68 Leaf Spring Replacement

[Anthony S.]

[Joe L.]

Re: 68 Leaf Spring Replacement


Tony------


You were especially lucky. Usually, the bottom leaf is the absolute worst one to have break. Breaking that one usually leaves one "dead in the water".

The 1/2" higher ride height increase that you're experiencing might be the ORIGINAL ride height. In other words, your spring might have deteriorated to the point that what you thought was correct ride height was actually 1/2" low.

[Don L.]

Re: 68 Leaf Spring Replacement

Tony, I'm not sure if your ride height after spring replacement is a coincidence or not. When did you buy it?

I was at Eaton Spring on some other business 2 weeks ago and spoke to Mike Eaton about the chronic height issues with his spring. He advised that he was unaware of this and could/would revise the set of his replacement springs to improve the height. Maybe we've been talking to each other about Eaton's ride height problems but not talking to Eaton.

Hopefully, your spring is the first of the new manufacturing process.

[Joe L.]

Re: 68 Leaf Spring Replacement

Tony, I'm not sure if your ride height after spring replacement is a coincidence or not. When did you buy it?

I was at Eaton Spring on some other business 2 weeks ago and spoke to Mike Eaton about the chronic height issues with his spring. He advised that he was unaware of this and could/would revise the set of his replacement springs to improve the height. Maybe we've been talking to each other about Eaton's ride height problems but not talking to Eaton.

Hopefully, your spring is the first of the new manufacturing process.

Don------


Why don't you just ask him why they don't make the springs to the EXACT GM specification? They have the drawings and they sell the springs as reproductions. If they made them to the GM prints, there should be no problem with ride height. When the GM springs were available in SERVICE, I never heard of a problem with ride height when one was used.

However, in this case, I don't know that there's really a problem. As I mentioned, comparing the ride height of a 43 year old spring against the same car with a new spring might not be fair to the new spring.

[Don L.]

Re: 68 Leaf Spring Replacement

Good and fair question Joe. Thanks.

What I'm hearing is that spring steel isn't (at least readily) available in the OEM thickness today. Repop thickness is a bit heavier and when it gets stacked up in 9 layers, the overall load is higher when arched to orig (thinner leaf) specs.

I will continue to follow, endeavoring to get these things the best they can be.

[Stephen L.]

Re: 68 Leaf Spring Replacement

Anthony, Having replaced the spring and hardware, rubber cushions etc. I would expect the height to increase.

The best way to determine if the car is "high" would be to measure the height according to the specs in the AIM. As said earlier, 43 yr old springs and hardware can tend to sag, subtly over time. You may find you are now in spec.