What is the difference between 1916 and a 1917 spring ends front and rear. Are the springs supposed to be tapered with rounded ends, clipped square or clipped on corners 45deg? Thank you Mike
The rear spring was tapered into 1918. I believe the front spring started getting the common leafs in late '16. Of course, there was a spring that had real pointed leafs sometime in '16 too, but not for long.
I have one of the 17 front springs,if needed,contact me.
Actually Larry the pointy leaf springs were used for a fair amount of months but I fear nobody realized that they were not aftermarket items and thus tossed them. The "Ford design" spring with the pointy leafs was first drawn up on 11/15/15 and did not have Ford script on it. On 5/19/16 the "Ford" script was added to the top of it which is why Warren Mortensen asked me to check the archives about the pointy leaf spring on his early 1917 car which everyone told him had an after market front spring but was otherwise a surviving original. They were wrong. My research at the archives quickly revealed that the pointy leaf spring was indeed standard Ford issue during Model year 1916. The regular "clipped leaf" front spring came next and was changed on the drawing on 9/30/16 and the pointy leaf was then removed. Thus the pointy leaf spring was in production for over 10 months. There is no way of course to know what stock piles of other springs Ford had nor when the pointy leaf spring was on cars for sure. My son's early 1916 roadster has one on it (engine date 12/24/15 and Warren Mortensen's early 1917 has one on it.