How many leafs to lower the back of a Model A?

While you guys are counting leaves, remember there were a bunch of different A springs, depending on the body style it came out of in the first place. About a dozen from memory. Who knows what's been swapped over the years. Roadsters had the least leaves, being lightest.

I know this isn't an answer, just food for thought.

 

Yes, there's about 1"-1.5" sticking out past the U bolts.

 

Just to add to the confusion..... my tudor spring had nine leaves and was pretty stiff. I took out 2,3 and 5. I cut down #2 to 12" and put it under the main leaf. I also added some black teflon slide material. It has great movement now, and I'm picking it dropped about 2" - 2 1/2". If you want more you can get about 1" by reversing the eyes.

 

this is what i did on another A sedan, for a friend...it wasnt a gasser stance, but it worked great for his ride.
Its really a crap shoot as other have said.
there are so many variables to deal with here. Plus with a gasser stance you are already transfering more weight bias to the back, so there again its going to come down to trial and error, hopefully for your sake less trial, and no error.

age of spring, its life and use and condition, how many leafs, etc,... but its a good rule of thumb..
take one out near the top for some drop, and one down skipping one and it will drop a bit more and possibly stifen the ride, so you dont bottom out..

but like i said originally...if you get it right the first time, your too dam lucky..
my bud and i messed with this for an entire afternoon on his A, about 4 years ago, and we ended up pulling out the 3rd from the top, and skipped one and pulled out the next..and so far, so good..

T spring is another good suggestion

 

if you go too low your radius rods will hit the frame
a friend has an a coupe with reversed eye spring 2 leafs removed and a stepped frame like in the tardel book. it hits the radius rods on the frame rails on a big bump
tk

 

Start your own thread PLEASE. It's so easy for these threads to get off track. Thanks

 

Also depends on the age of the spring. An original A spring that has been on a car since the 30's is going to be flatter than one that has been sitting in a barn, or a spankin new one.

 

GROUCHO...come-on man, your just getting old and lazy. you've worked on enough rods to know that's just not going to happen! RIGHT? so get your ass kicking clothes on, and GET-ER-DONE...POP.

 

There are alot of people on this board that swear by the T spring, Groucho. That is what I am putting in my 31 Roadster. You need to look at a thread Chris put up on how to install one on a 39 Banjo. It looks like it will bring it down a couple of inches.

 

I researched this for my '31 coupe, and in the end it seemed like a model T spring was the way to go....

 

OK, here's before/after. I took out 3 & 5 starting from the top and got about an 1 1/4". So, now, if it's gonna sag, will it be right away, or after several miles?

 

Groucho,

Here is the link to the thread. What I was talking about is on page 3.

Tom

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=422635

 

That looks alot better.

 

thats about what i thought you wanted...is it not? well its dam close
yeah it might settle a little..maybe as much as 1/2" or less ..go out and hammer on it and launch it a few times and bring it back hot and wet , than measure it

really..i went back and looked at it again..if you were to ask me, i think it sits perfect!

 

Yeah, it's fucking real close to what I wanted. Looking underneath, the guy did a reverse "Z", so travel is limited. Any lower, and it'd run out of travel. So, I'm callin it "done".. I just did a Dukes of Hazzard type jump (not), and it seems fine

 

Cool..

I think the stance is Bitchin..
looks perfect Groucho..you nailed it

 

Maybe "WE" nailed it. Thanks

 

It does look good. I love that car.

 

Did it that way once and seemed to work okay.

 

ahh..you did all the hard work..

those can be fun to play with, we had to try 3 times before we got it.

did you need a spacer? to bind the pack back up tight when you tightened up the 2 U bolts?

 

I used a piece of scrap for a spacer under each U-bolt. Bad or good idea?

 

What I did when I had mine apart was rub some axle grease between them.

 

When you putting the Cheater slicks on?

 

yep that will work, as long as you can tighten the spring into the cross member very tightly than your good

as bad bob said a bit of grease on them might help with squeeks and binding

 

I sprayed white lithium grease between all leaves before clamping them back together

 

ahh..good move

 

Appreciate that you followed up your question with the result. The result looks good too!

 

looks good to me and I bet it'll come down a FCH too

 

Car sits great now....looks awesome....see you at Bob's tonight?