I am looking for a spring shop to shorten my 34 Ford front main spring, or re-make a new one. I tried Acme Spring in Dayton, but they say they don't have the right fixture to reroll the eyes, smallest they can do is 7/8" and they want more then a complete spring from Posie's for a new main leaf. The main leaf needs to be shortened about 3/8" on each side to get the shackles to 45 degrees or less, right now they are almost vertical when loaded. I know I could re-arch the spring to bring the eyes in but that would raise the front even more then just shortening the main leaf. Thanks
I know this isn't "near Dayton" but it sounds like you need to check out Warner Spring in Indy. They've been very reasonable on price and seem to be able to do anything relative to leaf springs. I've had several main leaves custom made for under $150.
Sometimes, as you are finding out, it is cheaper to just buy a new spring from someone like Posies. They make them in various widths. About 25 years ago I had a custom main leaf made for my 27 at a local truck spring place, they charged me $ 28. A couple of years ago I went back and had another main leaf made by the same people. This time it was $ 128 ! When I bitched they told me they get $90 an hour plus materials, so welcome to inflation. Maybe Posies will sell you just the main leaf you need, and having bought a lot of springs from them I can tell you it will be right. Don
Thanks for the reply Dale, that price is about what Acme quoted me last week, and boy prices have changed from the last time I did this kind of stuff. I was just looking to see if there was someplace else local, don't get to Indy very often anymore. Hi Don, I was looking around to see my options, Posie's is my first choice for a new spring, but Chris at Posie's even said the axle dimensions for the spring perches is different then anything they currently offer, he thinks there 1002 spring will work but it will not put any preload in the spring. We both talked about me fabricating a custom shackle about 1/8" shorter per side to put the pre-load where it should be with there 1002 spring. The 34 currently has a Posies spring in it now from about 20 years ago and it is to long, which may have been made worse by usage and sag. Thanks for the reply Steve
They measure 35 7/8" axle perch hole center to hole center. PS: The old spring eye to eye is 31 1/2" which is way to long.
Steve, that is pretty much the standard perch to perch measurement for an early Ford axle so a standard width spring should work out for you. Speedway carries them in 29 and 31 inch widths in both their house brand and also Posies. If you think you need the extra stretch go with the 29, but the 31 should also work. What shackles are you using ? Don
Don, The shackles are standard 1 3/4" wide by 1 1/2" center to center but they have 9/16" shoulder bolts instead of the normal 1/2". Posie's also carries a 30" but I was told it was to small, and the 31" would allow the shackles to be a little more then 45 degrees. We talked about making 1 3/8" center to center shackles to give a little preload to the 31" Posie spring but this would also make the ride a little stiffer. The 31 1/2" Posie that is on it right now allows the axle to sway back and forth due to being to long. We purchased this '34 last fall to give my wife something to drive to the cruise-in's when there was to many going for one car. I knew there were problems when we got it, and this is one of the last that needs fixed. Steve
Hey 40Standard, My wife worked in Sharonville, and it is not very far away, I will give them a call and see what they can do. Thanks Steve
Well, there are only 4 things that affect the shackles laying on a 45 degree angle: 1) The spacing between the perch holes, and you are right on the money there. 2) The length of the spring, and a standard 31 inch spring should be fine. 3) The length of the shackles 4) The type of perch being used (some extend inward more than others) Shoot us some pictures of your setup because something is off a little in one of the 4 items above. These setups are generally plug and play for the most part. Don
If I were going to change out the front spring I would go with adjustable perches and a shorter spring. Is there a sway bar on the front ? If not I would install one and that may be all that is needed.
dent spring moved they are in hamilton/ fairfield now on old gilmore road near the national guard armory on symmes or maybe its brighton spring ,well anyway theres a spring shop there
Don, Thanks for the information, I will try to get some pictures but it may not be today as I have something to do after work, I may try to go home at lunch and take a few if time allows. Just for a little more information about the changes made in the front. I replaced the perches with Speedway adjustable perches to allow for better caster adjustment as it only had 1 to 2 degrees, it now has 7 degrees. The measurement from perch eye to perch eye did not change with these new adjustable ones. The spring was not right when I replaced the perches, but budget would not allow me to replace it at that time. The front end had disc brakes on it that were smaller then some of the ones I had on go karts when I was a lot younger. You could not stop the car without taking it out of gear, and you better have a lot of distance between you and anything else, very dangerous, it now has mid 70's GM disc on the front and a new master, it now stops on a dime with little effort. Back to the spring, I know we are right there for the 31 spring and that is the way I am leaning towards now. Everything we built in the shop I owned back in the 90s was either race car related or street cars with modern suspension. If it was something older the customer always wanted the front suspension replaced with something modern, not the look I like but I am not the customer. When the shop closed all the equipment came to my barn for storage and now I am getting back into it but on more traditional type cars, and for myself this time, so I am still learning a little more each day. Thanks again for all the help. Steve
I did replace the perches with adjustable over the winter, but budget would not allow anything to be done on the spring then, hope to fix the spring problem very soon. Thanks for the information, there are more spring shops around this area then I ever realized. Most of the guys around here only know about Acme, and they were the ones we used at my old race car shop, good to know there are more choices available.
Don, I was able to run home at lunch and get a few pictures. The shocks are being changed out for a Speedway brand because the ones on it now are to short. The stabilizer was added last fall which helped with a quick steer issue. I always ran something similar on the Funny and that one was just sitting in a box leftover from the old shop (So-Cal brand). Right Front Suspension Left Front Suspension Complete Front View Steve
Yes, it is to long, just trying to get some opinions of the best way to fix it. Shorten the current spring, or buy a new one. Right now it looks like buying a new one will be my best option. Don was asking to see some pictures, so I thought I would get him some. Thanks for the reply Steve
Ok, here is what I see. Your front end is really engineered very well. Good components, all very conventional stuff, and you even have one of my favorite additions, a SoCal steering stabilizer. Very well set up front end. The perches are even mounted the correct direction, so the only possibility is that you need a shorter spring. If that is a 46 inch wide axle they sometimes take a shorter spring than the 48-50 inch ones. Take yours out, measure eye to eye, and order one that is a couple of inches shorter. That should fix the problem. Looks like a really nice car. Don
Don, I had the spring out over the weekend, the eye to eye of the spring is 31-1/2". I was told by Posie's that going to a 30" would be to short, but a 31 may not give a real good preload to the spring. I believe a 31" spring as you suggested earlier will work, and that is what I am going to get. Again Thanks Steve
In theory, the 31 inch spring should work, but if yours measures 31.5 you are only picking up 1/4 inch per side. But maybe that spring is fatigued and stretching out more than it should under load. Sometimes chroming or powder coating a spring can weaken it slightly. We had one powder coated and it ended up letting the car sit lower than before coating. Maybe that is what is going on too. Don
Don, Posie's also makes a 30" spring, would you think that would be a better choice? I just don't know how much you can spread one to fit on a 30-7/8" spread, Posie's is afraid it will flatten the spring out to much. I have not been able to find anyone who makes anything standard in between 31" and 30". I also believe that the old spring is sagging, the car sits really low even with the standard eye's (not reversed) on the spring. Steve
Steve, the usual way of picking the correct spring is to stretch you shackles out so they are facing one another and measure the distance between the studs where the spring slides over. That should give you the measurement to buy the correct spring.............or, Measure the perch hole to perch hole dimension and subtract 5 inches, to make up for the shackle length. In your case, since you are using adjustable perches that might distort the measurement, I would use method number one. To me it looks like your existing spring might start out at 31 inches but it is flattening out so much that that length grows. It looks pretty flat in the pictures. We had a similar problem when my Son was building his rpu. It is a heavy car anyway, with a 455 Olds up front, so when we got everything on it the front spring flattened out like yours. We had to use a heavy duty front spring that Posies makes, but we had to reverse the eyes to get the car to the stance he wanted. You may have to do something like that. Don
Hey Don, Just to let you know, I ordered a 31" Posie with reverse eye from Speedway. Installed it tonight, it still did not need any spreading to get the shackles on. The car sat 1-1/4" lower, which is way to low, tires just barely clear the fender wells with no room for suspension travel, so I now believe the spring on the car is not sagging it is just to long. The original spring has 10 leafs while the Posie only has 7 making the spring itself shorter, but more flexible The suspension worked a lot better with the new spring, not real stiff like the old one, so I know I am on the right track. Speedway does not sell the stock eye Posie, so it looks like I am going to have to get Speedway to take this one back, return shipping on me , and order the stock eye one from Posie direct, with more shipping on me . The price of all the shipping is going to be more then the price of the spring before this is all said and done. Don't you just love it when you have a part, in this case the tube axle, that is not made to a standard, and you have to find something to fix a problem with it!!
The Jalopy Journal
