Changing a front spring....help!

Hi guys,
I'm about to change the front leaf spring on my Model A. Its a standard Vega box steering, split wishbone, panhard rod, dropped beam setup.

Anyone got any sage advice/helpful hints on doing this without injuring myself or making a pigs ear of it? All advice gratefully received.

 

Try and locate a spring spreader...makes it a simple job

 

Finding one here in Scotland could be a big ask. Anyone got one for sale or loan??

 

you can make one.
do a search here for spring spreader. there's a few tech articles on the subject.

 

One is eaisly made ...piece of 3/4 all thread, piece of pipe large enough to fit over it and Flat washer and nut..Taper each end to fit behind spring eyes...Presto

 

If it's a multi-leaf put a c-clamp on each side of the spring through bolt. Take the bolt out and slowly open c-clamp to take pressure off of the leaves. Once your down to just the main leaf, you ought to be able to use a c-clamp on one side of shackle and perch bolt. Squeeze together slowly, remove sackle bolt and release slowly and your done............Be careful....

 

I've done it this way:
On the car still attached to the wishbone, I use a jack on each side of the spring to take the pressure off and then remove the shackle, now I'm using pete and jakes shackle/shock mount so it is easy to remove.
Once that is done I slowly lower each end to let it hang, and then using c clamps on all but the fist spring, after removing it from the crossmember, I undo the main bolt, then you do as s**** metal 48 said.

 

If the spring eye is reversed, I use a 2x4 with a piece of metal on top of the 2x4. Place it flat on top of the axle under the spring eye. Then jack up the axle on that side so that the metal strip contacts the spring loop. The metal allows the loop to slide instead of digging into the wood and the spring will grow longer releasing the pressure on the shackle. Then you can punch out the shackle ***uming it's a hot rod shackle. You may have to experiment with the thickness of the metal. Shim it until you find the right size. It's worked for me. The same system to connect the shackle when it's going back together.

This is ***uming the engine is in the ch***is for weight.

 

Jack up the car by the front axle, then put jack stands under the frame. Now let the jack down (along with the front axle) until the shackles are parallel to the ground.

The shackles sound come out with no prolems.

 

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'll try to figure out which method I think is easiest for me.

 

i did what zombie hot rod did, it was easy

 

I have done a few springs with a spreader , but with split bones can you get away with undoing the bones and using the as a lever to fit the spring.