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My original '77 HD spring had the spacer but the replacement 7-leaf I bought didn't come with one. Various sources indicated my spacer was not original and added at some point (it wasn't), or I needed to reuse my original spacer. I began by reusing it, had to replace the center bolt with a longer one. This resulted in a spring 'stack' much thicker than the original, reason being the steel being used today for new spring leafs is thicker than it was back in the day. This necessitated longer spring mount bolts.
The only reason for this spacer on the 7-leaf spring, my research indicated anyway, was to make the original 7-leaf spring stack thickness equal to the standard 9=leaf spring so all associated spring mount hardware and rear end height geometry would be common. I ended up removing the spacer, went back to the original spring mount bolts, and got the added benefit of lowering the rear an additional 1/4".
original 7-leaf with spacer:
