Technical Front Suspension

I have 1950 F1 axle on the front of my Stude. Lark. It rides pretty stff. Does anyone know how to soften the ride? I heard of taking leafs out, but not sure of which ones to remove. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks
Charlie

 

Might be helpful if you posted some pictures of what you have there.

 

I would start with the short ones take out one at a time.

 

I thought that was part of having a "straight axle g***er". I'd first pull the spring packs apart and clean up the leaves so they slide against each other smoothly. There is info on the net on it and you might want to put some teflon strips between the leaves when you get it cleaned up.

You start removing leaves and pretty soon the springs are going to sag. It isn't "if" but when they will. Then you loose the look you worked so hard to get.

 

pics, pics, pics

 

don't take any leaves out shorten on the shackle side you have to keep them stiff on the fixed side to stop spring wrap on braking

 

Yeah, take out the truck axle and put in a Stude Lark suspension.

If you want to soften the leaf springs, take out short leaves. The short leaves make it stiff, the long ones carry the weight. Usually the best compromise is to take out every second leaf and leave off the shortest ones as well.

There is more to it than that. The tips of the springs have to slide for the springs to work. They put sliders in for this purpose. When the sliders wear out and the spring tip wears a notch, the spring effectively locks up and won't flex more than an inch. The cure is to take the springs out, grind off the dirt and rust, grind out the notch, and re***emble with new sliders or plastic between the leaves.

A good set of shock absorbers will help although they will not cure lousy suspension.

Or, with the springs out, throw away the whole goddam mess and put in a decent suspension.