Questions on Model A Rear Spring

Has anyone here personally reversed the main leaf on a Model A rear spring?

I took mine to a spring shop and they wouldn't even attempt it, said it would break.

I know there is a tech article on reversing the front spring. The rear spring doesn't have the same arch from one side to the other like the front spring, which is my concern. With the tips bending back against the main arch it seems like it would be very difficult to reverse in the same manner the tech article shows.

Also, this is an 8 leaf spring, how many leaves are most you running on you fenderless coupes?

Any tips or information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Phil

 

The Model A and T rear springs have a significant arch and to redo the arch reversing the eye's would be a real chore. Whether it would break I don't know, but I would rather not be thinking about it on a long run out of state thru the desert. I put a 51 Olds rear in our 31 in 61 or 62 using the stock spring and home made perchs and drove the car hard(335" Olds 671 B&M hydro) for a couple years. When I redid the car in 78 with a sb350/T10 I swapped the stock spring for one a friend had heated and bent the ends up, allowing about 3" lower of the *** end. Still have the car, spring still in it, have several thousand miles on it, odometer on stock A speedo broke on way back from St.Paul nats in 82. When I built the 28 in the avatar I used P&J mounts and coil overs because it is a much better ride.

 

Bob:

Thanks for the input, I thought reversing it would be quite the undertaking!

 

A T spring will lower your A about 3 or 4 inchs you know

 

It's not hard to reverse the rear spring, just time consuming. Trace it on the floor and get to bending. Also I'm currently running 4 leafs plus the main....SO 5 total

 

Most spring shops have a little jig that they use when rolling the eyes on a new leaf spring. To reverse the spring eye's, some shops have been known to heat the spring eye, unroll it in the jig, then turn the main leaf over and roll it back the other way. Wa La, reversed spring eye's. I suspect the kid at the spring shop had no idea of what you were trying to get them to do when you asked him to "reverse the main leaf"???

 

Why not just buy one? Speedway has a 5 leaf spring Reverse eye that measures 10 in. It's around a hundred bucks, but you can just bolt it in.

That's what I plan to do. I don't have a spring so it's my only option.