Spring support plate

[Tim G.]

I have a '66 that has a homemade spring support plate that was made to accommodate a trailer hitch. I plan on replacing this with a correct spring support plate. Has anyone removed this with the spring in place? It appears that the spring is braced solid against the differential. I thought of securing the spring to the half shafts with chains when replacing the plate. If this method is unsafe, I know that I can remove the trailing arm bolts, decompress the spring and remove it.
This hitch is homemade and mounts to the spring support plate and bumper mounting bolts. No holes in the bumper. If anyone wants it, let me know. It's taking up room in my garage.

[Chuck R.]

Re: Spring support plate

I think that un-caging a leaf spring and trusting it to just set there is courting disaster.

If I HAD to do this, I would use ratchet straps on either side of the mount plate and take just enough of a strain forward to keep it snug against the cover.

Then I would loosen the four bolts evenly a little at a time to see just what kind of stress the spring is actually putting on the plate.

I would also have the replacement plate ready to go so your not fumbling around with all the bolts out any longer than I would have to.

If that spring ever rolled out of place, the whole shooting match will drop like a rock, so make sure that you have blocking under the frame rails just in case.

The most critical aspect of doing this Tim is making sure that your on the back side of this process just in case that spring ever popped free.

OR, you could just remove the spring links and be done with it.

Sounds like the most safe and logical route to me.

Chuck

[Tim G.]

Re: Spring support plate

Think you are correct, remove the trailing bolts and take the pressure off the spring first. It's a good opportunity to replace the rubber, also.

[Chuck R.]

Re: Sounds like a good idea, good luck *NM*