Tag for Leaf Spring

[Tory S.]

Has anyone seen a part number tag for a rear leaf spring on a C3? My coil springs have them, so the rear leaf spring must have one too, particularly to differentiate standard spring from FE7 HD spring. If someone has a photo or knows what book may have one, please let me know.

Thanks,
Tory

[Patrick H.]

Re: Tag for Leaf Spring

Tory,

I've been judging Chassis for many years and I've never seen one. To the best of my knowledge there is no sticker on the rear leaf spring.

Patrick

[Terry M.]

Re: Tag for Leaf Spring

I have been at it (judging) for longer than Patrick -- although for the last number of years Chassis is not on my radar screen -- and I have never seen or heard of a rear spring tag either. On occasion a differential tag will show u[, but only from those folks doing dissassembly. I guess Chevrolet figured the assembly line workers could tell 9 leaves from 7 leaves.

[Tory S.]

Re: Tag for Leaf Spring

Patrick & Terry,

If you guys haven't seen a leaf spring sticker, then I'm sure they don't exist.

One thing I just learned about my '75 spring is the spacer used on the 7-leaf FE7 spring. Last year at the Texas Regional the Chassis Judge deducted points for having a service replacement 8-leaf spring! On my '75 with FE7, a spacer is used to equal the stacked height of the standard 10-leaf spring. He counted the thick spacer as the eighth leaf. I also learned that the end of the spring changed in '75 and up. Mine is a rounded scallop, where '74 and earlier were square across the end of each leaf.

Is it your combined experience, that the spring end shape changed in '75 from square to rounded scallop? Also the use of a space on 7-leaf springs and no spacer on the 10-leaf application?

Thanks,
Tory

[Terry M.]

Re: Tag for Leaf Spring

Patrick & Terry,

If you guys haven't seen a leaf spring sticker, then I'm sure they don't exist.

One thing I just learned about my '75 spring is the spacer used on the 7-leaf FE7 spring. Last year at the Texas Regional the Chassis Judge deducted points for having a service replacement 8-leaf spring! On my '75 with FE7, a spacer is used to equal the stacked height of the standard 10-leaf spring. He counted the thick spacer as the eighth leaf. I also learned that the end of the spring changed in '75 and up. Mine is a rounded scallop, where '74 and earlier were square across the end of each leaf.

Is it your combined experience, that the spring end shape changed in '75 from square to rounded scallop? Also the use of a space on 7-leaf springs and no spacer on the 10-leaf application?

Thanks,
Tory

I can't speak for combined (Patrick will have to speak for himself), but my observations at another judging venue where I do assess 1973-1982 Corvettes for their originality is yes for the spacer. I am a little less sure of the configuration of the spring ends, but I wouldn't be surprised at that change.

[Tom R.]

Re: Tag for Leaf Spring

Tory

Like others, I've never seen a tag on the rear leafspring but have seen many stamps as shown in this photo of an FE7 spring from a 78 Pace Car. The NFT is the broadcast code, reconciles with the build sheet and I believe the part number can vaguely be seen underneath.

rearspring_NFT.jpg

[Tory S.]

Re: Tag for Leaf Spring

Tom, Well, an ink stamp, not a paper tag! Very interesting. My part # for '75 FE7 is 354130. Do you know the part number for the '78 with FE7? I'll have to check my build sheet when I get home for the broadcast code. The color of ink appears kind of turquoise. Odd color. The stamp location also appears to be on the bottom of the spring, somewhere in the middle between the mounting point and the center. Can you describe any others that you may have seen in your years of judging - location of stamp and ink color? In looking more closely at he photo, it numbers almost appear to be a date code due to the spacing. The numbers almost appear to be ?? 17 78. Think it's a date code? Thanks, Tory

[Tom R.]

Re: Tag for Leaf Spring

Tom, Well, an ink stamp, not a paper tag! Very interesting. My part # for '75 FE7 is 354130. Do you know the part number for the '78 with FE7?

Yep...its 462598

I'll have to check my build sheet when I get home for the broadcast code.

Should be an AJ

The color of ink appears kind of turquoise. Odd color. The stamp location also appears to be on the bottom of the spring, somewhere in the middle between the mounting point and the center. Can you describe any others that you may have seen in your years of judging - location of stamp and ink color? In looking more closely at he photo, it numbers almost appear to be a date code due to the spacing. The numbers almost appear to be ?? 17 78. Think it's a date code? Thanks, Tory

Yeah...I think you're onto something there. I looked at the original image (tech board compresses photos when posting) and can see the 78 and what looks like a 17 but can't make out what would be the month. Looking at some other photos I have...I'm thinking its a 1 and therefore January.

The trim tag for this Pace Car was March 18th but I'm seeing what appears to be two vague stamps. The location was on the passenger side midway between the wheel and the pumpkin. It faced the front of the vehicle.

I can look thru my photos to see what else I have. Think I have a photo of an 81-82 broadcast code.

[Loren L.]

Re: Tag for Leaf Spring

I'd venture a guess that the spring with a tag on it was one that came across a dealer's parts counter....

[Tory S.]

Re: Tag for Leaf Spring

"It faced the front of the vehicle." Does this mean the top of the NFT letters were toward the front edge of the spring... or the NFT was readable if the viewer was toward the front of the vehicle making the top of the letters adjacent to the rear edge of the spring? Sorry for my confusion. Tory

[Terry M.]

Re: Tag for Leaf Spring

"It faced the front of the vehicle." Does this mean the top of the NFT letters were toward the front edge of the spring... or the NFT was readable if the viewer was toward the front of the vehicle making the top of the letters adjacent to the rear edge of the spring? Sorry for my confusion. Tory

Why does it matter? The spring is symmetrical and can be installed in either orientation, so even if the application of the labeling (I doubt it is an ink stamp - more likely an ink stencil like the frame stencil) was always the same, the installer could put the spring in either way. Or the fork lift operator could get the stack of springs from either side and position them on the line in any orientation. You are trying to separate pepper from fly ****.