So previously I posted about springs on my 76 f-250. I am curious how much mine are deflecting compared to other peoples especially those that have re-done their springs. So can anybody give me measurements in the front from the leaves to the bump stops and tell me how much possible travel you have? I want to see if it is worth it to get new springs yet. Thanks. My front springs are 3" wide with 6 leaves. the back have 9+1 overload and are 2.25" wide. Thanks guys.

 

Any good spring shop can rearch them for you.

 

On my '75 highboy which has the original springs up front i have 1.75" between the leaves and bumpstop, i'm sure the springs are fatigued from nearly 35 years of use and have lost some of their original ride height, what the measurment between leaves and bumpstop would of been the day the truck rolled off the assembly line i couldn't tell you, i've often wondered that myself.

 

rearching is wayyyyyyy more expensive than a whole new spring pack. I'm just trying to see how much my springs have fatigued from somebody that has just put new springs on their truck. I want to see if its worth it to do or not. I know a couple people on here have done the restoration and have new springs I just can't recall who they are to pm them. And I thought somebody like ND might know the specs from somewhere.

 

It's pretty cheap around here to have springs re-arched, maybe 1/2 a new spring.

Josh

 

huh, well I checked with Denver Spring and Suspension, I can get new front packs for 250 a piece and new rear packs for 210 a piece. It costs 150 a spring to get re-arched, not 150 a pack but 150 a spring so 9*150*2 sides plus the front haha yea right!

 

Hmmm... that doesn't sound right. Something fishy goin' down in Denver.

Josh

 

So truck is in the shop getting brand spankin new springs all the way around! Should have her back tonight, I'll measure the travel and post it in case anybody is interested. I'm very curious to see how much my old springs were fatigued and how much travel I have now! Too bad the weather sucks because I wanted to do it myself... oh well

 

I just changed my springs out on my 76. I had 6 leaves up front too. The ones I got from a buddy had just 5 but they had been re-arched. I put them on and my clearance from the spring to the bumpstop went from 2 1/2 on one side and 2 on the other to 5 1/2 on both sides. WOW what a difference

 

Dang!!! I hope I get that much more "lift". I think I started with 1.5" clearance between springs and bump stop, so it should be interesting to see it when she gets done. 5.5 inches....thats just insane!!!!

 

He must have had those re-arched beyond stock specs right? i don't think they sat that high from the factory, were they "cold set" or tempered and heat treated?

 

I honestly don't know for sure. He just said they were a re-arched set. I asked him about just having 5 leaves instead of 6 and he said with kind of a snicker that I didn't need to worry about that. He also said I might have kind of a bear of a time getting them on and I kind of did. I guess take it for what its worth. Maybe? I know mine were sagging bad

 

Does your highboy sit level now or does it sit up an inch or two higher in the front like this?

 

I re-arched my own leaf springs -for free- and I'm the dumbest guy on FTE. :/

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Don't let anyone re-heat-treat them, that's a -bad- way to do it. They are
spring-tempered, low-alloy, medium-carbon-steel and ripe for cold forming! :)

Be interesting as anything to hear from someone that can tell us whether
they were heat treated curved like they are or heat treated while straight
then curved and the eyes formed later, cold.

I'm betting on the latter. :)
Anybody know for sure? :)

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Got my '75 F150 new and I -know- that the rear leaf spring packs are the
originals.

Mine are not the same length! One is 5/8" longer than the other, measured
from the center of the front eye to the axle locating pin. They belong on a
certain side and swapped would make the pickup dog-track, bad.

But only half that bad if I were to put on a pair of new spring packs. ;)
Still way too stinkin' much crookedness for me! :/ YMMV on that. ;)

Before you go and slap on new ones measure your old ones after you've
measured your frame and axle for squareness. Mine's square as anything! :)

Both packs have the same numbers on them.
They look to have not been made, one right after another.
The numbers are in different places etc.

I figure a guy at the Ford assembly plant picked one of those packs out just
to make my pickup travel straight down the road, on purpose. Something the
"Chevy plant guys" didn't bother to do, it seems. LOL :)

What do you figure? :)

How straight is yours?
Did you measure it or just "assume" yours was perfect?

Alvin in AZ

 

http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/file12/rideheight.jpg
That's Ford's way to measure "ride height" on 2wd's.
I see nothing about how to do that for 4wd. :/
No mention of numbers or anything. :/

Alvin in AZ