Joebrick

Does anyone know if the heavy duty steel 9 leaf rear spring (all 9 leaves curved) was used in the 454 and the 6 /3 (6 curved, 3 straight) was used in the 350? I have a 73, 350.

Not obvious on mine since it's currently a 10 leaf and not correct.

Going with an Eaton spring, but I have two 9 leaf choices from them for my car.

mortgageguy

My 72 350 is the 6/3 version.

Joebrick

Thanks. Most likely what I need as well for a steel replacement.

I am curious what that heavy duty 9 leaf is for? It's the same price and spring rate from Eaton Detroit Spring.

jb78L-82

My understanding is that the 9 leaf steel spring is the base suspension spring. The 7 leaf steel spring was the heavy duty gymkhana spring in 78 which is what came on my sport suspended car....the 9 leaf steel spring was for the base suspension cars. FWIW go with the spring rating with the higher rating for heavy duty...not sure about the earlier years C3.

I looked up the specs for a 74 454 here:

https://www.gmheritagecenter.com/doc...t-Corvette.pdf

It only lists the 9 leaf rear spring being for the base suspension only...no mention about the heavy duty spring for the gymkhana suspended cars...again, I believe the sport rear spring is 7 leaf.

Mako72

My '72 has the base suspension (9 leaf). I was happy with how it rode/handled so I went with the Eaton 9 leaf. Though not exact, it's a close copy and got my ride height back where it belonged.




Eaton 9 leaf as delivered.

I removed the spring clamps from the Eaton and threw them away. I removed the center bolt and seperated the leafs. Primered and painted them dove gray and reassembled.





Finished spring.

Alan 71

Hi Jb,
From what I've read it appears the 10 leaf spring may have become the 'service replacement' spring as the years went by.
The way Mako detailed his Eaton spring is very nice! The only thing I see is that the ends of each leaf aren't turned up slightly. That's such a minor point I don't think most folks would even notice.
Regards,
Alan

Joebrick

Looks great and I'm adding some dove gray to the shopping list.

mrvette

The spring you really want is a VBP 360 lbs and 4 Bilstein sport shocks....the ride is really NICE.....then steel springs are junk.....