MTFCA Forum

I have a taper leaf rear spring that I bought disassembled. It appears to be undamaged, and complete.

Can anyone rebuild / reassemble this spring?

Please let me know.

Thank you.

Bill Everett

bill.everett@epickett.com

Bill, all you need is a length of all-thread rod. Assemble the leaves to the rod with each lying on its side, and draw the nuts up. You may find adjacent leaves do not sit well. Back off the nuts and rotate one of the offending leaves 180 degrees and run the nuts up again. Repeat this adjustment until you get the leaves nestled properly. You may find that the do not, which ever way you turn them. In this case they may never have been part of one spring pack, and a springworks might then be your best bet. Three bends in all but the top two or three leaves, mean they may have to be 'adjusted' to fit each other.

Allan from down under.

Good evening, Bill, Judging by your number of posts, I must assume you are a semi-new member. If so, welcome. In case you didn’t know, you can search past MTFCA Forum posts on various subjects for a wealth of information from past members. Simply go to your search engine, such as Bing or Google and type your request in the search box such as, “Ford Model T rear springs, MTFCA” and a long column of past posted threads should appear. While we are all more than happy to answer your questions, you can derive your answer much faster and from many more expert members by accessing past forum answers. Very recently there have been a lot of posts on front and rear springs, such as the very question you are asking about, so you can probably find what you need by typing in the search box on this forum. If you use the MTFCA search box, you will not need to include MTFCA, but it will only include post back to 2019 because that is when the forum format changed to what you see now. When you use a non-MTFCA search engine such as Bing or Google, you will need to include MTFCA in your search and the results will include 20 plus extra years of information from 2019 (pre-format change) back to pre-2000. Back then, the forum had many amazingly informed Model T experts/legends that, unfortunately are no longer with us. Good luck, Jim Patrick

PS. If you go to one of the Model T part suppliers, (Snyder’s), you can get the proper treated square headed bolt that will be longer than usual to bring the leafs together after lubricating between the leafs with slip paint (graphite impregnated paint). I apply the slip paint after priming and painting both sides of each leaf, but some members advocate applying the slip paint to bare leafs. After tightening, you can then cut off the excess threaded portion about 1/16” from the nut with an angle grinder then Brad the end so the nut cannot back off. When installing square headed bolt, be sure to position the square head so it fits in the square hole of the rear crossmember. This ensures the spring is perfectly centered. Also, when positioning rear spring up in the rear crossmember, don’t forget to position the rubber spring cushioning pad on top of the spring. My photo shows the rubber pad for 1921-1927. The leather pad is for 1909 to 1920 Model T’s

I was able to put a rear spring together with a solid rod, a couple of C clamps, and a couple of Irwin bar clamps. Place all the leaves in order on the rod. Slowly pull the leaves together with the bar clamps. When that is about as tight as you can get them, begin using the C clamps. As you tighten make sure the rod is loose so you will be able to remove it and install the bolt that belongs there. Make sure you get the bolt with the elongated head.