Technical Front traverse spring

Building a ‘32 Ford roadster with a 283 and I have a Poises reverse eye spring super slider that has 7 leafs. I’m worried about the ride being to stiff. What are others running for the number of leafs?

 

Drive it.

If it is too stiff, pull a leaf.

 

That certainly would be an option. Hoping someone has some experience that could save me some work later as i build this car now

 

I think mine is down to 5 leafs . I remember having to make a spacer to add to the bottom of the spring pack to take up the space .

 

I'm down to 4 leaves on the roadster in my avatar. Add spacers as needed. So Cal nylon button spring. Might be a different rate than Posies.

 

Just curious. What is the shackle angle with the car on the ground? They should be at a 45 degree angle toward the perch. If that angle is not close to correct it can affect the ride quality. Check to see if the spring leaves are rubbing on the sides of the crossmember. That can make it stiff and is/was a fairly common problem. There is enough wiggle room in the crossmember to pry the spring over to center of the channel. Just a guess. Don't hit me.

 

Thanks Glenn. I’m still gathering parts and haven’t assembled the car yet. I have the front spring and 7 leafs seemed like a lot

 

I have a full pack of 7 up front, rides fine for an archaic suspension design.

 

Here you go:

 

Suspension tuning is both an art and a science, and it takes time.

What feels good to you may not feel good to someone else. Nobody else is likely to have the same feelings about ride quality, or will be driving on the same roads, and certainly not the same car.

Leaf spring tuning is a matter of adding or removing leafs, in wherever that is most appropriate (as each leaf length will have a different effect on rate change).

You will need to put a few hours into this, until you have results that meet your satisfaction.

It took 5-pairs of coils, and some trimming to get my Falcon where I liked it.

You only have to move metal around.

 

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement. I’ve built one straight axle car before and I was hoping to minimize errors and spring changes on this next car. At least I know now there is no secret recipe out there

 

Is your SBC running iron heads or aluminum? A SBC is not a really heavy engine (like an early Hemi), so you can probably remove some leafs. The only way to know is to get the car together and try it. On my 32 CAB - with a flathead - I'm running a Posies reverse eye spring with all 7 leaves - seems to be just fine.

 

I’ll have iron heads. Thanks for the feedback, I’ll keep it in mind.

 

For what it's worth: I've got aluminum heads on my roadster, and 4 leaves.

 

Hey Don, some other things that might come into play is what type of front cross-member do you have and also is your frame "notched" for front spring clearance? All these things can come into play in trying to figure out the "right combination" for any given frame/suspension setup.

 

B&S,
My frame has a SoCal front crossmember that lowers the front end 1". It also is "notched" for spring clearance. Like you said "it all comes into play".