Which eye goes to the front on a 38 chevy passenger straight axle front springs? I took it apart and forgot to take a picture
Found a picture for you. Looks like the eye that's rolled on top goes to the front. But find some more pictures to verify. Search original 1938 Chevrolet leaf spring front suspension.
Don't the two pics show it differently...??? @Rickybop , I think your pic shows the '39-'46 1/2 and 3/4 ton truck setup.
glad to help. The picture I have is out of the 38 Parts book. That and service manuals are available online here https://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/
I don't think this is correct for passenger vehicles. You might be thinking of the truck suspension....
See at the bottom under "MASTER MODELS ONLY" (front suspension) where it says that the front springs have reversed front eyes. A reversed eye would be rolled downwards, so the rolled down end is the front.
Well I found a few interesting things. On the passenger car the rubber snubber on the frame that keeps the spring from bottoming out hits the top spring but the top spring is only half a spring. if that make sense. I have seen several pictures and they are different. some show the front of the spring with the eye rolled up and some show the eye rolled down. My manual says the pick up and the passenger cars are the same. so it seems to me there is no clear consensus. But @squirrel diagram looks like my rod now. Thank you everyone for commenting. I am finding there are not as many dropped axles and truly "old school" suspensions out there on Chevys out there as I thought.
In 1937-1938 there was a difference between the front springs on Chevrolet passenger cars and 1/2 ton pickups. This (below) is the main leaf from a '37-'38 passenger car. Note the front eye is rolled fully downwards. This (below) is the 1/2 ton pickup front spring. One eye is rolled to be centered to the spring leaf, and I think it is the rear eye. The trucks had the shackles at the front........ I think...
Hey @6inarow Seems I gave you wrong info. Careful of me. I believe @squirrel Jim got it right. He almost always does. And @twenty8 Steve was good enough to clarify it further.
OK, so I check my springs and they are in backwards - I put the reversed eye in the back. What are the consequences of this? Should I turn them around?
I had mopar trailblazer springs in the back of my 41 pickup in the early days. That spring was made the same way, I found if I mounted it one direction over the other it would raise or lower the rear. Also the roll down end didn't have as much travel when set in the solid mounted hangers versus the rolled up end.
[QUOTE=" I am finding there are not as many dropped axles and truly "old school" suspensions out there on Chevys out there as I thought.[/QUOTE] The Chevy beam axle sits underneath the spring, so lowering requires a lot of thinking, sometimes too much work to get it all to work.
Yeah, I get that. But Im gonna do it anyhow. This is truly going to look like a rod that a young man would have done right after the war but with some modern concessions (that you wont really notice) for saftey. Almost like it will belong on the HAMB!
Again, take my information with a grain of salt cuz it might be not exactly correct. Maybe way wrong LOL. So verify. I think you can use 1939 through 1954 spindles. And then the process, use the later better brakes. And they make dropped spindles for 1939 through 1954. Install a bushing for the pin in the later spindles to fit the smaller 1938 pin.
Hey @Rickybop thanks for the post. I switched the springs to the correct way. I got the dropped axle installed. Next this is get the rotors etc installed then on to the MC and plumbing. How cool are 6 lug discs going to be with the original wheels??? Heck by looking you wont even know there are discs.... HAMB friendly Thanks to @bob myers for all the help and encouragement. We have a cool ride going!
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