Bent leaf spring perch
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From: Cleveland, WI USA
Bent leaf spring perch
Greetings.
While off-roading this weekend, someone noticed that I had a bit of axle wrap on my 78 F150 4x4. When we looked at the leaf springs, we noticed that the perch that's welded to the 9" axle housing appeared to be bent. There's a small gap between the lift block and the perch on both the front and back, allowing the perch to rock back and forth on the block. It looks like the front of the perch is squashed down a little because the sides are slightly bowed out.
We periodically stopped and re-torqued the u-bolts down until they quit loosening up, but the perch is still bent.
I'm wondering if this is a common problem and if anyone has a good way to fix/prevent this.
I was going to remove the blocks, pound the perch straight, and weld an end cap of sorts onto the perch to keep it from squishing again. Sound reasonable?
And thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Kevin K.
While off-roading this weekend, someone noticed that I had a bit of axle wrap on my 78 F150 4x4. When we looked at the leaf springs, we noticed that the perch that's welded to the 9" axle housing appeared to be bent. There's a small gap between the lift block and the perch on both the front and back, allowing the perch to rock back and forth on the block. It looks like the front of the perch is squashed down a little because the sides are slightly bowed out.
We periodically stopped and re-torqued the u-bolts down until they quit loosening up, but the perch is still bent.
I'm wondering if this is a common problem and if anyone has a good way to fix/prevent this.
I was going to remove the blocks, pound the perch straight, and weld an end cap of sorts onto the perch to keep it from squishing again. Sound reasonable?
And thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Kevin K.
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 1,372
Likes: 14
From: West Cornwall, CT
A spring perch can get rounded off if the leaf spring u-bolts are loose. Basically the springs rock back and forth on the perch and round it off after a while.
The best way of fixing the spring perch is to weld in a new one. I suppose it is possible to weld repair the existing perch. A good welder would be able to tell you if a weld repair would be possible.
Lou Braun
The best way of fixing the spring perch is to weld in a new one. I suppose it is possible to weld repair the existing perch. A good welder would be able to tell you if a weld repair would be possible.
Lou Braun
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