My leaf spring is cracked...now what?

[Tom L.]

Hate to bring this up again but.... While attempting to restore the spring (9 leaf) in my '72 I found the laves badly worn where the liners used to be and then found one cracked leaf. For all intensive purposes it's done.

Seems that everything I can find in the archives points to Eaton as the best alternative in terms of a new spring, anyone have any recent experiences with them? Have they been improved in terms of their ride height?

My other option seems to be to restore a good used spring. I'm Ok with that but was wondering if anyone knew of a good source for one. It would be comforting to have a reccomendation so I will feel secure when the guy on the other end of the line say's, "It's in great shape! Trust me."

Thanks!!

[Don L.]

Re: My leaf spring is cracked...now what?

Lynn, I bought an Eaton spring almost about ago now and frankly, have been hesitant to paint and install it because of all the ride height issues I've heard on it. I do a little business with Eaton, since we're in similar businesses, and spoke openly to Mike Eaton on the "rap" his 9 leaf spring is getting on this board. Mike assured me that the Eaton spring, if installed in the proper sequence, will provide the correct ride height. Apparently, the center 4 bolts must be tightened with weight on them(?). Mike told me that I should not have a concern and if after assy. the height wasn't right, give it back to him and he'll re-arch it as needed. I recall seeing an earlier thread on this subject and in that thread, John Hinckley indicated that he had put an Eaton spring on his '67 with no height issues. I know there are others that have had success as well as some that have had trouble. When the ice melts a bit, I will be painting and installing the Eaton spring on my '72. It's very close but not exactly the same configuration as the OEM spring.

Please don't take my statement here as gospel or as an endorsement for the Eaton spring. Call Mike at (313) 963-3839 and talk to him about his spring. America's Corvette also has what sounds to be a good alternative. There are posts here that give more detail on springs and differences between OEM, Eaton and America's Corvette parts.

Hope this helps, or at least gets this historical debate going again with more progress and a more useful outcome for members.

[Bill L.]

Re: My leaf spring is cracked...now what?

I am pretty sure if you do a search there was an extensive discussion regarding springs.

Bottom line was to try and fine a nice original to restore to remove the guesswork. Same was true for finding good original liners. Try and find a decent low mileage spring where liners were likely to be intact.

There was also a discussion regarding repro liners and in addition to a difference in appearance there seemed to be some problems with performance. If memory serves me they tended to bunch up between the leaves and not allow them to slide as the suspension travels.

In my limited experience, almost every time I attempted to use a reproduction part, there was a problem. Sometimes very minor. Sometimes the part was just wrong. Never the same as original though.

Bill

[Rob M.]

Re: My leaf spring is cracked...now what?

Hate to bring this up again but.... While attempting to restore the spring (9 leaf) in my '72 I found the laves badly worn where the liners used to be and then found one cracked leaf. For all intensive purposes it's done.

Seems that everything I can find in the archives points to Eaton as the best alternative in terms of a new spring, anyone have any recent experiences with them? Have they been improved in terms of their ride height?

My other option seems to be to restore a good used spring. I'm Ok with that but was wondering if anyone knew of a good source for one. It would be comforting to have a reccomendation so I will feel secure when the guy on the other end of the line say's, "It's in great shape! Trust me."

Thanks!!

Lynn,

Like Don says, there are lots of members with opinions on springs. I know that Gary Beaupre has written articles and is very knowledgeable - you might contact him for his opinion. For what it's worth, I went with the Eaton spring on my '66 and have had no issues with ride height and I'm pleased with it.

Cheers

[Tom L.]

Re: My leaf spring is cracked...now what?

Thanks for the feedback. I feel fairly confident that the Eaton spring will be functinally acceptable and I've read that the guys at eaton are honorable in terms of their products. I do believe it is the best second choice.

While the Eaton spring is an alternative I do prefer an origional. Aside from waiting until Carlisle, not an option (I'm too impatient and want to use the car over the summer), are there any good sources for these types of used parts or do you think I'm in for a long E-bay search?

[Stephen B.]

Re: My leaf spring is cracked...now what?

Gentlemen
If I were in this situation I would contact Eaton and ask them how closely they could come to duplicating only the brocken leaf.
Stephen Barrett (21558) 59,66,71,73

[Tom L.]

Re: My leaf spring is cracked...now what?

Sadly that won't work. The liners are worn out and the ends of the spring were metal to metal. They are noticeably thinner where the leafs meet.

[Alan S.]

Re: My leaf spring is cracked...now what?

Hi Lynn,
Perhaps you could try contacting Gale Gee Corvette in Middlebury Center, Pa. He's a first rate fellow and always has a large selection of used parts at Carlisle.
Good Luck!
Regards,
Alan

[Patrick H.]

Re: My leaf spring is cracked...now what?

I contacted a couple of Corvette used parts places in California and obtained an excellent rust free spring for a very good price several years ago. You might want to try that as well rather than play the eBay guessing game.

Or, post an ad on CF and see if there's an original out there you can buy. I'd say post an ad in the Driveline but you might not get a result until August.

Patrick

[Joe L.]

Re: My leaf spring is cracked...now what?

I contacted a couple of Corvette used parts places in California and obtained an excellent rust free spring for a very good price several years ago. You might want to try that as well rather than play the eBay guessing game.

Or, post an ad on CF and see if there's an original out there you can buy. I'd say post an ad in the Driveline but you might not get a result until August.

Patrick

Patrick------


You were lucky. While California cars do suffer minimal corrosion on most components, the spring is an exception. Usually, there will be some degree of corrosion-induced pitting. This will not be seen on the external portions of the leaves but on the non-tension (upper) surface of the internal leaves. If they had coated the ENTIRE spring leaves with the Ionoklad coating, this would have been prevented. However, they only coated the tension (lower) surface with the Ionoklad with the leaf edges also getting coated to one degree or another.