I have a stock Model A sping that I want to adapt to a S-10 rear end. I know the stock with with shackles is 49" but the S-10 rear is 48" from backing plate to backing plate. can you cut the eyes off and re roll the ends i have some large presses at my work so equipment and tonage is not an issue but I do want to know if it can be done.
I just had a shop do it to a T spring. No reason it couldn't be done to an A. Although, a shorter spring will stiffen the ride. You may want to remove some leafs (depending on how many you have).
Automotive Springs and Overloads there in Idaho Falls should be able to handle the job pretty easy. You will probably want to wait and build the perches on the axle to match the spring after it is narrowed though.
thanks for the info, I have talked to automotive springs and overloads her in Idaho Falls, they quoted me a $100 to do it, but at my work we have an Iron worker plate brake and a 100 ton press with all kinds of dies so I thought about learning to do it my self because that is just the way I am. I like to learn new things.
then by all means - PROCEED wit' yo bad self - sounds like you have the equipment...just need to understand metallurgy - piece of cake.
I don't want to be bad or anything like that, I work for an engineering firm and have a good idea on metal and how it works and like like most people on this site I dont build credit card rides I have a budget and try to stick to it so a $100 goes a long way. I thought this site was one that would help other find better and cheaper ways to make traditional rides not one that bad mouths anyone who wants to try somthing new. maybe you use your credit card for everthing but I don't
My suggestion is to try it on an old spring that you aren't going to use first and maybe do it more than once before trying it on the spring you intend to use. I've got a buddy who owned his own rod and custom shop for years and built a lot of stuff himself that would have been a lot easier and more prudent (financially for him) to just buy and have the brown truck bring it in the morning that hauled all of the springs he hung under the cars he built to the spring shop. Rolling new eyes on the spring is as much an art form as it is in the equipment involved. Myself, I'd spend that 100 and have it done right the first time and then use that available equipment to make the brackets and widgets I need to install it and do other things on the car.
Ah hell '48 I'd try it, but I'm dumb as a post. The wife sometimes advises me that there is a piece of hicory out back that has more sense than I do. I think she loves me. I guess if 100 was a big deal to me and I had to get my credit card out or get a bank loan I'd be after doing it myself also.
maybe i took it wrong I was just thought i could try it but after Mr48chevy made his point a nice opinion is all that is all I ask. i have built other rides and bought parts but i just have this spring laying around and thought i would try it. well sorry if I offended anyone i will just have to rethink making further posts
I seriously doubt that you hurt anyones feelings, even if you did they'll get glad in the same pants they got mad in. You've got the equipment and no doubt the knowlege to use it. Give it a whilr if you trash the spring then just go to the spring shop and get a new main leaf the correct dimensions all you lost is your time. Here in town the spring shop we use doesn't alter the original main leaf when we need something off the wall they just make one or get one off the rack that is correct. 100-125 is what we are spending.
thanks for comment. i just have access to the equipment and access to plenty of model A springs so I thought what the hell I could try it, but now I am rethinking it. I am not new to this game but I guess I need to watch what I say when it comes to this forum.
Henry Ford is the guy who came up with the alloy that make springs just by heating them up and letting them cool down on there own but in the Model T and A days they still used 1095 hi carbon steel so just heating and cooling is not going to make a spring work like it used to as they have to be heated to about 1780 to 1850 quenched in oil or water and then heated back up to about 500 degrees to take out some of the hardness and make them springs again also with only one inch of difference it not possible to make hangers a half inch longer and not do anything?
while we are on the subject , how is narrowing a spring and putting new eyes on it done? i ***ume you can just cut the spring off...but to put on new eyes i ***ume that you would need to heat the ends and wrap it around an arbor, correct? wouldn't the heat affect the spring or is there some special treatment afterward? edit: it appears Blacksmith54 answered some of my questions while i was typing
I don't watch what I say they just need to toughen up. You should too because I may tell you one day to sit on your thumb and spin the next day send you a magneto just because I think you might need it. A lot of the older fellas are just a little rough around the edges, we mean well we just came up around rodders and racers and there was a time that they (us) just weren't very nice. If anyone on here takes any if this **** personal (not just you scott anyone in general) they are just in the wrong place. We all try to play nice and don't fight but a lot of us just aren't good at it.
I do have a friend who is an old school black smith so heating the spring and w****** it is a very good option I thought I could do it cold with a hand made round die. first make the u shape with the brke and a round die then finish the job by rolling the rest over a round piece of stock to make the eye. this was my original thougt but I thought i would se if someone had already done that.
I don't happen to have an A rear spring around....Posie's catalog says a stock rear spring is 48-1/2 center to center while their narrow spring is 46-1/2" center to center. According to the tech guy I talked to a few years ago they can make a spring narrower than that but that it no longer functions as a spring. I was looking because the champ sized QC I used in my fendered '32 roadster with finned aluminum backing plates and Buick drums needed a spring down around 44". Just some maybe useless info. Charlie
good info, I used a posie on my 27 model t which i used the narrow 46 1/2 and it worked great. that was the dimension i wanted to use to make the A spring i have into. i was hoping not to have to buy a posie because i remember them be a few hundred dollars but they do work great.
That won't work in my opinion. Remember we are talking about a spring here not a piece of mild steel.To attempt what you propose will only result in the spring snapping. As mentioned on an earlier post by Blacksmith54 there is a heat treatment process going on here. The hardness from the heat treatment needs to be overcome. The only way to do that is to heat it to soften it and bend it into shape. Then you will need to harden and temper again to restore the tension needed to allow it to function as a spring.
Ok that makes sense, but if you use heat to roll the eye will you have to heat treat the whole spring or just the area effected. my friend has a furnace for black smithing but I do not know if we can fit the whole spring in it. If the whole spring requires heat treating than i will either have to have the spring shop do it or break down and buy another Posie spring.
Scott49mercury - I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings, I was suggesting that you follow the old adage - "nothing ventured, nothing gained". You obviously have sufficient equipment at your disposal, but if you recall, I did suggest you become familiar with metallurgy because you cannot just "roll" a piece of spring steel as if you were making a gate hasp out of mild steel. How to heat it....then how to cool and temper (how much time...which medium...and so on). As previously mentioned by another HAMBer, worst that can happen is that you have to go get one made....if you've been rodding as long as you say, this probably won't be Time #1 that something didn't quite work out (if it does not). best of luck - while you're at it - get a thicker skin...pouting doesn't become hoodlums dj
which S-10 rear end are you using? The ones out of a 4 wheel drive are wider than the 2 wheel drive. When I'm setting up a Model A spring, I set the mounts at 46 1/2". This works on light cars with 4 leaves missing. Most of the stock A spring measure around 43" relaxed. Ron
I'm using a two wheel drive model but if i mount the spring at 46 1/2" it would work because backing plate to backing plate are 48" the car i am putting on is a full fendered model a sedan. with mounting the spring at 46 1/2 make it ride harder, i also have some pretty big meats so height is not a problem
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