Hello all, looking for opinions on allowable rust and wear on quarter elliptical springs for an Austin Healey Sprite. The main spring has about .020 to .025 wear (circled in orange) . The worst rust pitting is about .010 to .015. The spring leafs are 0.155 thick. I used a straight edge and eye balls to gauge the pits a lot of the pitting is .005 or less. US suppliers use less leaves and a much higher rate which raises the rear 2 to 3 inches. I don’t want to raise the rear as I’m going to lower the front already. Thanks Dan
Everyone of those rust pits is a stress riser and the leaf will crack and fail sooner (perhaps much sooner) than if the rust pit wasn't there. If it is going to be a 1,000 mile per year, drive to church on Sundays, smooth roads, and fair weather only type car, they will probably out last you. But if you are going to put some serious miles, or drive it like Austin's are meant to be driven (Elkhart Lake - anyone?), I would be inspecting those springs at a regular interval as a minimum, but probably best to just replace them and remove leafs out of the new spring packs until you get the rate you are after.
Thank you, that is what I suspected, a failure sooner or later. I wish I could find the original style springs but I’ll have to live with the new style. The stiffer rate isn’t a concern and may improve handling. Maybe I can have a local shop re arch the springs to get the proper ride height. Thank you Dan
Dan They're only $150 from Moss Motors https://mossmotors.com/265-630-spring-assembly-rally-spec Pull them apart and reset them in a press [I'll show you how to do this] OR You can use Lowering Wedge used front suspension wedges for heavy duty trucks, which are available from NAPA. They come in 1/2 degree increments [ 1/2° to 5° or 6°] Use the 3 or 3 1/2 degree wedge for a Bugeye with the new rear springs available from Moss Motors. This should lower the rear axle to about the same ride height as original.
The cheap wedges available from NAPA are 2-1/2" wide, so you grind notches where the U-bolts go you also need to drill a hole for the center bolt [this is simple diy stuff]
I don't have a press so I made a jig that uses a 2-1/2 ton bottle jack. [you don't need too much force] You dismantle the spring and trace the shape for reference. Leaf springs are linear ,so a 2" drop requires 2" reshape of the static arch. Here is the Jig I made [the stopper saves lot of time/guess work] You bend it along the leaf in 3/4" to 1" increments Before and after [this example was re-arch] One the initial arch is done, simply copy on every leaf then re-assemble
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