Guys - need some help. I wanted to replace the leaf springs on my 1977 F250 and am running into issues. It is a camper special, and has 3" wide springs.

1. I got a set of springs from Carrier Springs. They look nice, but I need to know if there will be an issue with sizing. I asked them to be built at stock height without the factory block. When measuring the old and new springs there are some differences. First from the top of the spring eyes to the bottom of the spring (and block) with the old spring the height is 14". For the new springs that measurement is 15" (without the block). Approximate measurement between center of spring eyes on the old springs is 52 1/2", same measurement on new springs is about 51". Will this be a problem?

2. I tried to put the new springs on, and am having trouble getting the last bolt in. I needed to "flatten" the spring to get the last bolt in, I was able to jack up the spring and get one end of the bolt in (fastening the spring to the shackle, but could not get the bolt to go all the way through. Looks like the spring was a little ****-eyed and the shackle hole was about 1/2" a bolt length off. Worked with it for about an hour and couldn't get it to align. Any tricks? Should I unbolt, and leave the front as the last place to bolt in, would that be easier?

3. Based on the differences in the length/height above, will I have to undo the other side before bolting the spring to the axle to get the axle, and pin to align? Just looking at it it looked like it may be difficult to get everything aligned good, but I didn't try it because I couldn't get the last attaching bolt in the shackle/eye.


Thanks for any help. This is kicking my butt. Halfway tempted to put the old spring back in, and take it somewhere to get this done.

Joel

 

I think the differences in the springs are caused by the other ones being old beyond that I can't help

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes - figured that settling over time most likley had some impact.