Leaf spring re-arching.

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Bills65Dart

Bills65Dart

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Hi,

Has anyone rearched their leaf springs with a hammer ? That is what I learned long time ago. Take the springs apart, and then lay them on like a piece of a rail road rail, up side down, and then hammer on the underside of the spring. Which is facing up. The idea is that as you hammer each leaves on the underside, it stretches, and give back the arc that was once there.

The first Dart I had was sagging a lot in the rear. I took the springs apart, and hammered them but I also placed an extra leaf under the top leaf to get a little stronger spring.

Would be fun to hear if someone has used this method.


Bill
 
Id think heat would need to be involved to reshape and harden to prevent them from returning to sad shape. Let us know how it goes.
 
There is a shop by me that does it, they do garbage trucks and dumps, I had a leaf that was on a cuda that was hit hard in the back and bent the **** out of all the leafs and I took both leafs down to them and he took it apart and beat them till it matched the other one that wasn't bent. cost me $10.00, that was about ten years ago.
 
oh, the hammering not only stretches the blades on the underside so they curve more up like when new, but the hammering also harden the steel so it does not sag again so easily. No heat applied.

I was told about this by my dad when I was a kid, he had been with his commercial truck to a bus company. They had their own workshop for their buses but did work on the local trucks too. There was an old guy there who took the springs apart and hammered them back to how they were new.
When I got my first Dart in 1981 and saw it was so low in the rear, I came to remember what my dad had told me about the old mechanic, and did my own research on it, and tried it. And the springs came to live again and worked very fine after.

If I can only get my hand of a piece of railroad rail for a small fee.


Bill
 
would a concrete slab work? So your hammering the spring on the concave side...to give it an arch? Interesting....
 
pishta said:
would a concrete slab work? So your hammering the spring on the concave side...to give it an arch? Interesting....
Click to expand...

I have problem seeing that concrete will give the resistance needed when hammering. Well, it depends if you want to lower your car, or lift it. For me, who would like to lift it, I always hammer on the convex side, or the underside of the spring blades, and when I say underside, I mean what is the underside when mounted on the car. And the hammer to use would be a rather heavy hammer with a peen. And hammer with the peen so it goes across the spring blade. And again, the idea is to stretch the steel, to stretch the blade on the side you want to get longer so it curves away from the hammering.

The piece of steel you have under the blade needs to be more rounded than the maximum curve of the spring blade. But, not over a sharp edge so the edge goes into the spring blade and stretch it on that side too.

I don't know if I explained it in an English that is possible to understand. :)


Bill
 
Heat or no heat, it's temporary and for what you will pay, OR the time and labor you spend doing it you could have bought new springs. I've done it a few times with the same results. It's temporary.
 
I paid $175 to have my springs re-arched and they installed the new bushings as well as supplied them.
So I have to say... I am not seeing the do it yourself idea or method suggested... Take it in..get it done.. easy
 
The only way I could see making it last long term is with a large forge type planishing hammer and drawing it back and forth several times followed by a cryogenic treatment, as in liquid nitrogen quench immediately after shaping to return the grain structure to normal after the heat the hammer would put into it. I don't know if it would work or not because the last time I checked the "perfessionals" in the spring business use a large slip roll to return the arch to about 98 percent and then put at least one minimally thicker new long leaf towards the middle of the stack with extra arch to return the shape to original and help the stack hold its shape long term.
 
It's spring steel. The only way it will ever be "as good as it was" is if it's melted back down and new alloys added. Once spring steel loses it's strength, it's gone. You can band aid it, but it will not last.
 
Trying to get some 50 or so year old steel to work like it was new is impossible.
As a band aid, sure.
I used a press to add some arch to springs i had apart.
But i added a leaf too.
Overall i prefer to hang a new set under the car,and be done with it.
 
Hello all,
Worked in a small engine shop years ago, The owner was a circle track racer from the 40s to the late 60s.
He showed me how to re-arch springs using the railroad track method, Only difference from what is described in the aforementioned posts is he had cut a 1/2 in wide by 1/4 deep notch in the head of the RR track. The notch had the edges radiused so it was more of a detent then a notch You would lay the spring parallel with the track and strike the spring over the notch with a heavy 20 pound sledge hammer. You would start the process in the center of the spring then move it one inch left, strike it then two inches right (to end up one inch right of center) and keep repeating this procedure until you obtained the arch you wanted over the length of the spring. He said this was the cheep man's way of changing the spring rate because most racers of that era ware poor and could not afford to have the springs done by a shop Or buy new springs. Along with the guy that fixed bent rims at the track there was the welder that also would re-arch springs wile you wait. The best guy at the track was the beer guy but that is for another post.
A lot of the racers around here made some or all of there living racing cars three or more times a week at local tracks.
For more enlightening info on springs see the following links.

Re-Arching Leaf Springs a Lost Art
Happy mopar:)
Arron
 
When the springs on our Jeep XJ sagged we took them apart and added a leaf that we bought online for $79. It took less than an hour per side. I've always wondered if the same could be done on our A bodies?
 
When I was younger cheaper and full of energy... I took a set of SS springs rigged
them up between two trees and used a bottle jack and pressed them backwards against there arch. I did de arch them and even them out so the car sat lower and
level. Don't know if this DANGEROUS method would work to put more arch in (metallergy). Anyway springs still in my Valiant and still level and no sag (20 years)
 
Once metal is fatigued it's fatigued. As stated it's a temporary band aid. its one of those things that by the time you find someone who can rework them properly, new ones are cheaper.
 
I'd just buy new , taking out the factory 6 leaf springs and putting in new super stocks springs really made a difference
 
GEO said:
I'd just buy new , taking out the factory 6 leaf springs and putting in new super stocks springs really made a difference
Click to expand...
How much lift did the ss springs give you and how unlevel was it? Thanks
 
That's hot rodding 1.01
It's easy to buy something new and bolt it on but some guys don't get any pleasure out of that.Restoring parts can be rewarding.
Good spring steel will hold it's new shape, soft steel will not.
 
cuda620 said:
How much lift did the ss springs give you and how unlevel was it? Thanks
Click to expand...

Well, you more or less ask the question I was going to ask next, does anyone know the ride height in the back of a '65 Dart 4 door sedan ? Or, if I adjust the front to the specified level, should the car be level, leaning a bit back, or should it lean forward, in other words be higher in the back than in the front ? Now talking about how it was out of the doors in 1965.


Bill
 
ir3333 said:
That's hot rodding 1.01
It's easy to buy something new and bolt it on but some guys don't get any pleasure out of that.Restoring parts can be rewarding.
Good spring steel will hold it's new shape, soft steel will not.
Click to expand...

Due to health issues I am not good at soldering electronics anymore. But I can use a hammer, and it is rewarding restoring things.

Bill
 
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