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Good Morning all...New rear springs have arrived from Eaton Detroit Spring and I will get around to installing them in a week or so. Is there anything strange that I need to be aware of? Most likely do the work on a lift with a jack under the Rear End to keep it from moving. The lift is good and strong so the old girl will not move once she is up on it and the screw jack is under the rear end. Any advice is appreciated...Thanks in advance. Ernie in Arizona

I would also replace the "u" bolts and nuts retaining the spring to the rear end.

good luck and be safe!

Have not done it personally but have watched it being done. From what I observed and been told, if the spring needs to be flattened for the shackle bolts to relax, once that happens some will come out without too much effort and others will not. Just in case, be prepared for them to be rusted -- either with the nut not coming off or if there is steel bushings thru the rubber, rusted to that bushing and a real pain to remove -- in some cases to the point of needing to be torched off. Hopefully your AZ car will have been nice and dry most of its life and will not have suffered the rust so is one of the co-operative ones.

If you have not done so, you might check the Chassis section of the 46-50 SM for the procedure to neutralize everything before tightening and also look thru the 51-4 suspension section for a bit more insight.

Ernie,

In addition to what Howard said about flattening the spring to remove the shackle bolts, you will have the flatten the unloaded new springs to get the rear shackles to line up with the "eyes" on the spring and the body mount. I didn't have new springs but took the original spring packs apart and painted them and re-installed them. I think I used a large clamp to pull the eye of the spring close enough to install the rear shackle into the spring and the rear mount. Probably other ways to do it but that's how I got them back together.

Good luck!

Joe

Thanks, guys. Ernie in Arizona

Good Afternoon all...Progress Report...The new rear springs are on Prudence and she is really happy and sitting nice and level once again. The job took about 2.5 hours and was done by my friend Alex Alfaro who has been helping me with mechanical repairs on different machines for 20 or so years. We did it on the hoist with a transmission jack under the pumpkin, and several screw jacks to support the axels. All the bolts turned, two needed a bit of heat but not too much. One more job completed...I believe that I am down to the clock and the radio...the radio will play, but the frequency adjuster does not work worth a damn! Ernie in Arizona