Leaf Springs?

[QueBota]

Anybody ever have a leaf spring break at the eye where it goes around the front hanger?

In the ongoing saga of putting/keeping my '91 Ford Ranger 4x4 on the road for my motorcycle riding son. We reinforced and patched the firewall, installed a new clutch from reservoir to slave cylinder and countless other things. Truck was off the road for about a year, needing a new slave cylinder which requires removing the tranny, Ford installed the slave cylinder on the input shaft of the tranny.

Saturday afternoon he was jacking up the passenger rear to service the drum brakes, we heard a pop and the tire moved down and to the rear. We both looked at each other like ???? We put a lot of hours in this project, truck has been running nicely. No easy way to take a picture of this.

Ordered a new one from S&D Spring in NJ for $102.99 to the door, nice folks at S&D. Another piece of the project puzzle for us to work on. Hopefully the other one isn't far behind. Don't want to replace the other one unless absolutely necessary. Looks like it's going to be a struggle to remove.

Thanks,
Q

 

[super55]

Have to say your story is the first i've heard of a leaf spring snapping from jacking up a vehicle. Most times it's from overloading the bed so I would do a close inspection of the one on the other side to make sure it's road worthy.

Changing the springs isn't a terribly bad task. It's definitely a lot easier with two people but having a couple jacks and lots of cribbing to block everything will make the task go much easier. Use a farm jack or the loader of your tractor to lift the body of the truck than block it raised. Block the axle and take the tire off. Remove old spring and put new one one. The second bolt is the pain in the butt. Definitely use a spud wrench or a heel bar to start it. If you just get the bolt started and try and pound it through you'll end up trashing all the threads. Don't ask me how I know

Just be sure to block everything that could come crashing down and stay clear of areas when grinding away bolts and such that can snap back at you because the spring is compressed.

 

[RobertN]

Never seen that happen. Would recommend replacing both though. Might handle weird with one good spring and one worn spring.

Last time I did any spring work, I found a local place that could build any kind of spring you want. they were reasonable price, and helped me build a better spring pack for hauling my old cab over camper.

 

[jel1988]

Busted lots of springs, never at the eye.

 

[dieselcrawler]

I had one seemingly good used leaf spring break at the eye like you describe when installing on my old truck. Glad I had another spare ready to go.

 

[roadhunter]

Wonder if women might have used a torch to "adjust" the leaf springs similar to what is done when lowering a coil spring suspension.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Never seen that happen. Would recommend replacing both though. Might handle weird with one good spring and one worn spring.

Last time I did any spring work, I found a local place that could build any kind of spring you want. they were reasonable price, and helped me build a better spring pack for hauling my old cab over camper.

I agree, replace as a pair.

Chris

 

[ModMech]

I have seen that, springs can break ANYWHERE, it just depends on where the defect or stress concentration is. I would replace in pairs if the broken spring is over 5 years old, or if the vehicle frequently sees heavy loading. That is not because there is risk of breaking the second spring, but because the vehicle will "list" significantly with one new and one worn spring.

 

[GLyford]

Looks like it's going to be a struggle to remove.

I've done this on 84 and 96 rangers. Well, not replace the spring, but take them all apart to replace the hangers and brackets (common rust area).

On the 96, I replaced the spring packs but kept the main leaf with eyes. Just cut the eyes off the junkyard set to give me an extra helper leaf. Need to think about doing something similar on my F150, it's starting to look a little saggy.

Get new bushings, bushing sleeves, and bolts. Now you have no reason to take the old ones out of the spring eyes, which is always the worst part of the process. Don't waste time trying to remove them the "correct" way. Cut the bolt head end and nut end both off by running a sawzall through the bolt across the ends of the eyes, inside the brackets. Since you're replacing the springs, it doesn't matter if they get nicked. You have new bolts so you don't need to fuss with any of that. Toss the springs and bolt ends and put in your new bushings, sleeves, and bolts onto your springs and brackets.

My best advice is take a good hard look at the hangers and brackets, and if they look at all dodgy, replace them now while you have everything apart. Grind off the rivets and punch them out with an air hammer. Bolt on the new ones. I forget if bolt size but it's quick and easy once the old ones are off.

For anyone with good springs that aren't broken, and looking to do the rest of this, here is what I have found, there may be other better ways to do this too. Once again, buy new bushings, sleeves and bolts, now it doesn't matter what happens to the old ones and you still don't have to remove them the correct way (unthreading the nut and tapping out the bolt like you would with a so-cal truck). Once again, cut the bolt head and nut off.If trying to preserve the brackets, you have to pick whether to grind/saw just inside or just outside the brackets. If you are tossing the brackets, then it doesn't matter.

Now if you think things aren't too bad, it might work to drive the bolt out of the sleeve with an air hammer. I've had it work about one time in three. THe rest of the time, I have to go about removing the bushing from the spring eye other ways. One time we did it with a torch...a melted rubber stinky burning mess. If you can live with the stink and mess and don't mind a rubber fire 6" from your gas tank, go ahead.

The rest of you, take something like a 5/16 or 3/8 drill, and drill several holes into the bushing. If you're lucky, the drill will drill through and not only drill a hole in the bushing but "walk" around the inside of the spring eye and cut it out for you. If you're not lucky, you'll go through a couple of bits until you get a hole or three, then can take a sawzall blade and jam it in one of the holes and cut the rest out, then clean up the eye. Sometimes even if you get the bolt out of the sleeve, the sleeve will still be rusted into the bushings and the mess won't come apart, so go ahead and attack the rubber if the bolt or sleeve give you much more than token resistance.

So that's what I've learned about messing with ranger springs, hope that helps.

 

[QueBota]

Thanks for all the input. New spring has bushings installed. Ordered new hardware, u bolts and bolts for the front spring mount and the schackle spring mount.

See how this goes, if the truck appears to be doing well, will likely replace the other spring as time permits.

Running and driving it's a $2 to $2.5K truck. Have already put way to many hours into it, fabricating and installing the firewall patch panel took quite a while, but knock on wood, firewall is now better than new. Also, the cost of all the clutch replacement hardware, new battery etc. etc.

Doing the spring on the other side will be another $150.00. Otherwise truck should be mechanically sound. Needs a Freon to R134 conversion, four new shocks and the front-end rebuilt.

My son is going to have to decide if he likes and wants to keep the truck. It's a '91, I'm sure it's going to need more parts going forward, fortunately our labor is free.

It's a nice little truck, I bought it 1993 off the original owner with approx. 24K miles on it, currently has approx. 155K, never abused, well maintained. Only left me on the side of the road once with a frozen brake caliper, wheel would not rotate at all.

Thanks,
Q