I am trying to get the rear leaf springs off of my 1950 F-1. Is there a trick to doing this. I have never done it before, and my dad isn't having any luck getting it off. I will include pictures below of each side of it. I did take off the one bolt and punched it through from the back to the front. You can see the hole where it went in the second picture on the right, and in the fourth picture on the left. The first picture is from the side looking in. There is some kind of line across that looks like you could take a HUGE screw driver and unscrew it out of there, but I don't think that's how it comes out. Any help would be appreciated.

 

There are two bolts going from the front to rear take these out and the pins should come out with a little persuasion, the hole in the frame is where you have to drive out one of the pins. The bolts are shown in your last photo the bottom one has already been taken out, they act as a wedge to keep the pins in. They are probably frozen I think some one heated some a while back and drove them out. It may be a good idea while you are at it to replace the rivits holding the spring brackets on with grade 8 bolts. Just grind off the heads and punch out with a center punch. I replaced mine about 10 years ago I didn't noticed how loose they were until I had all weight off them.

 

The Shop manual recommends removal of the u-bolts first. Then is states to remove the locking bolts (which you have) then while working from the inside throught the hole in the frame provided (as Jaye mentioned) drive out the pin.

Do not use heat on springs! Get a bigger hammer - tee hee (kinda tee hee)

Happy New Year!

Julie!

 

An air hammer really comes in handy for this. I spent $20 at Menards for one. remove the upper nut, and push the lock pin out. Then from inside the frame drive the upper pin out. Leave the lower alone. Then on the front half do the same thing, but the crossmember will be in the way. What I did was pushed a shorter grade 8 bolt in there, and air hammered on that (at an angle) til the bolt head was flush with the frame. I then inserted a longer bolt and repeated until enough of the pin stuck out that I could push on the backside of the outer pin flange. I figured I'd be replacing the pins anyway. Also once that is out, you can remove the springs and have easier access at the lower pins. Anyhow, that's how I did it.

I didn't remove the U-bolts, but it would probably help. I just put a floor jack under the pumpkin and put light pressure on the axle.

Darn it, I forgot to say I had already jacked the rear up and set the back ends of the frame on blocks.

 

What you described as a place to use a large screwdriver to screw them out is the same as the bushing above it, except the lower grease fitting is gone missing. You could put a grease fitting back on , snap a set of visegrips on the grease fitting, real tight and tap the grease fitting until the pin comes out.
I had the crossmember also in the way and it was recomended to blindly drill a hole in the cross member to allow a punch to get to the pin. I did it on one and it worked but then I read about this vice grip idea and it was much eazyer.
You got to get the lock pins out first . Just take off the bolt and tap them out. Mine came out with a couple wacks of an old ratchet extention and a hammer. Note the design of the lock pins and the shackle pins when you get them out. It is a very specific locking design so if you are going back with the same suspention/springs, with new bushing, pins ect you want those new lock pins to go in the new shackle pins the right way. if you stare at them in your hand a while you will get my drift. The shop manual says to jack it up untill the tires are just touching the ground . then unbolt the U bolts. (Just unbolting 30 yr old bolts is gross oversimplifacation). Put a cutting blade on a grinder and you will have them of in 15 minutes.

 

Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) the cross member isn't in the way. It had somehow been broke in half, so I cut it out and butted a newer cross member immediately behind where the old one sat. We have already taken the U-bolts off. And surprisingly, all of them came off with ease except one. Grabbed a cheater bar and ratchet and it came off too. Much quicker than the 15 minutes with a grinder.

I had gotten my dad the craftsman air tool set for Christmas. His impact sucked and his air hammer never has worked right. So it replaced those, plus gave him an air ratchet. So I will be able to get the air hammer in there to punch it out. Thanks for the help. Hopefully when I get back home tonight I'll be able to say that the new springs are on there.

 

Tiger, I read some where that its not a great idea to re-use the old U bolts, Something about the threads. They run approx $7 a set. Cheap insurence. Sounds like your U bolts were maybe not original. I broke/sheered off the 1st 2 bolts using a cheater bar with leg power,...hence the cut off.
Happy New year

 

I think I am going to need new U-bolts anyway. I'm putting on a new rear end that is a little bigger so they probably won't fit over. haven't looked, but i'm not holding my breath.

Anyone have any recommendations on this: I thought the crossmember that everyone was talking about was the one at the back of the truck. Well the front one on the springs was still there. He couldn't get to the pin with it in the way. Instead of being patient until I got over there this morning, he took my acetylene torch to the under side of the cross member. The top part that goes from one side to the other didn't get touched. But the bottom part did. I didn't think to take a picture of it so you could see. I think there is more than half of it left, but does it need to be replaced. Any recommendations (besides bringing the torch home with me every night so he can't do stupid things like that again)? He says we can put a piece of angle iron there to reinforce it.

***side note....his solution to everything is cut it off and then figure out a way later to fix it....and if he gets to weld something (even if unnecessary) he says it's a must do thing.***

 

that was the part in my previous post where I inserted a short bolt as a "pusher" for the air hammer to push on, replacing the short bolt with a longer bolt until enough bolts have it pushed through. You can hold the air hammer off to the side (frontward on the truck for me) at an angle to clear the crossmember. Don't fret though, those lower attachment pieces are usually rusted out pretty bad anyway.

 

Havi, I had printed out all those responses including yours to take over there. I just made it there after he had done the cutting. I hope I made it clear to him that the cutting would never happen without me there to approve it. I'm glad that they don't need to be replaced. His welding is kinda crummy and would make an already crummy cut look even worse. Thanks!!!

 

I just removed my rear leaf springs two days ago and I used a large punch and a two pound hammer to drive out the spring pins from the rear. My were a whole lot more rusty then yours. I had to use a cutoff disc on the u bolts. I ordered new u bolts from Midfifty.com