the leaf spring thread

[agjohn02]

ok, doing an SOA on my scout and getting rid of the 4" lifters. i wanna go back to a stock height spring. ive got a line on a set of stock scout springs but they, along with any other stock spring will need to be rebuilt before i put em on my rig. where can i get a good set of new springs for a scout, 2" wide because i already have my hangers. i dont wanna pay big $$$ though. would i be better off rebuilding an old set or trying to find new? i know nothing about leaf springs so any pointers on the rebuild would be appreciated too. what about mil wrapped springs? what are the benefits? i know there are few scout guys here, but leaf spring tech is pretty universal.

[AgDieseler]

Leaf spring rebuilding is pretty cheap. I did a set about a year ago. I ground off all the paint, repainted the sliding surfaces with graphite paint from TSC, installed new teflon sliders from Alcan, and went with greasable bushings. It took a while, and I could feel a difference from the old springs. Enjoy.

[Jackasic]

i have some stockers I'l let go pretty cheap. Already have prothane bushings in them too.

[agjohn02]

does anyone have pics of a military wrapped spring? ive read descriptions of what they are but still am confused as to what they look like.

how hard is it to unwrap a spring and how do you rewrap it without heating the spring? i dont want to break the temper of the spring rewrapping it?

[StevenAg03]

does anyone have pics of a military wrapped spring? ive read descriptions of what they are but still am confused as to what they look like.

how hard is it to unwrap a spring and how do you rewrap it without heating the spring? i dont want to break the temper of the spring rewrapping it?

this is a crude drawing done in etch-a-sketch pro...

[agjohn02]

i see, thanks for the input steven, i looked on alcans website and they had a pic too.

[Mack84]

does anyone have pics of a military wrapped spring? ive read descriptions of what they are but still am confused as to what they look like.

how hard is it to unwrap a spring and how do you rewrap it without heating the spring? i dont want to break the temper of the spring rewrapping it?

Fbronco86 speaking

bad idea. You can not hurt the temper of the spring with out heating it up. But you are going to cold work the spring which makes it brittle. I am not sure how springs are made. But i think they bend them up and then heat treated or they are rolled hot.

[eight]

If you use some without the wrap they can perform tricks and amaze bystanders

Leaf springs are heat treated to about 70 HRC and tempered back to about 42 HRC. It gives good ductility, strength, and minimizes creep. They not teach that stuff in real mechanical engineering mikey?

Why would you want to unwrap them?

[agjohn02]

Fbronco86 speaking

bad idea. You can not hurt the temper of the spring with out heating it up. But you are going to cold work the spring which makes it brittle. I am not sure how springs are made. But i think they bend them up and then heat treated or they are rolled hot.

im talking about the wraps that hold the spring together, when i disassemble and reassemble. im worried if you heat the wrap to re/disassemble it, then you'll also heat the spring and break the temper unless you re-quench it, and i dont know what quenching method to use nor do i want to bother with it. alcans springs are hot rolled then quenched.

If you use some without the wrap they can perform tricks and amaze bystanders

i bet you can impale them with flying bits of spring too

[eight]

Oh those clamps, just put the heat in the middle and do it quickly. You won't heat the spring enough to matter.

[agjohn02]

Leaf springs are heat treated to about 70 HRC and tempered back to about 42 HRC. It gives good ductility, strength, and minimizes creep. They not teach that stuff in real mechanical engineering mikey?

i had the beotch price for materials too. that still doesnt tell us the heat treat process. give me temps, times and quench method and let me borrow your furnace and ill heat treat my handmade springs, right after i mine the ore and make some spring steel in my crock pot.

what about teflon sliders, do they require locational holes in the leaves? they dont just slip in between the leaves do they?

[AgDieseler]

what about teflon sliders, do they require locational holes in the leaves? they dont just slip in between the leaves do they?

My springs had holes already drill for them. When I talked to the guy at Alcan, he asked what the shape of the hole was. I remember an option being round, so you should be able to grab some 2" wide sliders with round snaps and just drill the right size hole if they aren't already there.

[usmcagg02]

instead of unwrappin why not try takin out the centering pin and sliding the inner one out from inside?

[agjohn02]

Hello John

Thank you for visiting our web site. At Alcan Spring, we custom build
our springs to fit your IH
by using information you give us about its weight distribution, lift
requirements and how you plan to use it. The cost of the springs:
$165.00 each front spring and $190.00 each rear spring. While steel
prices are soaring, we are forced to add a $5 surcharge to each spring.
They come with bushings and take about 3 weeks to design/build.

If you have any question, please feel free to email us again, or call
us
at 888/321-0870. When you are ready to order, pleased call us so that
we can discuss any particulars you have for the performance of your
springs.

Thanks again,

Charles and Tom

yup, folks, thats $710 for custom springs with no lift. good springs from what i hear, but still more than i expected.

[uglyota]

my round sliders are 2" wide made for springs with a 1/2" wide hole. They were about 75cents each from alcan.
They seem like pretty cool guys, however, I don't think I'd buy custom springs unless you've got a big-ass money tree in your back yard. Lots of better ways to blow $700.
Just get together a pile of all the correct-width leaf springs you can, pull the center pins and bend out the clamps (I'm not sure why you want to mess with torching them) so you have a pile of random leafs, and start stacking them next to each other keeping an eye out for length, arch, and thickness. Think about putting half an overload on the bottom of the rear packs if you're not planning on an anti-wrap bar.
Plan to pull it apart a few times...this is a trial-and-error process.
I'll show you a pic of what I mean if someone wants to meet me at my house sometime today with a digital camera. I'm in the middle of doing this right now
You might check out Pirate and see if any of the scout guys over there have descriptions of their SOA Kustom packs, just for an idea of alternate places to get leaves, number of leaves to use, etc. 2" wide? maybe F150s? YJs EDIT:CJ I mean? S10s?
What about picking up a set of 63" chevys? Mad flex, thick-ass leaves control wrap pretty good, lots of people have done it on lots of vehicles...