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Spring Button Replacement

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ArcticOne

ArcticOne

Senior Member
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Going to tackle the replacement of the spring buttons. I had planned on doing it without removing the springs. Have heard some comments about it being possible, but wanted to see if anyone has replaced the buttons without removing the springs.

Any tips or thoughts?

Thanks

jb
 
I did it. Just jack up the rear of the car and make sure to put it on jack stands. I usually put something else under it just to be safe. Remove the wheels and let the hubs hang down. Stick your head in the wheel well with a screwdriver in each hand. One small and one big. Start with the small one and separate the leaves. Use the big one to make the gap large enough to slide the new button in and position it with the small one.
The hardest ones will be on the short leaf. Have fun. You will like the results.
 
I pulled the spring on our Spitfire for this task. It wasn't hard to remove. I imagine it will be a lot more effort to do this repair with the spring in place but it's your decision.

Are you putting in new rubber buttons or did you decide on the Teflon ones? I machined mine out of Delrin. As stated above, regardless of which you chose, you will like the results.
 
i am about to take this task on also...Where would i get the teflon or the delrin ones? i was in another post and somebody mentioned ebay, i have yet to look there...i don't have a lathe or any way to machine my own. thanks...
 
I ended up buying the rubber ones from Spit Bits. One of those silly $$$ related decisions - $30 for teflon on eBay or $11 for the rubber ones. In hindsite the $$$ value does not seem significant enough to have went the way I did, but oh well - can always change them later.

Have a few other projects first and likely get to the spring buttons on Tuesday or Wednesday. HOpe it works out well and the springs aren't too seized together.

jb
 
If you cannot machine your own buttons and don't want to use the stock rubber ones, eBay is your friend. From now until 1/19/11, search eBay for item 150536940768. That's a set of the Teflon ones.

I found the dimensions for the buttons on a European web site. However, when I compared the features on my springs to the web site dimensions I determined their buttons would be too tall and the mounting feature too big in diameter. I made my Delrin ones a bit shorter and smaller.
 
Guess I found yet ANOTHER project to schedule for my 79 Spit!
Gee, thanks a lot!

:smile:

would using a floor jack to lift slightly under one side of the suspension spread the leaves on the other side a bit?
 
I'm not sure about jacking up the car to spread the spring leaves. However, in all seriousness, pulling the spring out of the car is only going to add about 1/2 hour or so to the process. The convenience of doing this on the work bench in a heated garage justifies the time.

Below is a link to the web site in Holland that I visited before doing this repair.
https://triumphspitfire.nl/rearspringpads.html
Their 8mm height of the buttons seems a bit too tall. The 19mm diameter by 3mm high centering portion of the button was definitely too big. I made mine about 18mm by 1.5mm. I also drilled an 8mm through hole on center and heavily chamfered each side of the through hole. That allowed me to accurately fit the buttons and use a glob of RTV (in the center) to hold them to the spring. So far, so good.

BTW, how much snow did you get over in Winston-Salem?
 
Was able to replace the buttons without removing the spring. Only tough one was the button nearest to the damper as the spring would not separate as much as the others.

I went with the rubber buttons from Spitbits (US) but next time would go with the teflon ones as in the Holland post. The rubber ones from Spitbits are only a rubber disk, without the centre nipple.

After reading on how to remove the spring, and knowing my limited mechanical abilities, I know it would have been much more than 1/2 hour extra to remove the spring and do the job.

I did 6 buttons in about 2 hours including moving vehicles about, set up and clean up.

Unfortunately can not test the results until the spring.

jb
 
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