Swapping rear stock springs on my '50 Ford F1 and installing mono springs to lower it a couple inches. It appears the old springs have never been replaced or taken off as they are froze inside the frame to shackle hangers. I was finally able to drive the pin from the back hanger but the front hanger is a lot tougher to remove and I can't get to the back of its pin enough to drive it out.

I am thinking that I will grind off the rivet heads on the front hanger and just pull the whole hanger out with the spring and put it on the bench to remove the front spring pin. The install the hanger back with nuts and bolts.

My question is, is it easier to just drill through the rivet or to grind the head off and punch it out? Either way, it is tight in this area for a drill or a grinder.

I am trying not to damage the spring hangers as I don't know how available they are to replace.

Any help appreciated!!

From the fifties

 

I suppose grinding is the preferred method, but depending upon how skilled you are with a torch, I torched my rivets off when I installed my 4-link. I had to take just the slag off with the grinder, but it was much quicker and I had no damage. Then I popped them out with a punch.

Pat

 

I drilled the head off mine then used a punch to remove the rest of the rivet. They were real easy to drill.

 

I took out many rivets, I have not torch or chisel.

For most rivets I used a cutoff wheel made and ex and then used a cold chisel and mini sledge hammer to take of the rest and then a pucnch to bang it through. Pretty easy after a while.

For the harder to reach rivets I spent a lot of time drilling. Started with a small bit to get going them used a larger bit that had a small starte piece to mount in the hole I started. Then I punched it out. AND I still tried to use as much of my angle grinder as possible.

Good luck

 

Whoa whoa!! You don't have to do that. Go get yourself a small (3/4" is ideal) hole saw for a drill and use it to make a small access hole in that crossmember so that you can use a long punch to knock that pin straight out. The access hole is already in the frame rail. You just need a second access hole in the crossmember to get a straight shot at the pin. Just takes a few seconds to drill out. Will save you a world of headache and you'll be able to use the original hangers for your new springs. I can show you a picture if you need it.

 

Here's an old thread on removing the spring pins. As I said in the thread, I prefer to pull the pins from the front side rather than drilling holes and resorting to a BFH to achieve results from the back side. Stu

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post10613581

 

Armed with the info in that link, if you have an air hammer, it gets easier. I have several Ford body bolts from '70's and '80's F150's. The bolts have a recessed head:



some are longer than others. Starting with the shortest one, I slid it in the backside hole so that the end butted up on the pin, and left about a 1/4" of thread exposed. The air hammer with a punch-bit, at an angle, can bang against the bolt head, and the recess keeps it from sliding off. Go until the bolt head bottoms out. Then put a slightly longer bolt in, and repeat. Repeat the whole process until the pin sticks out enough. No holes drilled, slightly less cussing. A BFH could do the same thing, only take longer.

 

Thanks for all the good ideas and input on removing frozen rivets. It appears that most everybody changing springs on an old Ford pickup has had to struggle with this chore.

You are absolutely right, the best time to remove or replace springs is when the bed and fenders are off and you have better access to the spring pins. I regret to say it, but I waited until my truck was almost completed and then decided to change the springs.

To get better access, I removed the rear fenders and bed side panels and this allowed me much better access. Since the hole on the inside of the frame for the front spring pin is blocked by the frame brace and the hole in the frame is too small for the needed punch size, it was easier to just grind off the original rivets on the front spring hanger since I now have better access. Driving the front spring pin out on the bench was much easier. The rear spring pin was a buger to drive out, but at least it did have an access hole in the frame that allowed it to be driven out. The use of a air hammer and a DBFH helped a lot.

Now that one side is done, I know what is needed to do the other side.

Thanks, again, for the ideas and links.

From the Fifties

 

Glad you got it out. Ford put an access hole on the frame for the front pin, but I guess they "forgot" to extend the hole through the crossmember. I used a couple of cheap 3/8" ratchet extensions connected together as my "punch". A thin piece of rebar steel would do the trick as well. I'm glad you got that pin out, but you really ought to consider one of the above-mentioned tricks for the other side. It would save you a ton of time and effort.

As bad as this job is, it's nothing compared to driving out the master link pin on a bulldozer track. That particular task just about whipped me. I have all the respect in the world for heavy equipment mechanics who lay in the mud, snow, and rain and tackle gigantic versions of things like this on a daily basis.