How "flat" should leaf springs be?

['74 Sport]

I just noticed a couple days ago that the leaf springs on Aaron's Dart Sport appear to lie almost completely flat when you get down and look straight up them from the rear. In other words, there isn't really any noticeable arc in them. Is that typical, or are they pretty much worn out?

A local brake and spring shop estimated it would cost roughly $150 to have all the springs re-arced. I've been reading in another thread about the ones offered by J.C. Whitney, reasonably priced and shipped to your door for less than that.

Any comments are welcome,
Jerry

 

[mullinax95]

[QUOTE='74 Sport]I just noticed a couple days ago that the leaf springs on Aaron's Dart Sport appear to lie almost completely flat when you get down and look straight up them from the rear. In other words, there isn't really any noticeable arc in them. Is that typical, or are they pretty much worn out?

A local brake and spring shop estimated it would cost roughly $150 to have all the springs re-arced. I've been reading in another thread about the ones offered by J.C. Whitney, reasonably priced and shipped to your door for less than that.

Any comments are welcome,
Jerry[/QUOTE]

I myself wouldn't do that but instead buy some new ones. I replaced the springs on a 68 Charger with the Mopar performance ones and they didn't cost to much. Each one had additional leaf added. I think they were the 440 springs. I changed them out myself and it wasn't that hard to do. It didn't take me long at all to do it either. If you have to remove the springs to have them re-arced (which I really don't know I would think you have to remove them) I would install new ones that are better anyways.

 

[dgc333]

You need the arch to them to provide the spring action. The spring flattens out (the reason for the shackle at the back) as the wheel moves through it's travel. If they are already flat then they have to bend backwards to allow for travel, beside the low ride high they will ride rougher and will not follow the changes in road surface as well.

Whether you get new ones or have the ones you have re-arced is up to you, in the end one is not better than the other. The one advantage of having re-arced is you can have the spring shop customize them to whatever you want.

 

[Flatblack]

Those springs sound like they are pretty much done. I was unsure about mine when I first bought my car, but after really looking at it I realized that the previous owner had lowered the front end drastically to make it level with the rear because the springs were so wasted. I'm waiting until next year to get another set, but I'm using helper coil springs between the axle and frame to raise it up a bit until I do.

 

[abodyjoe]

for $120 to the door i would just put on new jc whitney springs.. forget about messing with rearching the old junk.