• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Rear Spring Refurb.

Share this page

P

paulsherman

Jedi Trainee
Offline
Honestly, I "searched" before I typed my question.
I need to refurb my rear springs. This is what I plan to do.
Take them apart.
Check for broken leafs.
Clean them up, wire brush etc.
Spray lube (maybe some type of graphite or)?
Reassemble.
Paint the edges and top and lower leaf (chassis black)>
Put them back on the shelf until ready to instsall.
Now the question:
Does this cover it all?
 
I'd sand blast the leafs. If they are very rusty, then a wire wheel probably will just glaze the rust.
 
quote=paulsherman]Honestly, I "searched" before I typed my question.
I need to refurb my rear springs. This is what I plan to do.
Take them apart.
Check for broken leafs.

...and what if you do find broken springs? Other forum members indicate that Moss and VB are not reliable sources for 1/4 elliptical leaf springs. What's the option?

dave
 
Kurt A. (nomad) has done this more than once. something about putting plastic between the leaves?...
 
Have a look-see at:

"Question regards Quarter Elliptic Rear Springs"

initial posting 2009 April 18; last post April 20th

And - yeah - I've gotten confused with the search function too, but I'm sure thankful it's there:

Pick 'Advanced'; punch in your key words; drop down and make sure you're looking for anything newer than 8 years (which is the maximum; default is 1 week, which isn't quiiiiite enuff), then go to the upper left and pick the Spridget forum.
I just put in 'spring' as a search item and got 300 hits, going back only as far as January 12th of this year. If you want to go back further (I think 300 is the maximum allowable number of hits), then you'd have to try entering January 12 2009 as the newest and 8 years as the oldest, and stage your way through.

By the bye: my personal human based search function sure works better when we tell each other what the subject is in the subject line

Later,

Doug
 
Thanks for the reference Bill, but I rebuild the half eleptics. Hav'nt a clue on the quarter eliptics. My bugeye is a little soft in the rear and I am considering some kind of coil overload fabrication. Have'nt got to playing with it yet.
KA
 
What's the consensus on fitting new rear quarter eliptic springs given that you can only buy the uprated ones new?
I've fitted them (not driven it yet), but back end is pointing skywards.
I've a fibreglass rear end so it's also lighter than stock. I understand from other posts the a stiff front & soft rear (yes still talking about bugeyes) gives best handling. Wedging plates are an option to lower but that'll not make it softer. Removal of spring leaves will do that, but I can't find an opinion on one leaf or two.
I'm tempted to take out two & not use any wedges. What's other people done?
 
This question was asked on another group and this is the reply given by Colin Dodds in Australia.

"Take your new 15 leaf springs, remove the bolt that holds them together, take the top three leaves and stick them on the bottom, put the bolt back, put the sprng pack back in the car.

What do you now have? A spring pack the same overall height as before, with the main leaf higher (ie: the car lower) by the thickness of three spring leaves, and springs softer cos you effectively took three leaves out of action.

Car's too high or too low? Alter the number of leaves that you swap from top to bottom."

I was able to rebuild my original springs so I haven't tried this myself. HTH
 
That Colin is a clever fellow..... I bought a couple of rebuilt clutch and brake master cylinders from him a few years ago and was very happy with the results. I suspect he might be the Hap Waldrop of OZ!!
 
Cheers Nelson, hadn't seen or heard of that. However the new springs that are available are up-rated 10 leaves, so perhaps just two from bottom to top would do the job.
Anyone any thoughts on this?
 
Well I did as Nelson suggested and swapped 3 springs from top to bottom. It dropped the back by about 20mm (3/4") & certainly made the back softer. It feels about right now front to back.
For reference; these are the 10 leaf heavy duty springs & I have a fibreglass rear end.
 
Be sure you can find clamps for those springs before you take the leaves apart. A shop that services small boat trailers shop be able to help you with spring clamps.
 
The top three of the heavy duty ones have no clamps, the 4th is the 1st clamped one.
 
Back
Top