C3 leaf spring corrosion

[Pete B.]

Hi all,
In the process refurbishing my leaf springs I found a few spots on 2 leafs where there are pitts and corrosion. One spring, I think the middle one, had a section about 4 sq inches of larger pitts about 1/32 deep. The zone is in the middle of the spring about 1/3 of the distance from the end. The rest have surface rust and small wear spots where the liner wore through.

There are no cracks in any of them and the ride height was good before I started the body off.

My question is should I be concerned about this? I belive it is ok but wonder if anyone has had experiance with this. The car as a whole has minimal rust elsewhere.

TIA Pete

[Michael G.]

Re: C3 leaf spring corrosion

Pete, I too had some surface pitting on my original spring. Unfortunately, mine was severe on the ends of the main leaf and I decided to replace the whole spring. This is always a challenge when replacing and hoping for a similar ride height. I finally swapped the main leaf only and stayed with the other eight originals. They too had some minor pitting but are not as critical towards catastrophe as the main leaf. Hang on to that original set because you will find that a good replacement with the proper flaired ends and the same ride height will be hard find. Mike

[Pete B.]

Re: C3 leaf spring corrosion

Thanks Mike....

I wonder if by the lack others responding that this is typical and may be just fine....
I really dont want to be messing with ride height issues if I can avoid it by leaving it alone.

[Michael G.]

Re: C3 leaf spring corrosion

Thats possible Pete. Check the archives for past discussions and also check the warnings associated with the replacement mounting bolts and procedure for reinstalling the spring safely. Mike

[Patrick N.]

Re: C3 leaf spring corrosion

Hi Pete,

I have a similar issue on my main spring-very corroded,the others had some pitting on the ends but not too bad.

one of the earlier posts talked about Eaton Detroit Spring as one source to look into. they do sell individual springs as needed.

Pat
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