Hi S,

"I was told that it was not too difficult when the car is raised up as the shape of the spring would align to the mount points as the wheels hang."

I'm afraid this isn't so.

In order to remove the spring the car needs to be raised up so the weight is off the rear wheels.
Then independently, each end of the spring must be raised to take the tension off the spring.... so the end bolts can be removed.
After each of the bolts is removed the spring end can then be lowered until the spring is at it's 'free' arch.
That needs to be done to each side.
When the spring has been released at both sides it can be unbolted from the differential carrier in the spring's center.
The new spring can then be bolted in place in the center and the bolts tightened but not torqued to the proper specification.
Then each end of the spring must be raised so that the bolt from the trailing arm to the end of the spring can be installed.
After both are in place the car can be lowered and the bolts in the center of the spring tightened to their torque specification.

There's a tremendous amount of stored energy in the spring when it's mounted in the car so extreme caution needs to be used in removing it.

Here's a photo showing one method of raising and lowering the spring.
There are other ways of doing this.
You should study the spring removal information section in your Chassis Service Manual so you have an idea what to expect.

Regards,
Alan

Here I'm using a floor jack and wooden block to raise the spring up enough to make the connection with the trailing arm. The c-clamp prevents the block from sliding toward the center of the spring instead of raising the spring. You can see how much the end of the spring needs to be raised in order to meet the bolt hanging from the trailing arm... and then even further to allow the bushing, washer, and nut to be installed.

 

If there’s an arch in your spring,you might be better off taking it apart
Cleaning and installing new liners and a new center bolt. Not very
Hard to do . Might be better and cheaper. Good luck.

 

If the plastic liners are all still good, taking it apart, cleaning and then putting it back together isn't that hard to do...Just lots of elbow grease. Most of my liners were not reusable, I lucked out and found a bulk roll on eBay....Some vendors also make precut liners for the 7 and 9 leaf springs.

Before and after pics below....






Brian

 

That looks great. Why did you decide to paint it white?

Do you have a link for the liners. I need to know what to buy. The liners are definitely gone on mine.

 

That is actually grey...It's just a real light grey.....It looks more grey in person.

The reason is because I used Ace Hardware brand spray paint....They have 3 shades of grey, the one I used on the spring is the lightest.

If you look close at the pic below you can see all 3 shades, spring (light grey), shocks (blue grey) and the cast parts a medium grey.

If I had it to do over again I would pics colors closer to the factory colors....But I'm pretty happy with how it turned out overall.





Brian

 

See link below....The liners are 6 or 7 items from the bottom of this page....They have kits for 7 and 9 as well as individual liners listed. Make sure they are the correct width, they changed from 2 1/4" to 2 1/2" at some point.

Liners

Brian

 

Thanks. Do you have to adhere them or just lay them on the spring.

I have a 2.5".

 

They just lay in between....

Brian

 

Hi,
The 68-77 rear spring was 2-1/4" wide.
The 78-82 rear spring was 2-1/2" wide.
Regards,
Alan

The 68-72 9 leaf, 2-1/4" spring. 3 straight leaves and 6 arched leaves

 

Search for "Leaf Spring Liner" on Amazon or FleaBay. You'll find some.

It's available in rolls of 20ft or so, or in pre-cut kits for specific applications. The rolls are a better deal usually, and the stuff cuts with aviator snips or a good knife (even a "utility knife" or linoleum knife).

You had the 2 1/2 inch wide leaves, didn't you? I'm finding 1-3/4", 2" and 2-1/4", but not 2-1/2" inch right now. You might have to "contact the seller" of those other sizes and see if 2-1/2" liner is available.

 

Off topic question....what is the best way to remove rush when doing restoration? I was thinking of investing in a sand blaster, but I wasn't sure that was a good idea. I foresee trying to restore other things in the future and cleaning off rust and repainting will be a regular occurrence.

 

Hi S,
People use various methods to remove rust based on what the part is, it's size, and the material it
s made from.... and what equipment they have access to.

A blasting cabinet is a VERY nice piece of equipment to have... but it takes a pretty serious compressor to use as an air source.

Some people get by with a wire wheel on a bench grinder.
Regards,
Alan

 

Hi,
I just remembered an interesting post by member karol from a little in the past.

"The NCRS judging manual reads:

the std rear spring is a 9 leaf spring. The width of the spring leaves is 2-1/2 inches. Thin full length liners are placed between the leaves of the spring, and are painted light gray along with the spring. Optional spring FE7 has six leaves and is 2 1/4 inches wide. The black plastic liners for this spring are H shaped and are not painted.

The NCRS discussion board reveals a post : "The spring liners on your car were, indeed, made of metal and the metal was a high zinc alloy of some kind. It's a relatively soft material. The standard spring for 1978 was a 2-1/2" wide piece and all 2-1/2" wide springs used this zinc alloy liner. These liners were of GM #462589 and are long-since discontinued. I know of no reproduction, although this material may be used for other springs and may be available in the spring manufacturing/service industry. The FE-7 spring was 2-1/4" wide and used the black, graphite-impregnated polypropylene, "H" cross section liners which are, indeed, still available from GM.""

Regards,
Alan

Link to the thread that Karol's post was part of. It also discussed the width of spring and the number of leafs in each spring.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...af-liners.html

 

Yes, I have the 2.5. I will see what I can find.

 

My dad has a bench grinder. I could try to use that.

What do you suggest for parts that are too big to get the right angles for getting the rust out of all the nooks and crannies?

 

Hi S,
There's very few parts that you can hold that you can't use the wire wheel/bench grinder on.

You can try using very shaped wire brushes on a drill motor too.

Regards,
Alan

 

These pictures are amazing. Did you buy these or are these repainted? If you painted, what paint did you use?

 

Hi S,
The spring is the original from my car that's been restored.
Someone I know had some paint mixed to match the original color and gave me enough so I could have some mixed too.

Likely in your case some Rustoleum light gray will do a good job for you.

Have you settled whether your spring has or should have the plastic or metal 'liners'?

Regards,
Alan

 

I am not a fan of them being gray. I will most likely paint them black. I like solidarity. lol.

I believe they are plastic. I can feel part of the liners on the replacement I bought and they feel plastic. And when I called Corvette America they told me they were plastic as well.

However the one thing they told me that I wasn't sure on was that the brackets need to stay on once installed. Here is a picture. I have not seen these any any other set so I thought they were for shipping, but CA customer service said they should be left on.

 

Hi S,
The leaf spring (as is the coil spring) is designed to be 'progressive'.
The 'shipping bands' negate this by forcing the leafs captured within the band to react to loading as a single leaf... not progressively.
If the designer didn't want a progressive spring the leafs could be all the same length or there could be a single thick leaf.
My suggestion is to remove the shipping bands.
Regards,
Alan