Disassembly of Front Springs

[Barry Maxwell]

I am trying to disassemble the front springs of my '51 B3C and I am about to give up. The attached photos show that the spring has four keepers and each one has a rivet head that penetrates the leaf that it is attached to (I think). On the other side of the spring two of the keepers are bent over and the other two have bolts that have been removed.

I have tried everthing I can think of (short of my torch which I certainly won't use) with no success. How do you guys solve this problem? I am stumped. Thanks for any help you can provide.

[pflaming]

Barry I did a spring chronology about a month ago, find that, lots of pictures. Those metal wraps are just that. Lay the spring on a solid surface, use s good hammer, and a good chisel will help open them. note my vice grip and chisel, and my hammer. once open you can open or close them with a 15" Cresent wrench. The are made of 'soft' metal and open easily, then when reassembled, you just drive them back. There is NOTHING technical about them and you cannot hurt them.

Edited June 2, 2012 by pflaming

[Desotodav]

Yeh... what Paul said! Try this link for the post that Paul was talking about... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=31678 . There's plenty of photos there as he said.

Desotodav

[Barry Maxwell]

Paul and Desotodav:

Thank you!!! I will give it a try this morning when I get out to the shop. I am continually amazed at the support that this site provides. Many thanks.

Barry

[Barry Maxwell]

Success!! It wasn't pretty and it sure wasn't professional, but I "got er done". I should note that those two keepers were not soft metal (at least it seemed like that to me). When I get everything out of my blast cabinet, they will look much better. After priming I will reassemble them using my shop press on those keepers and then paint the pack. Only three more packs to go - I can hardly wait! Thanks again you guys. I appreciate it.

BTW Paul, regarding your post on my earlier thread, the bushing in the eye that attaches to the frame sure looks like it is threaded. I am sure your are correct, but I will find out when I bead blast it.

[pflaming]

Mine had HARD RUST ridges also, I cleaned them out as best I could. If I had had a large enough honer I'd of honed them shiny.

I sand blasted mine with a water jet/sand. But I found it faster to clean each one with a good sharp quality putty knife, then sand them with a oscillating sander. USE nose filter, that rust is not good for the lungs. I put a fan on to my side to keep that stuff moving away from me.

How's the shoulders and back muscles!

Rotts of ruck! Fun job. I removed the second from the bottom leaf all around.

Edited June 3, 2012 by pflaming

[Barry Maxwell]

BTW Paul, regarding your post on my earlier thread, the bushing in the eye that attaches to the frame sure looks like it is threaded. I am sure your are correct, but I will find out when I bead blast it.

I bead blasted the left front springs and the bushing in the spring eye that attaches to the frame IS threaded. The only portion that doesn't have threads is in the middle to permit grease flow. Maybe they made a design change at some point prior to '51.

[Jeff Balazs]

Barry;

For what it is worth I have a new bushing that I need to put in my truck and it sure looks like it threads through the spring.

Jeff

[HanksB3B]

"Looks Like".

is the key word.

Hank

[pflaming]

Barry, I'm an older man, so short term memory is not good. Seems the bushing is pressed in and the pin presses into the eyes, front and back.

The threaded bushings are on the shackle ends of the springs, if memory serves me correct, but then I have 'new friends every morning so. . .'

Edited January 28, 2018 by pflaming

[IanT_Qld]

Barry, Would you mind measuring the thickness of an individual leaf?

I posted recently that my spring packs had 9 and 10 leaves on the front, I though I miss counted, due to american trucks usually having less.

The 9 leaf pack were thicker about 6mm per leaf and the 10 leaf pack 4mm per leaf, from memory. Currently I am running 10 pack from an earlier truck, the original 9 pack, broke a leaf, the one with the retainer.

The extra leafs must be something to do with the crap roads we had (have) in Australia. It was Edsel Ford who couldn't believe there was not one mile of concrete road out here in the 60's. (his analysis of why our XM Falcon was too weak).

I am going to assume the "spring rate" is directly proportional to the thickness, thus if you guys are running 6 leafs I could run about 8, perhaps.

[Desotodav]

Ian: I'm running the standard 9 leaf/s on the front of mine and 10 on the back. I can measure mine up for you if you want. Drop me an email with what you're after. Or, if it's one of those rare times when you're actually back home here in Oz you can drop around and see me!

Paul: you're getting quite good at taking photos as you go now!

Barry: Glad that you worked it out.

Desotodav

[Barry Maxwell]

In response to the last several posts:

* My springs have 7 leafs in the front and 10 in the rear.

* The thickness of the front leafs range from 0.24" to 0.27"

* The first photo shows the threaded bolt partially inserted into the threaded bushing. Both sides of the frame bracket into which the eye fits are also threaded.

* The second photo shows the shackle end of the spring partially threaded into the spring eye.

Paul, I have the same memory problems as well and I suspect that I am older than you. In any event, life is good when you are a "senior" and having fun with your work. Cheers!

Barry