Front spring

[tenbears]

Hello everyone, I am finally back working on my T bucket after the winter in AZ. Would like some thoughts on changing my front spring. Ron or Ted, your opinion is greatly appreciated. Presently I have a Model A main leaf and the rest are trailer leaf's. I see now the importance of that main leaf with a suicide front end. The Model A leaf I got was the only leaf that was not broke out of the stack. I was thinking of buying a Speedway spring but am unsure of which one to buy as far as expanded lenght. Another thought is the motor weight which is a consideration, mine is a Flathead that I hope to have started in a couple days. I have built a cart for starting the Flatty and know hearing it run will inspire me to get the T done.
Mike

 

[Youngster]

Welcome back Mike. The Speedway front spring p# 910-33029should work for you. That's a standard replacement spring. The 910-33030 is the reversed eye and will lower the frame by 1".

Ron

 

[RPM]

Lots to consider on front spring length. The longer the spring the softer the ride. The longer the spring the farther apart the bat wings have to be. The 910-33029 spring Ron suggested is 31 1/4 eye to eye. Add 4" to that for shackles and pivots and the bat wings are now 35 1/4" apart. This makes the out side of the radius rods about 37" apart. Now with a 48" axle which is pretty standard measurement. That just leaves 11" and divide that by 2 and you just have 5 1/2" on each side from radius rod to king pin. So now what happens is when you turn the wheel all the way the tire hits the radius rods. Not a good thing. We use a shorter 26" spring that puts the bat wings just 30" apart. This give plenty of turning radius on the tires.


Just a different way to do stuff. By the way we have those 26" springs for $39.00

 

[tenbears]

Thanks Ron, you know my front end set up so I will look up that part. I am pretty excited about getting the Flathead started. Got to clean the carb before trying. Back to the spring, I thought I would get more feed back on the model A spring, pro's and con's.

Welcome back Mike. The Speedway front spring p# 910-33029should work for you. That's a standard replacement spring. The 910-33030 is the reversed eye and will lower the frame by 1".

Ron

 

[Youngster]

I believe Mike's front end is a '40 ford with a model A spring mounted behind to the wishbones. In that case the 31" spring is what he needs. It dose limit the turning radius a bit but not to the point where turning 180 degrees is a problem.

Ron

 

[tenbears]

I believe Mike's front end is a '40 ford with a model A spring mounted behind to the wishbones. In that case the 31" spring is what he needs. It dose limit the turning radius a bit but not to the point where turning 180 degrees is a problem.

Ron

Right about the wishbones Ron, I am trying to get familiar with this site again so I can post some photos. Was happy with the way the front suspension looked but with age I'm either getting wiser or nervious Nelly about a spring breaking.
Mike

 

[Ted Brown]

Another thought, you can run a longer spring and run it between the top and bottom radius rod, and make a special spring hanger out wider on each side, this will help in two ways, ride softer and if you ever broke a spring, it would only fall as far as the bottom radius rod... Much better than hitting the ground or the frame falling on the tie rod, if it is under.?