I have a 5-leaf rear spring in my Speedster. I'm sure my grandfather removed the missing leaves when he converted the 1919 runabout into the speedster in 1927.
Question: With the missing leaves, the spring clip bar that mounts on the U-bolts does not engage the bottom surface of the spring, as the spring pack isn't thick enough to extend past the bottom edge of the crossmember. The clip bar comes up against the edge of the rear crossmember. This results in a fit that isn't tight enough to secure the springs to the crossmember, and I've found that the frame and body can shift (tilt) to one side or another depending on the weight distribution of the driver and (sometimes) passenger.
Has anyone else out there had this issue, and if so, what did you do to solve it? I'm thinking a steel shim of the right size to install between the bottom spring and the clip bar would enable to to tighten the fit so it woulnd't move around. I'd rather not have to remove/replace the spring pack right now, as that would involve much more than with a stock runabout.
Thanks for any advice.
Why not make a spacer to go under the spring pack it would only have to be mild steel and big enough so that u-bolts would have something to tighten against.
A shim or spacer is exactly what you need. It needs to match the curve of the spring, and also needs a hole in the middle to clear the spring centerbolt. Ideally the spacer would be part of the spring pack with the centerbolt holding everything together, but that would require removal and disassembly of the spring. Be sure that the head of the centerbolt is still located in the hole of the crossmember before tightening everything up.
I Have done that to mine. I made some hardwood blocks to tighten up the space. cinch them down; good and tight.
Weld a piece of 3/4 or 1" key stock on the cross bar, and a spacer under each nut with a cotter pin and its done... ws
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Add shortened leaves to the bottom of the spring. Any leaves below the main will have no affect except to reduce rebound. If you use spacers, place them on the bottom also. Otherwise, you'll raise the rear of the car (frame).
Thanks, all. For a temporary fix, I cut a few blocks of oak to use as spacers, installed between the spring and the clip bar. They tightened up well. Troop - don't have a welder, but hope to get one eventually. Might get an old spring set and either replace the stack, or just add a shortened one or two to the bottom of the current stack, as Ken suggested.
Thanks again.
Very simple fix. If you are talking of the spring clamps that hold the spring pack into the crossmember, take out the short lenght springs from the spring pack and reinstall however many you need to take up slack under the longer springs, reinstall your center bold and reinstall stack into frame. In other words, take out the short ones and put back under the long ones. It might look a little funny, but it works great.
You will find that you can take out 2-3 springs and only have to put back 1-2.