This is my attempt at rebuilding my leaf springs. It took four spring packs. I broke the packs apart, cut the bushing eyelets off two of the main springs, added that spring to the previous stock three spring pack. the clamps and sliders are from Emch Spring Service Inc. in Youngstown OH. The clamped pack is the nearly finished spring. Should I paint each spring or wait until its a complete pack?
Always good to paint each individual leaf or they will corrode away the paint from the inside out very quicvkly. Also keep in mind that without the rubber wear buttons between the individual leafs(teflon pads/buttons are the best).. the springs will slide against one another moreso than usual and you will have inconsistent spring rate from frictional losses and wear at the ends will go sky high. You'll always have rusted springs at those area's. Oh, also.. sorry not trying to shoot your work down here.. the square ends being used without slider pads in between will just add that much more friction into the mix. Use wear/friction pads for sure.
No Worries. I totally agree. Matter of fact check this out. http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...lling-polyurethane-spring-tip-inserts-224332/ I know it has nothing to do with Mavericks, but Jim Lane did an excellent write up on exactly what your talking about.
Duh. Why didn't I think of that, it is so obvious. Thanks for the link RT. It makes me wonder what other little things I've over looked.
see the ends of the short stock spring? I would try to make the ends of the cut springs look like that...
That almost seems silly when you imagine the thosuandths of an inch of normal material wear that occurs naturally at the ends and bushings and in between multiple leaf spring setups, many of which have significantly more leafs than the ones being discussed here. Not to mention that I and countless thousands of hardcore restorers have completely refinished springs without issue through the years. Not saying that it's not possible, just that if the leafspring designs were that damned sensitive and fragile?.. you'd see more of them twisted and crashed up on the sides of the roads than you've ever seen CV joint failures. Plus, that's why they use bolts. With nuts. That can be tightened. If need be.
I ordered 8 leaf spacers at summit today. 8 was all they had. I'll post some picks of the springs going back together. If I had the budget I would buy new springs. The ones I have are borderline repairable, some would pitch 'em.
ahhh.. the old art of hotrodding. Almost becomes a necessity when working on and modding these particular cars.
I have a nice set of rust free leafs off of my 74 Maverick that I'll sell you. I went with composite monoleafs.
I went with flex forms. Better be ready for the sticker shock! I went with them to ditch a lot of weight.
Thanks. I'll check on them. Do you race your Maverick? I noticed your from Columbiana. I'm in East Liverpool. I thought you mite go to Quaker City I Salam. I herd they are changing a lot out there and maybe not all for the good. But anyway I'm getting off topic. Thanks again.
No. I gave that up decades ago. I do go to Quaker once in a great while. The new ownership has pumped a lot of $$$ into that place, but issues remain. The last time I was there with forum member "Hotrock", the timing equipment was malfunctioning in the right lane. Otherwise it is a real nice facility, but again, I go there to watch and not race. A racer's viewpoint may differ.
