Leaf Spring Questions

So I got a question or two for you guys. I have just got my motor and trans into my Model A. The damn thing hardly settled under the weight of the two at all. I jumped on the frame and seen that there is some suspension travel but that front spring is a stiff old *******. My question is can I just remove the spring and take a few leafs out to lower the car as well as making it ride a little better?

 

We took five leafs out of the stock model A spring on our roadster. The only problem after that is that the main leaf broke right smack in the middle on the way home from Viva Las Vegas this year. I think it was just overworked with those other leafs removed so we got a nice new Posie's spring and now it is plenty strong and that spring REALLY rides nice.

 

You can remove leaves without too much trouble, the only problem is like previously stated, if you take too many out, you run the risk of breaking stuff. If you have five or so leaves, take only two out, and see how that is. Make sure when you remove them, you only remove every other leaf.

 

Thanks for the info guys!!! I will go with a posie's spring over this winter right now I am trying to complete the car for cruise to the woods. I will do the every other leaf. By the way hows come I should do that?

 

You will affect the spring rate a lot more if you remove the third and fifth leaves from the bottom than if you remove the top two or three. Do keep the second leaf which if removed can encourage the spring to break outboard of the remaining third leaf. This keeps the main leaf from being unsupported across the wide gap which might court breakage. If you remove the third, fifth, and seventh leaves your spring will be significantly softer than removing the top three leaves and stress will be adequately distributed. Retrorod had to deal with this stress breakage problem it appears.

Also be aware of any resultant increased travel and a possible greater likelihood of the spring or shock bottoming out. Use some metal spacers on top to adjust the ride height and stick some sort of rubber bumpstops on the frame if you can. Try just the third leaf first and then the fifth. No way to really predict what you'll need to do to get where you want to be so play around with it. Just try not to yank two adjacent leaves from the bottom half of the pack and stay away from pulling the second leaf. Also clean up the leaves, grind a small radius on the bottom of the ends of them and use some graphite paint (tractor store) on them. Some like using the plastic spring slider strips but I've not noticed they do much good.