Replaced the front brakes on the truck last night. Pulled off the rear tire to look and those and was instead greeted by a broken leaf spring looking at me.

I cannot find replacement leafs for this truck anywhere. Ford says they were discontinued. Can't find aftermarket. Anyone have any ideas?

Only place I found was rockauto and the shipping is absurd and wouldn't even get here for like three weeks. Can't wait that long.

Oh and advance auto, napa, etc show this truck having rear disc brakes. Mine has drums. Can't find shoes for it either.

 

Honestly, I would just throw Superduty B code Rear Springs on it. Better ride, and almost a direct bolt in if you can drill out your spring hangers to 16 and 18mm directly.

 

Where can I get these? Do you have a link?

I have no problems drilling out the hangers.

 

Looks like you broke a rear shackle too. Hit up the local wrecking yards; they're sure to have something. OBS or Super Duty springs will work.

That's probaby because you told them you have a '97 F250 and they looked up parts for the light duty F150/250. Make sure they know it's a '97 F250 HD, or better yet, just tell them it's a '96.

 

We carry new leaf springs for your truck with FREE SHIPPING and also now backed with a lifetime warranty. 1997 Ford F250 Truck Leaf Springs | 1997 Ford F250 Truck Replacement Leaf Spring | 1997 Ford F250 Truck Rear Leaf Springs | 1997 Ford F250 Truck Aftermarket Leaf Spring Assembly At 1A Auto

 

St. Louis spring.I have had great service and the prices are reasonable.

 

3C3Z-5560-CA is b code rears with top overload (will likely need to have this overload rearched as it is close to the bump stomps)

3C3Z-5560-CB is b code rears without top overload (a lot of guys add their OBS overload to this with good results).

Then you will need to drill front hanger and rear shackle to what I stated.

You will also need the spring hardware, I advise Ford for these. The bolts are metric and hard to locate. A lot of guys simply drill out hangers and spring eyes, to 5/8 and 3/4. I personally haven't had good luck drilling out spring bushings so I drill out the hangers and use factory hardware. A lot easier this way.

Your shackle will be too close to the second leaf in the spring pack so you will need to notch your shackle. You can simply reverse the direction of your shackle and it clears just fine. Although, I don't know any strength impact of doing this. I have seen a few guys do it and am going to try it myself.

 

Would like to thank everyone for posting in this thread. Learning a bunch as i go here.

Weekend has been productive for the truck.

- Replaced Front Brake Pads (Pretty damn shot.)
- Replaced Rear Brake Shoes, Hardware, And Drums. (My god they were horrid.)
- Got the P3 brake controller installed in the truck. Short lived when i hooked it up to a trailer and realized the trailer brakes still didn't work.
- Re-wired the entire trailer plug and got rid of what i assume to be the stock ford wiring. Was riddled with cracks and frays and corrosion and wasn't pleasant.
- Re-hooked up to a trailer and WALA trailer brakes. Still need to figure out what the numbers on the controller mean as i'm new to this whole process but i'll figure it out.
- Bought another shackle from Advance auto. Installed that. Truck is now leveled out again.
- Pulled broken leaf spring out of the pack to stop it from rattling.

Truck is running like a dream now. Thinking i'll be totally fine to pull a trailer from Maine back to here (6k pounds tops) with the broken leaf. After that i think i'm going to look at lift springs because i think all the leafs are sagged. Probably only like 2" of lift if that. I want to keep this thing close to stock.

Questions i now have;

1. Rear Drums. I'm afraid to adjust them. I think i need to tighten them up so they drag more but i don't want to burn them out. Should they drag at all? Should i be able to turn the wheel at all when they're properly adjusted?

Thanks again!

 

You don't want any drag. Adjust to where they start to drag then back it off a little. Are the brake shoes on a Ford not self adjusting?

 

I don't know.

I don't know anything about drums. All i know is that i took both drums off, took a bunch of pictures, and put them back together. I adjusted them until i couldn't get the drum on (shoes out too far), backed them off until i could just get the drum on, and left them there.

For some reason i always thought you wanted the slightest bit of drag on drums.

 

Sounds like you have them pretty close to me. They are supposed to be self adjusting.

 

There is normally just the slightest bit of drag. If you have all new hardware, the adjusters should work. But they only adjust when you brake in reverse. I just did mine, and I manually adjusted them to just a bit of drag, then backed them off. Then I went to a parking lot, backed it up and stepped good on the brakes several times. I noticed the pedal firmed up just a bit after doing that, which indicated to me that the adjusters were working.

 

Brakes are all good now. Pedal feels amazing. Getting a slight squeal when i first apply the brakes. Thinking the passenger side caliper might be hanging up slightly but nothing serious.

Found a set of leaf springs locally for the truck. $450 something out the door for two leafs and new U-bolts. Can't complain. Installed them last night in about three or so hours. I expected them to give me more trouble but they really weren't that bad. Favorite tool by far for this job was the air hammer.

Got another inch or so of clearance in the rear. Sitting exactly where i want it. Think i'll swap out the front TTB-50 for a D60 before swapping those leafs out.

 

Truck looks good! How's the ride?


-Junior