Rear spring retainer swagging tool

[Jordan S.]

I would like to thank Gary Beaupre and Lee Brock for writing such a useful and informative article in the fall 2009 Restorer. Not only did they write the article, but Gary recently loaned me the tools used for the procedure.

I just did the swagging procedure (took 30 minutes) and the results are perfect.

(Gary, I'll be shipping the tools back on Monday).

Thanks again,

Jordan

[Gary B.]

Rear spring retainer swagging tool

Jordan,

Thanks for the kind feedback. Your spring restoration looks great.

Gary Beaupre
Northern California Chapter

[Michael H.]

Re: Rear spring retainer swagging tool

I would like to thank Gary Beaupre and Lee Brock for writing such a useful and informative article in the fall 2009 Restorer. Not only did they write the article, but Gary recently loaned me the tools used for the procedure.

I just did the swagging procedure (took 30 minutes) and the results are perfect.

(Gary, I'll be shipping the tools back on Monday).

Thanks again,

Jordan

Jordan,

Looks like it did a great job. Who's leaf spring did you buy ? Have you installed it yet ? Kind of wondering what the ride height.

Mike

[Jordan S.]

Re: Rear spring retainer swagging tool

Jordan,

Looks like it did a great job. Who's leaf spring did you buy ? Have you installed it yet ? Kind of wondering what the ride height.

Mike

ock

Its a stock used GM spring. Sandblasted/ painted with Quanta spring coating and quanta liners. Won't be installed for a while, probably a month or so.

[Harry S.]

Re: Rear spring retainer swagging tool

I made a tool as suggested but it does not work very well on a 63 retainer. The 63 retainer has a different physical configuration than the later C2's. It is not as tall.

Anyone find an easy way for the 63's.

[Gary B.]

How are '63 retainers different?

Harry,

When you say the '63 retainer is not as tall, are you talking about a used, original retainer? All original retainers for '63 thru '66 and into the early '67 model year were the same, so there was nothing unique about '63.

Currently, there is only one GM service replacement retainer which services '63 thru '80 (GM part # 3910701), so anything bought now is going to work with the tooling I made.

Gary

[Harry S.]

Re: Rear spring retainer swagging tool

Please double check, original OEM 63 retainers were different.

I'll post a picture tomorrow. Maybe a few 63 guys will chime in.

Cheers

[Gary B.]

Spring/T-arm retainer cup styles; original vs. service part

Harry,

I suspect the "not as tall" issue that you're talking about is the height of the part of the retainer that gets swaged over. On most original springs I've seen, there is not much material that is swaged over, which means the height of that part of the retainer cup must have been shorter prior to swaging, compared to the current service replacement part.

In addition to the outer lip modification I've done on current service replacement cups to match the early ('63-'66/'67) style cups, I've also reduced the height of the column portion of the cup that gets swaged over for the cups I installed on my '66, but doing that height reduction involved an extra lathe operation that most people will not want to do.Although I know of at least one other person who has done the same thing to the cups he installed on his mid-year. I used my tool to perform the swaging of these reduced height cups, so the tool worked fine for me, and the results indeed do look more like the originals that I've seen. But it's a minor difference in that swaged portion, when all is said and done. In any case, to the best of my knowledge, no retainer cups were unique to '63. But please post your photos so that it's clear that we're talking about the same tall vs. less tall part of the cup. You can see the difference in the "tallness" of the part of the cup that I'm talking about in one of the leaf spring articles I wrote for the Restorer about 4 or 5 years ago.

Gary

[Harry S.]

Re: Rear spring retainer swagging tool

These are two from a 63. The new one is from LIC and the old one came out of a 9 leaf 63 spring.

Correction, the 63 to 66 was the same the 67 was different. I believe the GM part number today describers the 67 retainer.

I do not have a 67 retainer to place them side by side.

[Gary B.]

Retainer cups

Harry,

Yes, we are talking about the same portion of the cup that is too tall on the current cups. For the current GM service replacement cup (GM part # 3910701) not only is that column or collar to be swaged too tall, it's also too thick. That's what forced me to take it to a lathe and both thin it and shorten it. After doing that and swaging it, the result of the swaged portion looks spot on compared to originals, except not rusty and w/o cracks like one almost always sees with originals.

Chucking up these cups in the lathe takes some time in terms of centering the collar, since it's a stamped part and the collar is not concentric with the larger OD which is grabbed by the jaws of the chuck. Hence, when first chucking it up, there's a lot of wabble in the collar as it turns, which can be eliminated by shimming the chuck jaws. In my hands, the shimming and lathe process is a process that it not quick, making it unrealistic to fix lots of cups.

Regardless, in my experience the swage tool works even with cups that have the shorter collar.

Gary

[Edward J.]

Re: Rear spring retainer swagging tool

I did a freinds 63 leaf spring. a ballpeen hammer will work also,you'll need the right sized head, just start the process with flaring the cup with the ballpeen end of hammer and striking the ballpeen with another hammer, then turing the hammer over to the flat surface and flaten the rest of cup to spring , there should be a large socket on the under side of cup to help with the process . takes all of 2 minutes.

[Gary R.]

Re: Rear spring retainer swagging tool

I did a freinds 63 leaf spring. a ballpeen hammer will work also,you'll need the right sized head, just start the process with flaring the cup with the ballpeen end of hammer and striking the ballpeen with another hammer, then turing the hammer over to the flat surface and flaten the rest of cup to spring , there should be a large socket on the under side of cup to help with the process . takes all of 2 minutes.

That's how I do the spring and T/A's. Kind of like a cobbler, I set them on a flat disk to support,peen to the point where I can flatten the end nice and smooth. I know the current cups don't work on the aftermarket springs all that well as the leaf is thicker.

[Gary B.]

Re: Rear spring retainer swagging tool

Gary,

I believe the difference in main leaf thickness is why the GM service replacement cups have the collar that is so tall. It's so one cup can be used
on various thickness spring stock.

Gary