Heard about an old rodder's trick for achieving a reversed eye front spring. The pack is disassmbled, the main leaf is flipped, and the whole thing is drawn back together resulting in a somewhat de-arched pack with reversed eyes. Anybody have a guess at just how much this would lessen the arch of a typical Model A spring?
I think the typical drop is between 1 and 2 inches. You might want to track down Mart, who put together a simple tool that makes the job a lot easier.
I tried that and the lower leaf did some funny***** after I put it back together. It didnt lay flat against the other springs.
Elrusto, That's where Mart's tool comes in handy. Instead of just flipping the mail leaf over and clamping the whole thing back together, the Mart-O-Matic uses a bench vise to reverse the arch. That way it matches the rest of the spring pack. You can also reverse the arch with a BFH, but it's noisy and a lot of work. FWIW, I've also heard that springs reversed in this manner may eventually try to return to their original arch.
The spring shop that makes reversed eye springs here, makes them 1 inch shorter. The guy is about 70 yrs old and was a hotrodder long ago.
I copied the "Mart-O-Matic" and have reversed the eyes on a couple of model A springs. It seems to work fine. Here is a sketch of the dies you use in you BIG vise. Neal
I totally understand the concept but,is it just me or should'nt the main leaf in the first pic be turned 180 to reverse the eyes. Like the spring eyes should be on top as the vise compresses to reverse the arch. It looks like it is going to arch it in the stock shape.
[ QUOTE ] I totally understand the concept but,is it just me or should'nt the main leaf in the first pic be turned 180 to reverse the eyes. Like the spring eyes should be on top as the vise compresses to reverse the arch. It looks like it is going to arch it in the stock shape. [/ QUOTE ] Yes i don't think I'd put any force bending directly over or even near the center hole since it's gotta be a weak point, it might "kink" and crack there.
The tool in question....This is just a nancy-boy display version of Mart's original tool I had fun making and coined the term "martomatic". Mine works well, but Mart's original was far more paractical with tabs to bend around and hold it to the vice. I had planned to drill a couple holes and bolt it directly to the jaws, but gave it away before that happened. Hey Mart, didn't you fashion some goofy thing out of coat hangars to find TDC on your flathead? I was going to do the next piece in the marto series but read about a stupid simple way B Navarro uses to find TDC. Send me a picture anyway if you would though. Sometimes I need a break in the garage and want to do something goofy.
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