Removed rear spring leaf to soften ride. It worked, but now a bit to low in the rear. The springs are under the axle. I would like to raise the rear about 1/2 inch. Any suggestions, cheap and easy.
You might want to tidy up that shock mount, too. I see this is your first post. Welcome to the HAMB. It would be a good idea to read the rules and post an intro.
Not really new, just had to set up new account on my Android phone. Never figure how to post pictures from my lap top?
To fix it right you need to put the missing spring leaf back in, get longer "U" bolts and proper lowering blocks. Also, you need to use a proper shock stud on that rear shock instead of a common bolt.
what model car/truck? which spring did you remove? sure that shocks were correct length before you removed spring? yes, when a spring is removed it will usually lower the vehicle.
48 DeSoto, removed middle leaf, shocks correct length. When removing the leaf, I stripped threads on shock mount, the grade 8 bolt was all I had. Going to parts store for correct shock mount.
You could try putting the middle leaf back in and remove the one below it, see if that raises it back up the 1/2 inch.
Agree, put in the biggest spring you took out and remove the smallest spring still in the pack. Personally I'd just re-arch the springs to the height I want but then again I've done that for over 40 yrs so it's a piece of cake to me... ...
L did this when someone was having trouble loading photos on a computer in the past. https://photobucket.com/u/mr48chev/a/52de8d0c-a626-4aa1-83fa-34e451ba5e1c
As far as the car going lower when you "removed a spring to soften the ride". Lowering the car the cheap way is the normal reason for removing a leaf. When you remove a leaf you weaken the spring and it begins to sag and will keep on sagging. The "longer shackles" nonsense will just increase the rate of sag after a period of time if you are old enough to remember all of the jacked up leaf spring cars in the 70's with the ends of the springs bending backwards. A spacer leaf on top of the main leaf ( short piece of the middle of a leaf spring, should raise it back up for a while but will not be a permanent fix as the weakened spring will keep sagging.
If you have photos saved on you computer, you simply open the photo, then "right click" and copy, then "right click" and paste into your reply. If you a plagiarising another photo or partial screen image, use the snipping tool and then "right click" and paste to your reply. Here is an example where I cut'n'paste an image of your reply If you still have trouble get a kid to show you how
Yeah you have got that right I have a 15 year old grandson that knows everything. I'm 80, and knows lot more than I do, according to him.
Due to the springs already being settled, could you flip the main leaf reversing the spring eyes and reassemble to lower it?
This better? Should have seen car parts guy when I took the one I had stripped the threads and showed him what I wanted. Had to find it myself, he could not find this on his computer. I told it just as plain as day, " it's for a 48 DeSoto Hot Rod".
I'm finding it hard to believe a 48 DeSoto only had 3 leafs in the spring pack to begin with. I suspect it originally came with 6 or 7 leafs in each spring pack. The spring capacity has already been cut in 1/2 and then you removed the longest leaf that could be removed. My suspension says that main leaf is probably trash now, I'd be concerned that it may already be cracked. Maybe you can get by with adding both leafs back into the spring pack (making it a 3 leaf spring pack again) That may get you back up where you want to be, and may buy you some time before you have to replace the springs. Longer U bolts and a 1" or 2" lowering block between the leaf spring and the rear axle would have been a better option to begin with. Too low can be a real problem, especially if you kill the main leaf to get it low.
It had 6 now 5. I removed the middle leaf from advice from the company (Thurston Springs/Richmond VA) that made the custom leaf pack. I did not remove the leaf to lower the car, I removed it to improve the ride. It worked, I knew that would lower the car, but about 1/2 more than I like.
That's why you should replace the spring you took out and remove the lowest/smallest leaf. In most cases the lowest spring is too small to do much flexing, it's more of a support for the leaves above it. So by removing that spring it allows the springs above it to flex more thus a smoother ride. Cool thing is it's not a complicated operation to perform to see if it works !! But I would bet that it's a happy median you could live with.... ...
Snipping Tool is also a handy way to deal with the WebP images some insist on using. Though, I've just learned that Gimp will open WebP; then I can simply export to Jpeg.
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