have not relaxed at all.
I have been thinking of putting some sort of spacer under them to lower the car kind of looks wierd like a 70's car jacked up rear end. any sugestions on the best wy to get my rear down? Spring were for Moss I think May be VBrit.
 
One of the folks here said one time to take em apart and flatten em with a hammer.
 
The aftermarket springs do make the car sit butt high. You can use the spacers, or simply take out a couple of the leaves. You could also take them to a spring shop and have them de-arched a bit.
Jeff
 
Why can you not change the the arch of a spring by hammering?
 
It springs back. That's what springs do. If you use a vice and bend it it will stay. But that's difficult.

As with all materials, there is a proportional elastic deformation followed by a non-linear permanent deformation. The permanent deformation only happens after the elastic, at which time the elastic will still return the item towards the original state. Only the amount of permanent deformation will remain when it is unloaded. It is extreemly difficult to achieve anywhere near the right amount of deformation to reach the correct permanent deformation with a hammer. There is no control of the final position.
See here,
or here
for stress strain diagrams (spændings-tøjnings diagrammer)
 
Take them apart, move strong short leaves to the bottom of the stack, bolt them back together and re-install.

Steve
 
I have the Moss Rally Springs. I removed three or four leaves, put 1/4 inch spacers under them and a wedge on one side to even them out. Assembled them with graphite between the leaves.

The drivers side is 1/4" higher then the passenger, but evens out with my rumph in it.

I may be a bit lower then you want to go. If you have the rally springs I would definately remove two of the shorter leaves (alternate which two, one and three or two and four).

Pat
 
I think Pat and Steve have the correct solution, cheep and reversable.
 
Just wanted to comment on the hammering, since I've done it.

I took the half-ellips out of my car and used an old 1500 engine block as an "anvil".
I rounded the tops of the bore holes with a grinder (so they wouldn't nick the springs) and placed the separate springs across an opening (upside down) and hammered with a 5 lb sledge. I did each individual leaf (left and right) together so I could get each to have the same shape. It took forever, but it worked fine. You can cold-work leaf springs like this but it take a lot of time...and it helps if you're cheap, like me.
 
I just picked mine up from the spring shop - 1 inch of arch taken out - $60 no fuss no muss
 
Well Iam suprised by all the response!
I think I'll try the removel of a few leaves first and see how that works over XMAS vac. and see where that ends up.
If that is not where I whant to be I may take them out to a spring shop. Thanks for all the feed back Its all good info
CHEERS!!!
 
This is the place for real life answers good or bad.
 
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