rear leaf spring

[TonyC]

Hello, can anyone help me? I'm trying to setup the rear leaf spring on my t-bucket. The rear spring has five leaf. The car came with a rearend that measured 45in from eye to eye on the shackel bracket. From what i've read your suppose to put the shackel on the spring and measure the distance between them. Well I came up with only 43in. Not sure what to do?

 

[railroad]

That is probably ideal. You will need to compress the leaf spring until the shackle ends reach the eyes on the axle. I have used a 2x4 that will fit inside the arch between the ends and a large c clamp to compress the spring. It may be safer to use a ratchet strap or two and the board. Shackles are designed to carry loads after the outer strap is bolted on. Before you release the tension on the spring have the shackles bolted together. I hope this helps. I am sure there are other methods of compressing the spring to get the eyes to spread enough to get the job done. To see what you are trying to accomplish, stand the spring on the eyes on the floor, arch up. Now press down in the center, by hand. The eyes will try to move outward. If you have a nice floor put something under the eyes.

 

[Tjbucket]

Take a look under the "Shop tools and tricks" section a guy made a very slick spring spreader......depending on what type of eyes you have, reverse or standard, it may work. I know I had a heck of a time spreading my rear arch spring enough to connect to the shackles.....safely that is! If I would have seen that prior, I definitely would have put in the time and effort to build one.

 

[Martin Mayo]

Hello I'm looking for hallcraft 16 inch by 3 inch wire wheel spokes for replacement can anyone help me find them.