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75 coupe. Just removed my stock 9 leaf rear spring. I will be cleaning/painting it and replacing the liners if it is still good. I never drove the car so I don't know about the ride but it did sit at a good height. Should I as a matter of course just replace it because of age? A friend of mine told me that I could take it to a spring shop and they could re-arch it. What is the best course of action here?
Re-arching is good, but if the main leaf is too fatigued it will droop within a year because of the large holes on the ends of the leaf (unlike other cars with no large holes on the main leaf where re-arching lasts much longer).
I cleaned/painted/re-installed the springpack on my project.......it lasted a year......then the main leaf began to bend upwards at the large holes where the spring bolts went through. I bought a length of spring stee, angled the ends,l and drilled the correct size holes in it/installed it and the suspension is great again...it sits about an inch higher, but I will install longer spring-bolts to lower the body an inch....
If later on the springpack begins to "droop"......buy either a steel or composite setup to replace the original pack!
Last edited by doorgunner; Aug 2, 2015 at 05:28 PM.
I brought the spring to a spring shop. They told me to measure the height of the car with it installed as they had no way to test it. They said that if the car was sitting at a good height and there were no cracks in any of the spring leaves then it was probably okay. I am going to clean it, paint it, put in new liners, and see if it lasts. If not then it isn't the end of the world to take it back off and replace it. Certainly not anywhere as near as the nightmare of removing the trailing arms, which I just went through.
just separate the spring pack, clean and lightly paint, you do not want the paint acting like glue, and sticking.
Install new liners, reassemble and your original height is ready to go.
Steel spring installation only!!! AND...whatever you do.....DO NOT....repeat...DO NOT tighten the four bolts for your rear leaf spring to TORQUE SPECS when the rear is UP in the air. YOU MUST torque these four bolts when the weight of the car is flattening out the arc of the spring.....BECAUSE if you don't...you can...and more then likely will break the ear(s) off your rear end cover...and you don't want to do that.
These four bolts can be tightened a bit when you are installing the spring...but do not go crazy on them. This is so you can install the outer spring bolts and cushions.
rear leaf spring good?
